Dwight D. Eisenhower

The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 committed the United States to the Interstate Highway System, now about 48,000 miles long and still carrying a quarter of the country's vehicle travel. Eisenhower also kept the New Deal settlement in place rather than dismantling it, extending Social Security to millions more workers. The motorways reshaped American cities, often by routing traffic through Black and poorer neighbourhoods, a consequence planners and historians still argue about.