Earlier this month, I brought over the feature I did on the Wil-Cox Bridge
on the old website to the blog. The seven arch concrete open-spandrel
bridge opened in 1924 and was a key piece of the Central Highway.
Recently, Ben Thurkill sent along a handful of photos from the bridge's
1924 opening. The five photos below are part of the NCDOT archives.
There are many examples around the United States of proposed freeway corridors in urban areas that never saw the light of day for one reason or another. They all fall somewhere in between the little-known and the infamous and from the mundane to the spectacular. One of the more obscure and interesting examples of such a project is the short-lived idea to construct a southern beltway for the New Orleans metropolitan area in the 1960s and 70s. Greater New Orleans and its surrounding area grew rapidly in the years after World War II, as suburban sprawl encroached on the historically rural downriver parishes around the city. In response to the development of the region’s Westbank and the emergence of communities in St. Charles and St. John the Baptist Parishes as viable suburban communities during this period, regional planners began to consider concepts for new infrastructure projects to serve this growing population. The idea for a circular freeway around the southern perimeter of t
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