How highways wrecked American cities

The Interstate Highway System was one of America’s most revolutionary infrastructure projects. It also destroyed urban neighborhoods across the nation. Subscribe to our channel! The 48,000 miles of interstate highway that would be paved across the country during the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s were a godsend for many rural communities. But those highways also gutted many cities, with whole neighborhoods torn down or isolated by huge interchanges and wide ribbons of asphalt. Wealthier residents fled to the suburbs, using the highways to commute back in by car. That drained the cities’ tax bases and hastened their decline. So why did cities help build the expressways that would so profoundly decimate them? The answer involves a mix of self-interested industry groups, design choices made by people far away, a lack of municipal foresight, and outright institutional racism. Read more on Vox: And see before-and-after maps of how highways changed cities like Cincinnati, Detroit, and Minneapolis: is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what’s really driving the events in the headlines. Check out Check out our full video catalog: Follow Vox on Twitter: Or on Facebook: