Discuss Detroit » Archives - July 2007 » Detroit Freeways "appreciation" [Photos] « Previous Next »
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Gsgeorge
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Username: Gsgeorge

Post Number: 252
Registered: 08-2006
Posted on Wednesday, October 17, 2007 - 8:25 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Dating back to as early as 1941, Detroit's Freeways are without a doubt the oldest urban freeways in the world. While our freeways have had many detrimental effects--many of them too well-known and too long-winded to list here--it cannot be denied that the freeways are now a permanent part of the fabric of the city. And as much as they divide communities, THE SYSTEM WORKS. Detroiters can get around their metropolis pretty quickly (IF they have a car), all thanks to the freeways. The huge number of freeways and spurs within 5 miles of the CBD allows for easy travel around this sprawling city.

And many times, the freeways are beautiful works of engineering--their soaring spans, their graceful stacks of ramps and bridges, their intricate interchanges. Other times, they are ugly, costly, and major impediments to foot traffic. They are smelly, loud, and polluted. They took the transit focus away from trains and put it on cars and buses. The construction of I-94 destroyed my mom's childhood home, and a lot of other people's homes and businesses. Not to mention how much traffic sucks... etc etc etc.

However... I'll be honest with you all, and this may require ignoring for a moment all the societal and historical implications of the freeways' construction: Gliding through the concrete canyon of the Lodge at 65+mph, below the city, hurtling around curves and under bridges, grabbing this on-ramp or that off-ramp and rising up from the bottom of the canyon to be greeted with a view of the skyline--it is really a thrilling experience. It's part of the Detroit Freeway experience, an experience a lot of us on this forum go through every day. It's all part of the much larger Detroit experience that we know and love.


Here is a chance to show some photos or share some thoughts about the freeways that define our city and our region. Share your best shots, or your favorite historical photos of the freeways you love -- or love to hate.



freeway1

I-375 at Warren Ave.


freeway2

I-96 at the Southfield Freeway


freeway3

I-75, view from Tiger Stadium pedestrian bridge


freeway4

I-96 at the Southfield Freeway

all photos from my flickr


From Wayne:

freeway5

Historical - night on the Lodge


freeway6

Historical - Opening the Lodge


freeway7

Historical - Trains over the Lodge
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Southen
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Username: Southen

Post Number: 323
Registered: 08-2006
Posted on Wednesday, October 17, 2007 - 8:30 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I like the thread Geoff. Great shots as usual.
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Gibran
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Username: Gibran

Post Number: 1197
Registered: 02-2007
Posted on Wednesday, October 17, 2007 - 8:47 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

wow
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Rrl
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Username: Rrl

Post Number: 916
Registered: 12-2003
Posted on Wednesday, October 17, 2007 - 8:47 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Wow, like that last one. Notice the narrow grass median and no crash rails. Amazing.
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Detroitrise
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Username: Detroitrise

Post Number: 284
Registered: 09-2007
Posted on Wednesday, October 17, 2007 - 9:04 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

And you know the funny thing in addition to old-fart freeways is that we also have 6 old fart Avenues that go to nowhere.

As I have mentioned many times, you never have to worry about Traffic with Detroit's street grid.
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Jrvass
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Username: Jrvass

Post Number: 265
Registered: 01-2007
Posted on Wednesday, October 17, 2007 - 9:51 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Where would that train be crossing?

West Grand Blvd., down by Michigan Central?

(Message edited by jrvass on October 17, 2007)
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Burnsie
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Username: Burnsie

Post Number: 1178
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Wednesday, October 17, 2007 - 10:13 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

It's crossing just south of W. Grand by the New Center-- spotting feature, old Nabisco building on right.
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Burnsie
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Post Number: 1179
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Posted on Wednesday, October 17, 2007 - 10:17 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Also, I'm not sure that Detroit had the first urban freeways in the world. The Willow Run Expwy. was completed in 1942. I think NY City or some place in California had surface-level freeways a bit before that. The Davison is probably the oldest *depressed* urban freeway. It depends on how you define "freeway," too.
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Leland_palmer
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Username: Leland_palmer

Post Number: 400
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Posted on Wednesday, October 17, 2007 - 10:20 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The Autobahn was started in the 30's
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Futurecity
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Username: Futurecity

Post Number: 665
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Posted on Wednesday, October 17, 2007 - 10:49 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I've always thought of expensiveways as "automobile sewers".

