A detailed list of each U.S. president’s contributions to transportation.
A database from the Eno Center for Transportation outlines each U.S. president’s transportation innovations, beginning with George Washington’s transportation safety efforts and ending with Dwight D. Eisenhower’s massive freeway building project.
Best known for his presidency during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was also a strong supporter of railroads, a nascent technology at the time. “Although President Lincoln was assassinated before the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific joined in Utah, he would be seen as the “Great Uniter” who not only kept the Union together, but also connected the two coasts by rail, cutting travel time from several months to less than a week.”
During the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs funded major construction projects around the country, setting up an early blueprint for the interstate highway system.
See the source article for the full list.
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