agency to regulate and manage public space, including the national monuments. "Over the past fifty years the NPS has acquired more than of land, including not only the great chain of parks preserved for their natural beauty and value, but an extraordinary variety of historic buildings, monuments, and sites." By 1935, Congress passed the Historic Sites Act, which established a national policy for preservation and permitted the Secretary of Interior to create programs on behalf of preservation efforts. During the Great Depression era, the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) was established by the Franklin D. Roosevelt Administration. It provided jobs for unemployed architects, engineers, and surveyors. They were charged with surveying, recording, documenting, and interpreting historic properties, creating an invaluable documentation of numerous buildings and other structures. The Historic Sites Act also organized the national parks under the National Park Service, which created the foundation for the future development of the National Register of Historic Places. Although the Antiquities Act and Historic Sites Act were major stepping stones for the preservation movement, these did not create a broad public "national awareness." On October 26, 1949, President Harry Truman signed legislation creating the National Trust for Historic Preservation "to facilitate public participation in the preservation of sites, buildings, and objects of national significance or international interest." In addition, the law "enforced public participation in preserving and protecting the sites, buildings, objects of national significance in American history." Initially, the National Trust for Historic Preservation did not provide funds for preservation projects. Today, they offer funds for planning and education and provide a plethora of information, techniques, and methods to assist people in carrying out preservation efforts locally. Post WWII and urban renewal In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 into law which established the Interstate Highway System, providing an easy and efficient way for troops to depart if under attack. Due to this new construction, many historic properties were destroyed. In the 1960s, President John F. Kennedy launched the Urban Renewal Program. Hoping the plan would rejuvenate the cities, it in fact increased the destruction in the downtown areas. The increase in population around this time, as well, and the manufacturing of cars called for a rapid change, therefore hindering our nation and its culture. "With the urbanization, tear downs, and rebuilding America ... it is destroying the physical evidence of the past." During