Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight David Eisenhower (1890 to 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961, after a career as a general who commanded Allied forces in the Second World War. For transport he matters as the president whose administration undertook the development and construction of the Interstate Highway System, the largest road construction effort in American history. He championed and signed the bill that authorized the system in 1956, justifying it through the Federal Aid Highway Act as essential to American security in the Cold War. His thinking was shaped by observing the Army 1919 Transcontinental Motor Convoy and by his later experience of the German autobahn. The network is officially named the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways. He also received many honorary degrees.