They are hideously polluted, dangerous places that have rained down death on Americans like a 13th-century plague.

They have divided and destroyed vibrant streets, neighborhoods and communities. Erased important parts of our history. And have dramatically increased our "slave to a metal box" culture. All at monumental expense.
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Viziondetroit
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Username: Viziondetroit

Post Number: 1215
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 2:32 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

^ so I guess it's safe to assume you don't drive on them?
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Iheartthed
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Username: Iheartthed

Post Number: 1897
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 7:51 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

A picture is worth 12 words... Look at how vibrant all the areas surrounding those freeways have remained!
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Hpgrmln
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Username: Hpgrmln

Post Number: 222
Registered: 06-2007
Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 8:08 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Man, wheres the guy that used to identify all the 50's cars? He'd have a field day with some of those.I dig that bulletnose in the last pic.
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Cmubryan
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Username: Cmubryan

Post Number: 466
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 8:12 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Iheartthed, you are being sarcastic?
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Ookpik
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Username: Ookpik

Post Number: 342
Registered: 01-2007
Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 8:12 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

detpic79a.jpg

Larger View

Ookpik
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Iheartthed
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Username: Iheartthed

Post Number: 1898
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 8:28 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

>Iheartthed, you are being sarcastic?

Of course.
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Mallory
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Username: Mallory

Post Number: 203
Registered: 05-2006
Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 8:49 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Excellent pictures, Gsgeorge. For those of us who are former Detroiters, they bring back many great memories. I guess I'm saying that being stuck in traffic was a good memory. Go figure.
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Charlottepaul
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Username: Charlottepaul

Post Number: 1837
Registered: 10-2006
Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 9:02 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"the Detroit Freeway experience"

A new tourist attraction?
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Eric_c
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Username: Eric_c

Post Number: 1070
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 9:28 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Circle the CBD 'till you puke!

Jefferson, 75/375, Lodge. Jefferson 75/375, Lodge
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Gazhekwe
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Username: Gazhekwe

Post Number: 810
Registered: 08-2007
Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 9:58 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"I dig that bulletnose in the last pic."

I believe that is a 50 Studebaker.
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Detroitnerd
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Username: Detroitnerd

Post Number: 1509
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Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 12:25 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Those are some outstanding photographs. It's interesting to note that Americans have generally been more taken with images of freeways than with actual freeways. From the first GM-sponsored exhibits, the idea of concrete spans soaring through the air and traffic moving in a continuous stream has been repeatedly drummed into people's heads as something worthwhile, valuable, imposing and important. In fact, the very first freeways were "parkways" that Robert Moses built out into Long Island. With bridges too low for truck traffic or buses, they were for pleasure excursions in automobiles. They were a propaganda coup, and one of the last times driving on a freeway was almost as good as looking at it.

The thing that strikes me as a motorist and Detroiter is that you can't look at the architecture while you drive. You don't see the city up close. It's something peripheral. Instead there's all this speed and traffic and things in the way whizzing right and left. Not a good time to take in architecture!

As I recall, the first sunken urban expressways were the Davison and the Lodge. They were begun earlier than the Ike-sponsored freeway act, under Mayor Cobo. At the time, Detroiters laughed at the expressway-building, called them "Cobo Canals." Of course, maybe they didn't need them, as Detroit boasted of one of top municipally owned streetcar-coach systems in the world.
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Arc312
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Username: Arc312

Post Number: 47
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Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 3:54 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

It's sad to think that Highways are not and have not been central city connectors, and instead have killed them.

