The persistent rumor that President William Howard Taft got stuck in a bathtub in the White House is not entirely true. Taft was a big man, standing about six feet tall and weighing more than 300 pounds while he was in office. Shortly after he was elected president, Taft needed to travel to Panama to inspect progress on the Panama Canal. Prior to the trip, he had a bathtub custom built and installed for himself in the USS North Carolina. The tub measured 7 feet 1 inch long and 41 inches wide and weighed one ton. However, there is no evidence that he ever got stuck in a bathtub.