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Where is the first interstate highway? This seemingly simple question is actually quite complicated, as Missouri, Kansas, and Pennsylvania have staked their claims to the first interstate. The answer depends on how the term "first" is defined.
The Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways is dated from June 29, 1956 - the day President Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. On Aug. 2, 1956, Missouri became the first state to award a contract with the new interstate construction funding. The Missouri State Highway Commission worked on three contracts that day, but the first signed contract was for work on U.S. Route 66 - now Interstate 44 - in Laclede County. As soon as that contract was signed, S.W. O'Brien, district engineer for the Bureau of Public Roads, called his headquarters in Washington, D.C.,...