of many car companies. Car owners were eager to hit the road and drive long distances. But, as the FTMC had learned, most of the nation roads and highways were a mess, especially in the West. People who loved automobiles couldn wait. They formed the Good Roads Movement. The movement worked with state and local governments to pave existing roads and build new ones. In the 1930s, the federal government got involved in road building. By then the United States was in the Great Depression (1929�942). Millions of Americans were out of work. President Franklin Roosevelt created an economic program called the New Deal. As part of the New Deal, the government hired millions of workers for building projects. Some of the workers constructed roads and bridges. The Good Roads Movement and the New Deal helped for a while. But road building came to a halt during World War II. The nation focused on winning the war instead of building roads. During that war, Dwight D. Eisenhower became a five-star general. He led all the troops of the United States and its allies fighting in Europe. From 1944 to 1945, he oversaw the defeat of Germany. This work gave Eisenhower a chance to take a good look at German roads. What Eisenhower saw put ideas in his head. The German highway system, the autobahn, linked different regions of the nation. The broad, straight highways were all built to the same strict standards. Cars could travel long distances at high speeds without stopping. Military troops and supplies could move swiftly and efficiently. This is the kind of highway we need in the United States, General Eisenhower decided. Germans travel down the autobahn in the mid-1930s. TheGerman autobahn was Eisenhower inspiration for the Interstate Highway System.49The Interstate Highway System