A New Department Takes Off

The new USDOT opened for business on April 1, 1967. On the National Mall, Secretary Boyd joined with the Smithsonian Institution in celebrating the opening ceremonies of a spring gala dubbed the "Pageant of Transportation." After a news conference during which he introduced Department leaders, Boyd pledged that the new agency would work to make transportation more efficient and more socially responsible. In a remark that seemed directed at perceptions of the Interstate System, he added, "We want an end to the noise, pollution, and general disfigurement transportation has unintentionally brought to our cities."

The opening of the new Department meant changes for BPR. One involved its name. "Bureau of Public Roads" had been used during two periods of the agency's history spanning 39 years, with "Public Roads Administration" being the interim name. On April 1, 1967, the agency became the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The newly renamed agency was organized into bureaus headed by directors, with the BPR name retained for one of them, along with the Bureau of Motor Carrier Safety (now the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) and the National Highway Safety Bureau (now the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration). With the additions, the agency increased from about 4,800 employees at the end of 1966 to 5,360 employees a year later. (In August 1970, FHWA eliminated the bureau structure, replacing the directors with associate administrators and finally ending use of the name BPR.)

The director of BPR was Francis C. "Frank" Turner, who had joined BPR in 1929 after graduating from Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Texas A&M University). In the 1950s he had played a key role in the committee established by President Eisenhower and headed by retired General Lucius D. Clay to develop a national highway plan, and had served as liaison between BPR and the key committees in Congress during development of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. (In February 1969 he became the only career employee to become Federal Highway Administrator.)

Perhaps the most surprising change was that the first person to hold the title of Federal Highway Administrator in the new department would not be an engineer. Lowell K. Bridwell had been a journalist throughout his career, most recently as the top writer on highways for the Washington bureau of Scripps Howard Newspapers. He had joined the Commerce Department in April 1962 as assistant to Transportation under Secretary Clarence Martin, Jr., and held other Commerce posts over the next 5 years. He would take office as Federal Highway Administrator in March 1967 and hold the position until the end of the Johnson Administration, January 20, 1969.