The Interstate Highway System: A testament to ambition and perseverance | Civil Engineering...

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Initial plans for I-70 called for it to run west from Baltimore to Denver but not to extend into the Rocky Mountains. Colorado leaders quickly pressed for a route through the mountains, however, and military officials wanted a route that would connect the central United States with Southern California. Eventually I-70 was aligned to connect with I-15 in central Utah rather than in northern Utah at Salt Lake City, terminating at Ft. Cove.This meant builders would be faced with plotting a course directly through one of the most beautiful and challenging stretches of the Colorado Rockies.

Skrotzki would eventually enlist celebrity John ­Denver and former Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall in a fierce and long-lasting public bid to curtail the project. According to the Mead & Hunt report, Denver once staged a media event pressing for a two-lane roadway “where he threw a rock across the canyon waters to demonstrate its narrowness.” But it took him six throws to hit the other side.