II. HOW TO USE THE GUIDE:

The Guide organizes the film into five sections, each approximately sixteen minutes long. The first section begins with an overview of the state of American roads, ca. 1900. Viewers see early modes of transportation-- bicycles and trolleys -- confronting primitive and inadequate roads. The film then chronicles the growth of American roadways since 1900, spurred by an increase in automobile ownership and the efforts of Thomas Harris MacDonald, chief of the Federal Bureau of Public Roads. We learn of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's plans for a system of coast-to-coast national toll roads, and view General Motor's "Futurama" exhibit at the New York World's Fair of 1939-- an automated pre- diction of the highways of the future.

The second section examines two stunning prototypes of the Interstate Highway system-- the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Germany's national roadway, the Autobahn, with its links to German military planning in the 1930's. Section two also traces the post-war (1945-50) suburban boom and its impact on transportation and national lifestyles. Trolleys disappear, and established rail lines do not connect with the new suburbs, like William Leviff's mass-produced 'Leviffowns.' Automobile traffic increases and puts intolerable burdens on existing roads. We learn how President Eisenhower's administration makes interstate highway construction a top priority, even an essential component of national defense.

Section three of "Divided Highways" explores the expanded role of the federal government. In 1956 Eisenhower signs into law a bill authorizing 25 billion dollars for highway construction. The bill launches the largest public works project in human history, and this section shows how road building became a national goal. The viewer discovers how the Interstates re-shaped the landscape, how their construction affected towns and cities. We learn how land values and racial politics offen determined the path of the highways. Section III examines a case in point: Overtown, Miami, an African-American community dispersed by the coming of the Interstates.

The fourth section provides information about the growing opposition to the Interstates in communities across America-- San Francisco, Boston, New Orleans, and so on. We learn how diverse social and ethnic groups united in many instances to oppose the destruction of neighborhoods and the displacment of their populations. A case in point is Boston's Inner Beltway, and this section examines that case. We view examples of civil disobedience as an irate homeowner confronts construction gangs and highway engineers. The section concludes with the breaking of the highway trust fund, which event allowed monies earmarked for highways to be used for mass transit (interurban rail, subways, etc).
Section five, the final section, explores America's automobile-centered lifestyle, beginning with the exodus from the cities' central cores to areas accessible only by car. But we also discover newer cities in the west whose sculpture-like architecture, designed to be viewed from elevated highway approaches, represents an aesthetic response to the Interstate. Malls and mega-malls, the advent of the "edge city" (an economic response to the Interstate), and the highway service franchises-- motels, stations, and restaurants-- all figure as emblems of a standardized American culture that is our present reality. This section, and the video, ends by speculating on the limits of highway expansion, foreign-oil dependency, and environmental concerns: highway freedom in a shrinking world.