from January 26, 2009
The Road to Recovery
I've mentioned many times that I grew up in one of Denver's suburbs in
the 1950's. Life was much slower way back then. I don't have any access
to old family photos of driving through the Colorado Rockies in the
1950's. The photo of the antique car isn't back in the 1950's. But it
is illustrative of what our lives would be like if Interstate 70 had not
been built.
During the summers of my youth my parents and I would drive up to the
mountains to go fishing. We would either go over Berthoud Pass toward
Grand Lake, Loveland Pass toward what is now Vail (Vail did not even
exist then), or over Monarch Pass toward Gunnison. There were no
interstate highways. There were very few four lane roads for that
matter. There wasn't any need for four lanes because travel over the
Rockies took so long, especially on a cold and snowy day. There was some
skiing atop each of the passes mentioned and in small towns like Aspen
(back then Aspen was just a small town without any big ambitions). So
there was no compelling reason to get anywhere very quickly.
The interstate highway started to get built in Denver in the 1950's.
But it would take more than four decades to complete the Interstate 25
and Interstate 70 and the loops that encircle Denver and the suburbs.
But the major marvel was the construction of Interstate 70 through the
Colorado Rockies. And I specifically refer to the construction of the Eisenhower Tunnel and later the elevated roadway through the Glenwood Canyon,
one of Nature's Wonders.
When I was a kid and cars regularly overheated trying to cross the great
Colorado passes. It would take hours and hours to get from Denver to
any place on the other side (western side) of the Continental Divide.
And like I said, there wasn't any particular place to go back then
because we didn't have ski resorts and condominiums and golf courses in
the mountains. Oops! Maybe the interstate highway wasn't' such a good
thing after all.
What once took so much time now takes very little. The drive between
Denver and the western slope now takes a little about three hours. And
the life and vitality of the Colorado economy owes so much to that
divided highway.
When I was going to law school in the early 1970's the construction of
the Eisenhower Tunnel was in full bore so to speak. That construction
project was massive and it created jobs throughout the Denver area and
on the western slope as well. Two crews worked simultaneously to bore
the holes that would one day unite the state like never before and that
would make travel so easy.
Nobody in the 1950's could have imagined
owning a condo in Vail Colorado where they could ski in the winter and
play golf in the summer. But that is just what happened. Little towns
like Breckenridge, Silverthorne, and even Aspen experienced tremendous
growth in terms of size and property appreciation. And I can tell you
that the growth has been sustained over the past thirty years.
I am not afraid of public works projects to help jump start our failing
economy. The TVA changed much of the South after the Depression. The
Eisenhower Tunnel helped keep Denver from utter ruin during the
Recession of the mid 1970's. Perhaps the Economic Stimulus Package that
is working its way through Congress will create a project or two that
can have as dramatic an effect on our economy and way of life. We won't
know if the package gets derailed and money is spent instead on tax
rebates.
I am not afraid of government spending to help create jobs. Jobs keep
real people working. The dollars get passed around and around and
around. When people work, they spend money. And when they spend money
that creates more opportunities for everyone.
July 1, 2021 update
It's kind of funny that we are going through a similar stimulus package debate twelve years later. Obama got much of what he wanted passed. Not all. I know Key West got its fair share of the money and put the funds to good use installing needed storm drainage systems.
