Driving Home: How Highways Destroyed Cincinnati

In a collection of aerial photos comparing Cincinnati in the 1950s and today, one can see the disastrous effect that the nation's highway building frenzy had on the city's urban fabric.

1 minute read

August 30, 2013, 11:00 AM PDT

By Jonathan Nettler @nettsj


Across the United States, the post-war rush to build a national network of highways had a profound impact on the country's urban and rural landscapes. At the same time that they were facilitating the growth of the suburbs, urban highways were destroying long-standing, often minority, neighborhoods - a wound from which many cities are still trying to recover.

With stunning before and after photographs of Cincinnati's West End and the area around Union Terminal, Aaron M. Renn shows just how much was lost when the city chose to plan for cars instead of people.   

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