Pershing Map

[2] When the United States Army realized it could not satisfactorily meet its World War I logistical needs by railroad alone, it organized truck convoys to supplement them, with the first run in 1917 from Toledo, Ohio, to Baltimore, Maryland.

Following the two-month ordeal of the U.S. Army Transcontinental Motor Convoy in 1919, which included future president Dwight D. Eisenhower, a major proponent of the Interstate Highway System, the need for better infrastructure became even clearer.

[3] Pershing and his staff compiled 78,000 mi (126,000 km) of public roads that were both useful for interconnected interstate travel, and, as the Army felt, for national defense.

[1] The map provided an early model for coast-to-coast, connected interstate highways, with additional access between and through major urban areas.

The proposal emphasized coastal and Mexican border defense and industrial needs of the time rather than economic development, with high priority routes going to such checkpoints as Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, yet bypassing nearly the entire Deep South.