However, there is something truly beautiful about them. Ironic.
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Gsgeorge
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Username: Gsgeorge

Post Number: 255
Registered: 08-2006
Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 4:02 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)


davison1

Davison Ave. months before "reconstruction"


davison2

Better take advantage of that "street widening sale"!


davison3

1942 -- open for traffic
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Iheartthed
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Username: Iheartthed

Post Number: 1927
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 4:11 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I think the Davison Ave before and after pics are pretty telling.
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Dnvn522
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Username: Dnvn522

Post Number: 295
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Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 4:11 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I love the old street lights!
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Sturge
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Username: Sturge

Post Number: 142
Registered: 05-2007
Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 4:39 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I like the first pic. I've always noticed how the Ren Cen and the Church line up but never knew how to get a clear pic of it.
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Jimaz
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Username: Jimaz

Post Number: 3546
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Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 6:40 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Not to mention how the church steeple is echoed in the arrow of the traffic sign below. That's genius. Continuing that metaphor, it's not too flattering for Toledo! :-)
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Hpgrmln
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Username: Hpgrmln

Post Number: 223
Registered: 06-2007
Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 6:57 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I had to laugh at that top pic, of Davison. Apparently pedestrians avoided the sidewalks and walked (or in this case, rode) in the streets even back then.
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Gazhekwe
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Username: Gazhekwe

Post Number: 819
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Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 7:29 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Hpgrmln, if you were over a certain age, I think 12, you were not allowed to ride your bike on the sidewalk. That was still the rule in the 50s when I was a kiddle in Brightmoor.
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Jrvass
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Username: Jrvass

Post Number: 266
Registered: 01-2007
Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 8:25 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Quick Quiz!

Why is the Southfield Freeway not flat, but hilly? Going above and below ground?

What was it's nickname while being proposed/built?

What was the proponent's claim to fame?
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Gsgeorge
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Username: Gsgeorge

Post Number: 256
Registered: 08-2006
Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 8:39 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Why is the Southfield Freeway not flat, but hilly? Going above and below ground?

It meets grade when the on/off-ramps go up to street level and it dives below grade when it needs to go under surface streets that cross it. makes it fun to drive on.
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3rdworldcity
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Username: 3rdworldcity

Post Number: 946
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Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 8:46 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Gazhekwe: You're correct; it's a '50 Studebaker. My first car (used), a yellow convertible, hillholder brakes, overdrive, and 30 mpg.

Notice the double bottom dirt haulers. Max Fruehoff get really rich when he came up with the concept. Made 1000's of them. The dirt removed from the ditches was hauled off and dumped between EB and WB I-94 between western Detroit and Metro. It's been landscaped over the years and looks pretty good.

Great pictures. Notice how close to the roadway the light poles are. It almost appears that common sense hadn't been invented at that time.
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Hpgrmln
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Username: Hpgrmln

Post Number: 225
Registered: 06-2007
Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 8:47 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"Hpgrmln, if you were over a certain age, I think 12, you were not allowed to ride your bike on the sidewalk. That was still the rule in the 50s when I was a kiddle in Brightmoor."

Thats the great thing about this forum-the history lessons.
I was born in the 70's so I never knew of such a policy.It still seems like an odd rule to limit sidewalk use on a major road.I guess people were more patient and careful back then
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Rocket_city
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Username: Rocket_city

Post Number: 441
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 8:51 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

As an urban enthusiast, I have to admit I have a soft spot for the Jeffries/Southfield interchange. That's a sweet shot of it! :-)
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Jrvass
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Username: Jrvass

Post Number: 267
Registered: 01-2007
Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 9:04 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

GSGeorge gets a cookie.

Simply put, the freeway goes below grade to go under a street that crosses the freeway. Otherwise there was no cost-efficient reason for moving tons of dirt to make the whole freeway "level" according to the main proponent.

It's fun, at times, unless you have the "urpees" from the flu or other "substances".

2 cookies left!

(Message edited by jrvass on October 18, 2007)
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Gazhekwe
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Username: Gazhekwe

Post Number: 824
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Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 9:10 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

3rdworld, what a great car. I loved those Studies, they were so futuristic looking. They should bring them back!
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Gsgeorge
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Username: Gsgeorge

Post Number: 257
Registered: 08-2006
Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 9:56 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Detroit is home to the first urban freeway-to-freeway interchange in the world, built in 1953. I-94 at the Lodge.


lodgeinterchange
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Ray1936
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Username: Ray1936

Post Number: 2114
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Posted on Friday, October 19, 2007 - 9:51 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Whether or not the freeways were a good thing for the City of Detroit or not, it sure made it quick and easy to go from New Hudson to Downtown Detroit and back last night. About a half hour, I'd say, and I looked at that bridge at Grand River on the way and it looked just fine to me.

