Dwight D. Eisenhower

=== Interstate Highway System ===
{{Main|Interstate Highway System}}
{{listen
| filename     = Cadillacsquareexcerpt.ogg
| title        = Remarks in Cadillac Square, Detroit
| description  = President Eisenhower delivered remarks about the need for a new highway program at Cadillac Square in Detroit on October 29, 1954<br />[http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/interstate/audiotext.htm#cadillac Text of speech excerpt]
}}

Eisenhower championed and signed the bill that authorized the [[Interstate Highway System]] in 1956.<ref name="economist">{{cite news|title=The cracks are showing|newspaper=The Economist|date=June 26, 2008|url=http://www.economist.com/obituary/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8447241|access-date=October 23, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071120044855/http://www.economist.com/obituary/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8447241|archive-date=November 20, 2007|url-status=live}}</ref> He justified the project through the [[Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956]] as essential to American security during the [[Cold War]].

Eisenhower's goal to create improved highways was influenced by his involvement in the Army's 1919 [[Transcontinental Motor Convoy]]. He was assigned as an observer for the mission, which involved sending a convoy of Army vehicles coast to coast.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=May 23, 2008 |url=http://www.usswashington.com/dl30au39h1.htm |title=The Last Week&nbsp;– The Road to War |publisher=[[USS Washington (BB-56)]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070323225351/http://www.usswashington.com/dl30au39h1.htm |archive-date=March 23, 2007 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|access-date=May 23, 2008 |url=http://usswashington.com/worldwar2plus55/index.htm |title=About the Author |publisher=[[USS Washington (BB-56)]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513084502/http://www.usswashington.com/worldwar2plus55/index.htm |archive-date=May 13, 2008 }}</ref> His subsequent experience with the German [[Reichsautobahn|autobahn]] convinced him of the benefits of an Interstate Highway System. The system could also be used as a runway for airplanes, which would be beneficial to war efforts. Franklin D. Roosevelt put this system into place with the [[Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944]]. He thought that an interstate highway system would be beneficial for military operations and would support continued economic growth.<ref name=archivesIHS>{{cite web|access-date=August 21, 2012|url=https://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/research/online_documents/interstate_highway_system.html|title=Interstate Highway System|publisher=[[Eisenhower Presidential Center]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117094324/http://eisenhower.archives.gov/research/online_documents/interstate_highway_system.html|archive-date=January 17, 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> The legislation initially stalled in Congress over the issuance of bonds to finance the project, but the legislative effort was renewed and Eisenhower signed the law in June 1956.<ref>{{harvnb|Ambrose|1984|pp=301, 326}}</ref>