Overview

Futurama

In the 1930s, a group of automakers came together to create a vision of a network of highways that would connect America. Much of this vision exists today in our Interstate Highway system. In 1939, General Motors released this 22 minute video title "To New Horizons" depicted what a future America could look like -- a car-centric America. In that year, GM brought to the New York City World Fair "Futurama," a massive scaled model of a city exceeding an acre wide. A prominent part of the model: highways. 

Interstate Highways

In 1947, after the official end of World War II, the Department of Commerce released a map laying out the path of the Interstate Highway. Highways themselves are not inherently bad, they create a much more efficient mode of travel. But back in 1955, when the map below was released, those who routed the highways were mostly people in the auto industry. There were few considerations for urban planning, and the effects a highway would have on a community. Therefore, while this plan successful connects major US cities, it often also cuts directly through them. This led way to the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, which officially created our Interstate Highway System.

The LOMEX Proposal

Proposals for highways in New York City were not unheard of; the opening of the Holland Tunnel created mass traffic congestion in Lower Manhattan, an issue that lawmakers have aimed to resolve. But in 1941, the City Planning Commission officially proposed the "Lower Manhattan Crosstown Highway," This highway, along side many others, were the brain child of "Master Builder," Robert Moses. 

Moses obsession with cars fueled many of his visions for a dystopian and futuristic America. While this original proposal was never built because of America's involvement in World War II, it would later resurface. In 1955, the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Commission revived plans for the highway. This time, it would become widely known as LOMEX: Lower Manhattan Expressway.

This was immediately contested by Jane Jacobs, a New York City activist that fought to save many of Manhattan's most treasured landmarks (including Washington Square Park). More information on Jane Jacobs here. She formed the Joint Commission to Stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway. Through her efforts, which included a protest marching from Sullivan St. to Mott St. 

Why Highways Are Bad

When highways are built across city centers, they isolate communities. This is both by being a physical divide, as well as a social one. Just in their very construction, highways bring in noise pollution and push out people. They popularize suburbias, which historically have an undertone of preserving homogenous communities. As areas that are populated by minority groups are torn down to build highways, those of elevated socioeconomic are fleeing out of the city. The rise of highways mean the descaling of public transportation, once again favoring those of socioeconomic levels that can afford to own and maintain cars. 

The Lower Manhattan Expressway specially was proposed to connect the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridge to the Holland Tunnels. This would destroy much of what we know now as Soho, Little Italy, Chinatown, Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side. These areas are the most densely populated in Manhattan, and are historically owned by immigrants and minority groups. It's creation would have displaced over 2000 families and small business. Scholars have suggested that the construction of highways were the new "urban blight," a term for the abandonment and desolation of once vibrant neighborhoods. 

Next: The Proposal →