Oh, That Inter... Oh That Gore

Al Gore did not say “I invented the internet.” For details, see Snopes. But there is a spin on the story that came up in office chat this morning and which nobody, to my knowledge, has made much of. So à propos of nothing at all, I surface it here.

Forget about the internet. The subject for the moment is the interstate—more precisely, the interstate highway system that transformed the nation in the 50s. It’s customary to think of the interstate as a child of the Eisenhower administration and hence, a child of President Eisenhower. This is insufficiently nuanced. There was, of course, a “highway lobby”—car companies and oil companies and construction companies who figured to profit from a vast new public construction boondoggle. But old-fashioned fiscal conservatives were not with them: old fashioned fiscal conservatives thought the interstate was a terrible idea.

Why? Oh, who knows, exactly. Maybe the thought it would destroy the motherhood-and-apple-pie America they liked to remember. But they also just thought it would cost too much money. Anyway, on this one, they pretty much had Ike in their pocket.

The breakthrough came on the initiative of one hard-working, imaginative, wonky senator, who convinced the lobby they would get their project only if they made it self-financing. Hence the “highway trust fund,” funded out of gas taxes, which paid 90 percent of the cost (states paid the other 10 percent).

And who is this far-sighted policy wonk? Glad you asked, but perhaps you are ahead of me on this one: it was Al Gore—senior that is, himself a Senator from Tennessee.

So Al Gore does not, and did not, claim to have invented the internet. But Al Gore does have a pretty good claim to have invented the interstate. There, I guess that clears up all the confusion, right? Right?

Footnote on Ancient History: It’s hard to believe now, but not everyone wanted the interstate, even after it was funded. Vermont resisted: they weren’t sure they could come up with the 10 percent state share (nobody told them about the market for second homes for Harvard professors). And in Ohio in 1958, there was a candidate for governor—I believe his name was Albert S. Porter, and that he was county engineer of Cuyahoga (Cleveland) County. Porter was a monkey wrench kind of guy. His whole campaign was based on the proposition that the internet was a prodigal waste: overengineered, way too invasive, way too costly. My recollection is that he ran third (hey this was my maiden voyage as a newspaper reporter; I have reason to remember).

Sources: I gasp at Google. It took me about 10 seconds to find this. Papa Gore’s Wiki is here; the interstate gets a cameo. The Wiki page on the interstate notes the full name: Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways (link). The wiki says that Eisenhower “championed” the system; it does not mention Gore.

Curious Footnote: Oddly, the Snopes entry on "invented the internet" (supra) mentions the interstate parallel, but doesn't mention papa's role.