The road work on the freeways over the last several years has certainly paid off. the roadways are smooth and a pleasure to drive on, compared to my memories of, say, ten years ago.
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Detroitnerd
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Username: Detroitnerd

Post Number: 1516
Registered: 07-2004
Posted on Friday, October 19, 2007 - 2:45 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

That diag interchange is a monster. I tried counting how many buildings they had to demolish to build it and lost count somewhere over 100. Blocks and block of dense housing were ripped out, then the neighborhood around it was flattened too. Shame shame...
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Gsgeorge
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Username: Gsgeorge

Post Number: 260
Registered: 08-2006
Posted on Friday, October 19, 2007 - 3:09 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Detroitnerd, not as bad as what I-375 did...


1949

1949... what a city!


1952

1952, clearing begins.


1961

1961. Most of south of Gratiot cleared for Lafayette Park.


1967

1967, cutting through the neighborhood for I-375.


1981

1981. Interchange and freeway completed.

Photos from DTE Aerial Photo Collection
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Fareastsider
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Username: Fareastsider

Post Number: 641
Registered: 08-2006
Posted on Friday, October 19, 2007 - 3:27 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

GsGeorge I cant figure out how to get my old aerials to edit and post on here. how do you get them posted on here like a picture I cant figure out how to do that. I can only open them with the adobe reader...
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Detroitnerd
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Username: Detroitnerd

Post Number: 1517
Registered: 07-2004
Posted on Friday, October 19, 2007 - 3:31 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Great photo-story, George. I mean, er, depressing as hell, but well told!

I think the diag interchange fascinates me because it's the most compact sort of interchange there is. That's why motorists bellyache about the left lane getting slowed by merging traffic or why you're not supposed to exit on Forest/Warren after exiting WB 94 onto SB Lodge. (That never stopped Detroiters, did it?)

Anyway, if this is the most compact interchange you can do, look at the destruction! And it was done first, bragging of seven different levels of continuously moving traffic. Sigh...

You're absolutely right about 75/375. Hastings Street was among the city's most dynamic neighborhoods. Gratiot was a busy and dense thoroughfare. I guess you could make a case that people were going to leave the city anyway after WWII, with spatial deconcentration, the G.I. Bill, the suburban development bonanza, etc. But the diag at 94/Lodge was put in when Detroit had a massive housing shortage during WWII, right? Which makes it all the more disappointing...
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Gsgeorge
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Username: Gsgeorge

Post Number: 261
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Posted on Friday, October 19, 2007 - 3:37 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

yeah that Lodge/94 interchange is pretty compact in comparison to some of the others in the city. Makes you wonder why they made the 375 interchange so big.... hmm, I wonder...

Feareastsider, I just make screen captures of the PDF files, crop and resize and "save for web" in Photoshop to ensure small file size and quality. They need to be no more than 550 pixels wide and no more than 50K.
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Iheartthed
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Username: Iheartthed

Post Number: 1933
Registered: 04-2006
Posted on Friday, October 19, 2007 - 3:43 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Yet, we all know it was the riots that killed Detroit!

That was sarcasm, in case anyone is confused.
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Miketoronto
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Username: Miketoronto

Post Number: 676
Registered: 07-2004
Posted on Saturday, October 20, 2007 - 9:44 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

There is a beauty to riding down a freeways in the city. But there is also a beauty and much more exciting feeling of driving down busy commercial streets.

But I can see where a urban ride on a freeway can be fun at times.
I never drive. But once in a while that we do drive into the city, it is fun to watch the city ride as you enter on the parkway.
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Gsgeorge
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Username: Gsgeorge

Post Number: 266
Registered: 08-2006
Posted on Saturday, October 20, 2007 - 10:20 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Some great posts here.


Jrvass' Southfield Freeway quiz still remains unsolved:

What was it's nickname while being proposed/built?

