This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people.

Although President Eisenhower's name is forever etched upon our interstate highway system,

Charles Zugg wanted to know if this was true.

Zugg is an assistant professor of constitutional democracy and political science at the

University of Missouri and is a Jack Miller Center fellow.

He's also the author of Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Federal Highway Act.

Let's take a listen.

When you're driving down a highway in the United States, there's a good chance you'll see a blue sign with five white stars in a circle that reads,

Eisenhower Interstate System.

These signs, which communicate the official name of the U.S. Federal Highway Network, reflect the nearly universally held belief that in 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower

built the interstates, that it was Eisenhower who, through transformative leadership,

convinced Congress and the rest of the American political system that the country's largest ever

infrastructure project was both popular and necessary.

That story is incorrect.

Or, put more modestly, it bears only a pale resemblance to the truth.

Saying that Eisenhower is responsible for the interstates

is like saying a quarterback who got benched in the first quarter before scoring

any points is responsible for his team winning the game under the leadership of a different quarterback

three hours later. Did the first QB play some role in shaping the final outcome? Of course, but was he

decisive or even necessary? That's much harder to say.

...