Today's society relies heavily on roads, and today almost all roads are paved, and we have the convenience of interstate highways and Americans to travel. Before Dwight Eisenhower's Interstate System and before the numbered highway system of the United States, there were no standards by which roads were built, most were not even paved, there were no numbering systems required and those that existed were not organized effectively. The American highway system, and later the interstate system, fostered massive growth, easier travel, greater tourism, and easier logistics in the United States. The American highway system was born out of the need to be able to travel across the country as quickly as possible. as much as possible, for both civilian and military use, as the old automobile trails of the late 1800s and early 1900s did not facilitate efficient transportation. Old automobile trails were sometimes not clearly marked and their roadbed was unpaved and unimproved, especially to the west (Weingroff). Old automobile tracks also took longer than their current counterparts due to both the earthmoving technology of the time and the fact that to operate these tracks, towns along them had to pay dues, and if a town did not want to pay, the path did not cross the town; so more often than not, a trail would go out of its way to accommodate a colony that had paid its dues, even if it wasn't the quickest or easiest route to the overall destination (Weingroff). A new automobile trail system was needed, and discussions of a national highway system soon began to take place. Wisconsin was the first state to use numbers to designate its highways instead of names, which quickly created some favoritism when some roads were given smaller numbers, as some people......in the middle of the paper ......inistration. April 7, 2011. The web. April 19, 2011. .Kaiser, Cameron. "Floodgap Roadgap - Old Highway 395, part 3: Cabrillo Highway (CA 163; US 395 1948-1969); Kearny Villa Road (US 395, Old I-15); Pomerado Road to Poway (US 395 1935-1950) ". Welcome to the Floodgap Systems WWW server. 2004. Internet. April 20, 2011. .McNichol, Dan. "Counterproductive". RoadsBridges.com and Roads and Bridges Magazine - Road Construction and Maintenance. December 2006. Web. April 20, 2011. .Weingroff, Richard F. "From Names to Numbers: The Origins of America's Numbered Highway System - Highway History - FHWA." Home | Federal Highway Administration. Spring 1997. Web. April 19. 2011. .