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FHWA By Day

A Look at the History of the Federal Highway Administration
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January 26
1904 OPRI Director Martin Dodge joins a committee of good roads advocates, about 75 strong, at the Raleigh Hotel in Washington to discuss ways of securing government aid in construction of good roads. At 4 o'clock, the group visits President Theodore Roosevelt, who tells them he is sympathetic to their cause "because we are a civilized people, and we cannot afford to have barbaric methods of communication."
"The people of our country have solved the problem of railroad transportation . . . and what is most needed now is that some attention should be paid to the question of how the farmer can get his products most cheaply to the lines of transportation."
The Honorable James Wilson
Secretary of Agriculture
January 26, 1904

1942 Gloria M. Campbell begins work with PRA as a CAF-1 earning $105 per month, "including half days on Saturday and no overtime pay," as she later put it. She served the PRA/BPR/FHWA in its San Francisco office for 52 years, before passing away on October 24, 1994, after experiencing chest pains while at work in the morning. Ms. Campbell is believed to have served more years with the FHWA than any other employee.
Photo: A celebration.
During a celebration with over 80 of her friends, including past and present coworkers, Gloria Campbell of FHWA's Region 9 office displays a plaque honoring her 50 years of service with the FHWA and its predecessor agencies.
1968 FHWA asks the Delaware River Port Authority for detailed information on toll increases on the bridges in the Camden, NJ, area. Administrator Lowell Bridwell requests that the increases be delayed until a review is completed under a provision of the General Bridge Act of 1946 that allows FHWA to prescribe reasonable tolls on interstate bridges (a Corps of Engineers responsibility transferred to FHWA when it joined USDOT in April 1967).
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