Before it was a modern boulevard, New York's West Side Highway was a crumbling relic.
In short: The West Side Highway was once a dangerous, elevated structure that collapsed under the weight of a single dump truck. Today's surface-level urban boulevard replaced a decaying 1930s relic, but not before a massive, multi-billion dollar plan to bury the road was derailed by a lawsuit involving striped bass.
The original West Side Elevated Highway, constructed between 1929 and 1951, was a marvel of its time but quickly became a liability. By 1973, years of neglect and maintenance failures culminated in a dramatic collapse: a dump truck carrying over 60,000 pounds of asphalt fell through the northbound lanes near Gansevoort Street. This event forced the indefinite closure of the entire structure south of 18th Street, effectively ending the era of the elevated roadway.
Before its demise, the highway was plagued by poor design, including narrow lanes, hazardous S-shaped ramps, and dangerous left-hand merges. It was never built to accommodate the heavy trucks that eventually dominated the city's logistics. In the 1970s, officials proposed 'Westway,' an ambitious $2.1 billion project to bury an interstate highway beneath 220 acres of new landfill. However, the project faced intense political opposition and was ultimately blocked in 1982 by Judge Thomas Griesa, who ruled that the construction would harm the habitat of striped bass in the Hudson River.
The current Joe DiMaggio Highway, completed by 2001, is a six-to-eight lane surface boulevard that utilizes the historic street grid of West Street, Eleventh Avenue, and Twelfth Avenue. While it serves as a critical artery for New York City, it remains a reminder of the complex, often contentious history of urban planning. From the early 20th-century proposals for double-decker rail-and-road complexes to the failed Westway dream, the route has been the subject of intense debate over whether to prioritize freight, passenger cars, or public space.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: West Side Highway
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