10 Streets that Changed America
 

https://www.curbed.com/2018/7/5/1753...reets-wilshire

This is not a "who's on top" thread. The new show does not "rate" the streets; it talks about how they each changed city life in one way or another. See the link for more info.

What do you think? Other important streets that somehow changed cities?

Eight Mile Road in Detroit also comes to mind. Most people know it from the movie (8 Mile), but it has a couple of other more profound legacies. First, it is the baseline from which the state of Michigan is measured. Second, it is also the baseline that establishes the border between Illinois and Wisconsin (8 Mile Road is almost directly in line with the border of those states). Third, it has been shorthand for the frontline of the urban-suburban turf wars of Detroit, and urban sprawl, in the second half of the 20th century.

I saw this. It’s silly. They’re mixing concepts and seem to be deliberately striving for regional balance.

Shakedown street - it used to be the heart of town.

Unlike you, I plan to reserve judgement until I watch the show. But what "concepts" are they mixing? A street can certainly change a city or cities in many different ways. The only "concept" is roads that changed things. Finally, I doubt the producers of the show would deny there could be other choices but it's TV--time is limited, apparently to 10.

So people can suggest others, and to alert people to the show, is the reason for the thread.

I know one road that certainly changed things for me: I-95. I actually remember driving from Washington to Florida without the interstates. Mostly we used US 301 as I recall. Quite a slog.

But the Interstate system--all of it--radically changed cities when it produced "beltways" or circumferential highways linking suburbs in a ring around cities. It used to be, and I also remember it, that if you wanted to go from suburban Maryland, say to suburban Virginia, you went through downtown DC. Now that would be crazy.

I would guess Route 66 mentioned or not? What about old Florida route 41?


But Kalamazoo mall, Greenwood Avenue (Tulsa, Oklahoma), over Michigan Ave, or Rodeo drive La, Height and Ashbury ?

I like this series. The other episodes have been pretty good.

I'm surprised that Route 66 isn't on the list, but I bet they went with Lincoln Highway because it kind of predates the Mother Road.

I was going to say that they need the first paved road in the US on there, but they have Woodward Avenue. Of course, there's a road in Bellefontaine, Ohio, that claims to be the first paved road or something.

I would actually put the DuPont Highway in Delaware on the list. It has quite a few significant firsts: first divided highway section in the world; first bypass in the world; first center line in the US (maybe the world); first place where roadside stands popped up.

But the list isn't much about prestige as it is about how they changed or reflected how cities were built. Greenwood and Kalamazoo is very relevant in that respect.

You beat me to it. Route 66.

Keeping with the theme I’d also nominate US 1 on the east coast and the PCH on the west coast.

Also, what about the old wagon trails? Some of those routes are basically modern day treks that we don’t even thing about.

The old Mormon trail is basically the 15 Freeway from L.A. to Salt Lake City.

E] sticking to cities: Harbor Freeway is another nomination. It paved the way for other American cities to copy in many ways.
E2] the Donner pass [party] and the 80 freeway today — I had to dig way deep to 8th grade memories for that one.

Well Wilshire Blvd. was originally a migratory path for Wooly Mammoths, which then was used by natives, then wagons, and now cars.

99e was the first paved rout in the west. it was completely paved from the Columbia to the California border by 1923. now its mostly i5. 99e is known for being a bad road around the oregon city area. i used to live by it and theres always deaths.

Are you referring to the tar pits? Stuff like that is amazing.

I have marveled at and in some cases assumed that some really old U.S. highway routes through steep passes followed game routes.

Where's Las Vegas Blvd.? Where's Ocean Drive?

Many roads around here are or are based on old Indian trails and farm roads/rural routes, which explains why they circle around and into each other and dead end, nor do they make much sense aside from Central Houston's freeway system. It's not hard to get lost around here.

The Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi follows a route traveled by Native Americans and 19th century settlers. I believe it originally followed paths created by large game animals. Prehistoric settlements were founded along the trail.

One is an early colonial post road, another is meant to be significant to race relations in the 1920s. In some cases the road itself was significant (to commerce, communication, etc), in others its being used as symbol of some broader socio-cultural shift. Apples vs oranges.

Where’s whatever road there is in Jacksonville?

;)

^
They didn't want the list to be 10 roads from Jacksonville so they had to exclude it.

Okay, so they're looking at American history through the lens of streets and roads. This isn't a nation of grand parks and central plazas, really... our most significant public spaces are roads. Even Times Square isn't really a square but a quirk in Manhattan's layout that produced an open space, up until a few years ago it was almost entirely traffic lanes. If your perspective is not streets as "transportation history" but streets as "public spaces" than inclusions like Greenwood Avenue make sense, as it represents a trend of the oppressed black minority starting to create their own public spaces and then being violently quashed. The history of black public life was not confined behind the property lines of Greenwood Avenue but spilled out onto the sidewalks and pavements.

The Boston Post Road is likely used as an explication of the Constitution's Article I, Section 8 that the Federal government shall have the ability to establish post roads. This gradually was construed to mean all roads, even those that did not have a primarily mail-related purpose, and later become the basis of the Federal government's creation of the [Numbered] Highway System and the Interstate Highway System.

The Lincoln Highway is significant as the first organized, designated route from coast to coast, created mostly by a group of local boosters in towns and cities along the route. It represents the Good Roads Movement that transformed America to an automobile-friendly place from a nation of bumpy cobbled streets in town and rutted dirt tracks in the country.

Also not sure why no interstates, or other grade separated routes like parkways are included. Maybe that stretched the definition of "street" too far.