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FHWA By Day

A Look at the History of the Federal Highway Administration
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April 3
1902 A passenger train from Washington, DC, arrives in Charlottesville, VA, for the Jefferson Memorial and Inter-State Good Roads Convention (April 2-4), the final stop for the Southern Railway Good Roads Train (see November 24, 1901). The train carries OPRI's M. O. Eldridge, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture J. H. Brigham, General Nelson A. Miles, and several Congressmen. On April 2, General Roy Stone had addressed the convention ("The Necessity of Congressional Action in Road Improvement"), as had Director Martin Dodge ("Removing the Burdens of Bad Roads"). The primary purpose of the convention, sponsored in part by OPR, is to back a memorial road from Charlottesville to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, an idea attributed to Dodge. Today's afternoon session is called to order by Dr. W. C. N. Randolph, grandson of Thomas Jefferson.
"Then, the attention of Congress was awakened . . . and the Office of Road Inquiry was established. What that office has done you well know, and I think I may say without vanity that its plan of operation and its effective methods of enlisting outside aid in all its measures have drawn more private means to supplement a small appropriation than has often, if ever, been done in any department of the Government."
General Roy Stone
Former Director, ORI
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