The U.S. highway system is often touted as one of the wonders of the modern world. If so, the network of roads in Appalachia would be a close second. Highways in most parts of the United States are boring. They generally run in straight lines and when they bend, you hardly know it. In Appalachia, when roads bend, they really bend. You feel it in the gut, and over time, in the head. You always feel woozy and weak on Drammamine Drive.

Many people think of dirt roads when they think of Appalachia, but dirt roads are the exception. The roads of Appalachia are paved, not with gold, but with black asphalt.

The federal government spent more than $5 billion dollars, from the mid-60s through 1990, building 2,300 miles of highway in Appalachia. (That’s $16 billion in today’s dollars. Gold asphalt might have been less expensive.) According to the “Pittsburgh Post,” it will spend another $5 billion building the last 700 miles of the system. Highways in Appalachia are expensive. The “Post” says that it costs about $3 million to build a 1.5-mile stretch of highway in flat, western Kentucky. By comparison, a recent 1.5-mile stretch of highway in Appalachia Kentucky cost $47 million.

Taxpayers have spent enormous sums of money building good roads in Appalachia. In theory, these roads are economic drivers, attracting businesses to the region. That theory has proven accurate in some areas and less accurate in others.

The road construction was also meant to lessen the isolation of many mountain communities. They have made it easier for people to get in and out of the mountains. Yet, even with the roads, many Appalachian communities remain isolated.

(Over the past month, Appalachian scholars have repeatedly told my study group that the “isolation of Appalachia” has been exaggerated. There were always trains and roads into the mountains. Yet, I do believe these experts protest too much.)

We live in a connected age. We have cell phones, satellite TVs, home computers, beepers, pagers, and more. Regardless, geography still counts. Appalachians are isolated, to a greater extent than their countrymen, from the rest of the nation. So are Hawaiians and Alaskans. (I know. I’ve lived in both places.)

Isolation, of course, is not always a bad thing. It can produce interesting results. Just think of the Galapagos Islands or Australia. Arguably, Appalachia’s isolation is what has made Appalachian culture unique. It simply wouldn’t have developed as it did if the region hadn’t been isolated from the main currents of American life.

As Appalachia’s isolation has decreased, the frustration of its residents has risen. They watch “Desperate Housewives” with a mixture of envy and disgust. “Why doesn’t my neighborhood look like that?” they wonder. “I’m an American, too.”

The truest fact about roads is that they almost always run two ways. People can get in and people can get out. The government has spent a fortune building good roads in Appalachia. Most of the traffic on them has been outbound. Appalachians have seen how the rest of the country lives. Many of them are impatient and they’re not waiting any longer.

Useful links
Pittsburgh Post Gazette article on the history of the Appalachian Regional Commission

Columbus Dispatch article questioning ARC spending practices