for the most important connecting roads and is not intended to meet the total needs in this category.
FEDERAL DOMAIN ROADS
The Federal Government has the primary, and in many cases, the sole responsibility for building roads to cross or provide access to federally owned land, the area of which aggregates more than one-fifth of the Nation’s total area. In a few cases, States have themselves provided funds to improve these connections across Federal land areas in order to furnish continuity for one of their own main routes. In any estimate of needs for highways to be financed from Federal funds, it is necessary therefore to include the cost of such roads within the Federal domain.
These roads are located in the national forests and parks, Indian reservations, national monuments, and other public lands. While the majority of these road needs are in the Western States, there are also such areas in most of the 48 States, Alaska, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and the District of Columbia. Many of these roads provide access within our national recreational areas, and serve to generate a considerable portion of the vehicle-travel mileages on which Federal and State fuel-tax revenues are dependent.
