During the heyday of highway building in the United States, state Dept. of Transportations would often release maps of the proposed routes that just so happened to leave the existing urban fabric off. This was done to minimize the perceived damages that building the roads would cause. After much widespread destruction had decimated American cities, residents began to fight back. In many cities, entire roads were canceled. But one can’t help but wonder what these places would look like had these roads been built. Using the modern cartographic language of Google Maps, I created a series that showed in more detail just how much destruction these roads would have caused.
The Unbuilt Highways of Robert Moses
Unbuilt Highways of San Francisco
