10 That Changed America

(upbeat music) The public highway is the closest engagement everyone has, everyday, with public infrastructure, globally. People care a lot about their roads. -

Narrator

And when their roads aren't maintained, people let their politicians know. This marker, along the National Road in Indiana, is where one angry citizen brought down a former president. Martin Van Buren blocked funding to repair the National Road. After he left the presidency, he was traveling through Indiana on the National Road and, in Plainfield, Indiana, the angry residents paid the coach driver to take him along a particularly bad section of road which needed repair at a higher speed than they should've, (banging and horse neighing) and it toppled his carriage into the mud. And it's rumored that they gave the stage coach driver a five dollar silk hat to thank him for toppling the president in the mud. So badly maintained roads, people care about this. And people remember about this.