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Today in Interstate History

President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Photo courtesy of FHWA.

August 3, 1956

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law a bill taking the Bureau of Public Roads even further into the newly inaugurated age of the Interstate System. The bill specifically provided that the head of that agency would "be a Federal Highway Administrator appointed by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate." As explained by Secretary of Commerce Sinclair Weeks, "The prestige of Presidential appointment would also be of great assistance to the head of the Bureau of Public Roads in dealing with the State Officials expected to take part in the administration of a highway program of the magnitude and character entrusted to this Department."