We Trace How a 1919 Army Run Built America’s Highways

A young army officer led a convoy of trucks across the country in 1919 and the trip was brutal. Roads were barely there. Trucks broke axles, sank into quagmires, and stalled all the time. I walk you through those hard miles and the plain facts of what went wrong. You get a clear picture of why the trip took two months and how raw the experience felt for the men who drove those vehicles. That memory stuck with the officer. Years later he became Dwight D. Eisenhower. I explain how that single trip turned into a big idea for the nation. You learn how the Federal Highway Act of 1956 grew out of real pain on the road. The act built a huge, connected highway system that changed the look of the land and how people moved. Millions of us use those roads today. I sum up how a personal trial became one of the largest public works projects in U.S. history.

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