The Interstate Highway System

Wow! - What an EXCITING topic!

When I was a kid we - well, my folks - drove us from Casper, Wyoming to Chicago every summer.
The trip was "scenic" - on state and U.S. highways, passing through every little town (e.g., Chugwater, Wyoming).
As the young passenger, I loved it!
Among other joys were the Burma Shave jingles on fence-posts at the side of the road:

Drowsy?
Just remember, pard
That marble slab
Is doggone
Hard
Burma Shave

"Scenic"? Yes!
Quick? No.

The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways (commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, Interstate Freeway System, Interstate System, or simply the Interstate) is a network of controlled-access highways that forms a part of the National Highway System of the United States. The system is named for President Dwight D. Eisenhower who championed its formation. Construction was authorized by the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, and the original portion was completed 35 years later...
[Interstate Highway System]

This was back in the glorious days when the Federal Government BUILT stuff, and the top marginal tax rate exceeded 90%! - under that Commie-pinko fellow-traveler Eisenhower!

Seldom a day goes by that I don't take advantage of the Interstate Highway System - just here in Albuquerque: I-40 and I-25!
(FYI: New Mexico is the ONLY state in which there's just ONE intersection of Interstate Highways.
It's called the Big-I locally. ... about two miles from my house.)

Anyway ... TODAY?
Bridges collapse.
Roads are in disrepair.
We seem to have the lost the national will to BUILD stuff!

How'd that happen?