The Mid Manhattan Expressway was an urban freeway proposed by Robert Moses in the late 1930s which would have connected the Queens-Midtown Tunnel and the Lincoln Tunnel. The highway would have cut a path clear across the island. Business owners and residents objected but what ultimately killed the project was the high cost of building a highway in an area with such high real estate values.
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anoggen 14 months ago | reply
Even if these highways had been built, they wouldn't have stayed traffic-free for long. Induced demand would result to the Mid-Manhattan (and Lower Manhattan) expressways becoming just as traffic-choked as the midtown streets currently are. People seem to think that when you build expressways like this, they will remain traffic-free, which is certainly not the case. All you'd get then is a traffic-choked expressway that now depresses land values next to it -- neither a huge elevated structure casting shadows down on the street or a gaping trench is desirable.
ddey65 13 months ago | reply
And what do you call the Second, Third, Sixth, and Ninth Avenue Els? Do you think they weren't huge eleveated structures that cast shadows on the streets below? The 125th Street Bridge for the IRT Broadway-7th Avenue Line still is. Even if the expressways are choked with traffic, the cars and trucks that use them wouldn't be on any of the local streets.
"Depresses land values?" What a crock! Old Westbury stopped Robert Moses from building part of the Northern State Parkway where part of the Long Island Expressway is today, and it's still just as upper crust as it was a century ago! The trouble is, you have the assumption that if the highways aren't built that it will somehow thwart all the problems you've THINK they cause. Instead you end up exacerbating the problems you've been conditioned to simply put up with. The New York Tri-State Area is a mess because of the highways that were stopped, but places like Los Angeles, Atlanta, Boston, and Washington DC are even worse.
bdogbren 4 months ago | reply
The point of the highways was to allow vehicles (especially commercial vehicles) to get from New Jersey to Long Island (and vice versa) without having to drive through dozens of Manhattan intersections. As it is today, you have all sorts of traffic driving the length of Canal St or through Midtown just to get back to the mainland or to reach one of the highways on the perimeter of the island.
Yes, the presence of the highways would have increased the overall traffic load on the bridges and tunnels. However, the overall number of cars driving across town on the actual city streets would have been reduced.
Highways are never pretty, but look at what Philly did with the Vine St Expressway through the heart of downtown. The entire thing is below ground and you don't even realize it is there if you are standing on the Art Museum steps looking toward City Hall. Pedestrian traffic is hardly impacted and vehicle traffic is significantly relieved.
vanshnookenraggen 4 months ago | reply
With land prices in Manhattan it would probably be cheaper just to build a tunnel.