Interstate 40 is an important component of America's vast interstate highway system, stretching from Barstow, California in the west to Wilmington, North Carolina in the east, spanning a total length of 2,555 miles.
The construction plans were officially released in 1947, approved to start in 1957, and the last section of the highway was completed and opened for use in 1990.
The overall construction took forty-three years, or rather forty years, as between 1963-1966, the Federal Government suspended work to consider replacing traditional manual labor and conventional explosives with the constant detonation of atomic bombs for mountain excavation. After three years of evaluation and calculation, experts concluded that the cost of using atomic bombs for road construction was higher than traditional methods, and the safety regarding radiation spread could not be guaranteed.
