Can Removing Highways Fix America’s Cities?
These aerial photos show American cities before the highway boom of the 1950s and ’60s.
Highways radically reshaped cities, destroying dense downtown neighborhoods, dividing many Black communities and increasing car dependence.
But reconnecting neighborhoods is more complicated than breaking them apart.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Built in the 1950s to speed suburban commuters to and from downtown, Rochester’s Inner Loop destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses, replacing them with a broad, concrete trench that separated downtown from the rest of the city.
Now, the city is looking to repair the damage. It started by filling in a nearly-mile-long section of the sunken road, slowly stitching a neighborhood back together. Today, visitors of the Inner Loop’s eastern segment would hardly know a highway once ran beneath their feet.
