Video about US Interstate Construction 1956

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KeithW
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Video about US Interstate Construction 1956

Post by KeithW »

Browsing the web I found these 2 videos filmed to support the 1956 Federal Highways Act by following the approval , planning and construction of a section of Interstate based on an imagined town called Connorsville. It was intended to reduce opposition.

https://archive.org/details/HighwayH1956
https://archive.org/details/HighwayH1956_2

It was produced by Dow Chemicals so is not exactly unbiased :)

As a bonus here is a film abut building the Pacific Coast Highway in California
https://archive.org/details/BuildersOfTh
https://archive.org/details/0753_Builde ... 6_34_34_00
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Re: Video about US Interstate Construction 1956

Post by mikehindsonevans »

Thanks for posting.

The National Geographic also carried an article, some time in the mid-1960s, about the construction of the national network. I found it in my father-in-law's collection years back.
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Gav
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Re: Video about US Interstate Construction 1956

Post by Gav »

its quite interesting that there has been a significant shift in attitudes now. I see that there are significant inroads being made to removing freeways from the centre of cities and returning cities to surface streets. healing the split between communities that the freeways often brought. They are using the fact that some of the roads are starting to come to the end of thier sevice lives and there they need to either replace or make an alternative arrangements.

https://www.cnu.org/highways-boulevards ... tures/2019

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6WtYTThkdU
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RichardA626
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Re: Video about US Interstate Construction 1956

Post by RichardA626 »

The interstate along the San Francisco was removed after it was damaged in the 1989 rather than being rebuilt.

It can be seen in the background of the hotel scenes in Bullit.
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KeithW
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Re: Video about US Interstate Construction 1956

Post by KeithW »

RichardA626 wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 22:38 The interstate along the San Francisco was removed after it was damaged in the 1989 rather than being rebuilt.

It can be seen in the background of the hotel scenes in Bullit.
It was in all honesty not much of a loss, the Embarcadero Freeway was never completed , as I recall the original plan was that it would tie into the Presidio Parkway to carry traffic to US 101 and cross the Golden Gate Bridge. This was massively unpopular, especially with those living in the Marina District. It lost its Interstate Status in 1968. What was built just dumped you in San Francisco and blocked off much of the waterfront in the process. The demolition of it really opened the area up and the combination of the Muni, BART and cross bay ferry terminal is a much better urban transport solution. There had been a campaign to remove it for years and the earthquake damage made it a no brainer.
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Re: Video about US Interstate Construction 1956

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KeithW wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 11:44
RichardA626 wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 22:38 The interstate along the San Francisco was removed after it was damaged in the 1989 rather than being rebuilt.

It can be seen in the background of the hotel scenes in Bullit.
It was in all honesty not much of a loss, the Embarcadero Freeway was never completed , as I recall the original plan was that it would tie into the Presidio Parkway to carry traffic to US 101 and cross the Golden Gate Bridge. This was massively unpopular, especially with those living in the Marina District. It lost its Interstate Status in 1968. What was built just dumped you in San Francisco and blocked off much of the waterfront in the process. The demolition of it really opened the area up and the combination of the Muni, BART and cross bay ferry terminal is a much better urban transport solution. There had been a campaign to remove it for years and the earthquake damage made it a no brainer.
Businesses in Chinatown said it would devastate their economy because people couldn't drive to the district. Quite the opposite, the Market Street area is one of the most attractive urban districts on the west coast if not the entire US.

The same arguments were put forth when the Central Freeway, also unfinished and intended to link the end of I-80 to the Golden Gate was torn down. The replacement, Octavia Boulevard, has regenerated the whole area.

I-880 which collapsed and killed 42 people was routed out of the urban area it sliced in two and rerouted over the Port of Oakland. It took 10 years to build and was at the time the most expensive US road project ever. The old line is now the Mandela Parkway and has a wide green space down the middle.

These three examples show why you can't just remove an urban freeway that actually links to places, but useless stumps can be demolished and no one will find any negatives. The New Urbanists fail to make this distinction and believe that traffic will just go away if you remove the roads entirely.
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