Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower was the 34th US President who signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, funding the Interstate Highway System, after taking part in the Army's 1919 transcontinental motor convoy.
What they did and why it matters
Eisenhower's support for the Interstate Highway System created the road network that US trucking and two-day ground delivery depend on. The 1956 act had the federal government pay 90 percent of construction costs for a national network of limited-access highways. In 1919 he had crossed the country in an Army convoy that took 62 days, and in World War II he saw the German autobahns. Fast, predictable truckload and LTL transit between distribution centers, and the shipping zones that set parcel prices, all assume the interstate network he backed.
Events
Laws and regulations
Sources
- Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 (Wikipedia) en.wikipedia.org
- The Interstates (Prologue Magazine, National Archives) archives.gov