In February 1955, Senator Harry Byrd of Virginia took to the floor to decry the results of a government study estimating that a highway bill under consideration would cost American taxpayers $27.2 billion. Does the tune sound vaguely familiar? Excerpted from Earl Swift’s new book, The Big Road: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Highway System. 

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