What was the proponent's claim to fame?
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Jrvass
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Username: Jrvass

Post Number: 271
Registered: 01-2007
Posted on Saturday, October 20, 2007 - 9:37 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I'll give you all a big hint (but you get a crappier cookie now... a "Fig Newton").

The answers can be found in the book "Detroit 300".
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Margaret
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Username: Margaret

Post Number: 230
Registered: 06-2007
Posted on Monday, October 22, 2007 - 12:52 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

we used to always call them "expressways" in Detroit...when did people start calling them "freeways" in Detroit? just curious...
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Margaret
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Username: Margaret

Post Number: 231
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Posted on Monday, October 22, 2007 - 12:54 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Gsgeorge: wonderful photos! especially that first one, in color, that composition is perfect! thank you for all the photos...
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Ray1936
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Username: Ray1936

Post Number: 2125
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Posted on Monday, October 22, 2007 - 1:19 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The Southfield freeway was always just called the Southfield freeway, and prior to that was just Southfield Road. I don't remember ever an alternate name being suggested. It got its name originally because the road went into Southfield Township, now the City of Southfield.

Before freeway construction, Southfield was a divided roadway with two lanes in each direction. The median was very wide, somewhat like Telegraph is today along Detroit/Redford Township. However, from Seven Mile northward, it merged into a single roadway with two lanes in each direction.

Hope that answers it: there was no proponent other than the freeway master plan from just after WW II.
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Fareastsider
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Username: Fareastsider

Post Number: 651
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Posted on Monday, October 22, 2007 - 1:34 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Ray What was the social opinion on freeway construction and growth at that time. It seems like everyone could not wait for freeways. As someone who may be able to remeber traffic on surface streets before freeways how do you feel about them. I know Detroit over did them but what about freeways in general. Are we lucky to have them today?
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Ray1936
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Username: Ray1936

Post Number: 2127
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Posted on Monday, October 22, 2007 - 2:18 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Opinion as the freeways were being built was eager anticipation. The John Lodge was especially looked forward to by west siders, most of whom took Grand River to work downtown in near daily gridlock. The first few sections to open, in the vicinity of the New Center area, were a start, and eventually it went out to Wyoming. Only later did the section start that was old James Couzens/Northwestern Highway.

I-75, the Chrysler, which came later, I would suppose was anticipated with delight by the east siders, although the I-94 had already come through for some relief.

I greatly looked forward to the Southfield freeway completion, as my wife and I lived at Southfield and Eight mile in 1960, and her parents on Southield near Allen Road. Changed a 45-minute trip into 20 minutes.

Yeah, we're fortunate to have them -- and the subsequent freeways -- today. You can get about the metro area quickly (other than at rush hour times), and I think had none been built, the gridlock would be unbelievable.

And for cross-country travel, of which I've done plenty, the Interstate system is a wonder and a marvel. Except for the I-70/I-55/I-44 interchange going through St. Louis.....<grin> :-)
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Detroitnerd
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Username: Detroitnerd

Post Number: 1528
Registered: 07-2004
Posted on Monday, October 22, 2007 - 2:34 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"I think had none been built, the gridlock would be unbelievable."

Yeah, you can thank the dismantling of the street railways for that.

Sorry, just hate that if-then fallacy. That's just a way of begging a question...
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Ray
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Username: Ray

Post Number: 1030
Registered: 06-2004
Posted on Monday, October 22, 2007 - 6:47 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

They are a fact of life, I guess, but the destruction of those interchanges in the heart of the city is sickening.
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Jrvass
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Username: Jrvass

Post Number: 274
Registered: 01-2007
Posted on Monday, October 22, 2007 - 7:25 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Buzzzzz!

Times up! No Fig Newtons for you!

The Southfield Freeway was nicknamed "Rogell's Roller Coaster" after the Detroit City Councilman proposed only excavating under the bridges that crossed the freeway.

Billy Rogell played for the Tigers, primarily as shortstop, from 1930-1939. He was later elected to Detroit City Council.

http://www.baseball-almanac.co m/players/player.php?p=rogelbi 01

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