THE DISRUPTIVE

H IGHWAY

ITTERAL
VO N L
DE
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Forest Park Parkway cutting
through the northeast end of
Forest Park, November 2017.

ST. LOUIS,
HOME OF
THE NATIONS’
FIRST INTERST
THE DISRUPTIVE HIGHWAY 4
TATE THE DISRUPTIVE HIGHWAY 5
ST. LOUIS
HAS 1,180 MILES
OF INTERSTATE
WITHIN CITY
LIMITS

THE DISRUPTIVE HIGHWAY 6

 Forest Park Parkway and the
MetroLink cutting through the
northeast end of Forest Park,
St. Louis, November 2017.

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UP TO 175,000 VEHICLES
DRIVE ON ST. LOUIS
HIGHWAYS EVERY DAY

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EVERY MILE OF
ST. LOUIS HIGHWAY
REQUIRES 21,000
CUBIC YARDS
OF CEMENT

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 Underneath Interstate 270, Gratiot
Street and Lombard Street St. Louis,
November 2017.

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ST. LOUIS IS HOM
24.7 MILLION CU
OF INTERSTATE
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ME TO
UBIC YARDS
CEMENT THE DISRUPTIVE HIGHWAY 13
St. Agatha’s Catholic
Church and Interstate 64,
St. Louis, November 2017.

THE DISRUPTIVE HIGHWAY 14

NATIONWIDE,
OVER 475,000
HOUSEHOLDS
WERE DISPLACED
TO MAKE WAY
FOR THE
INTERSTATE
SYSTEM

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THE
DISRUP
HIGHW
a photographic study of the st. louis intersta
 PTIVE
WAY
ate system
MISSOURI ROADS BEFORE THE INTERSTATE SYSTEM
When the Missouri State Highway Department
was created in 1921, the state’s roads were in
poor condition. Each county built and main-
tained its own road system, leading to a jumbled,
uncoordinated tangle of highways that made it
extremely difficult to drive across the state. The
highway department immediately set out to im-
prove this situation by paving as many roads as
possible and by constructing highways to link all
of Missouri’s county seats. Some of these early
roads became part of America’s first cross-coun-
try highway system. In 1926, the federal
government laid out a grid of highways that ran
between the individual states. These roads were
designated as United States highways, but no
federal funding was included for their construc-
tion or improvement.
In Missouri, several routes were given
new names as part of this program. For example,
Missouri State Highway Number 2 was renamed
Forest Park
Parkway and
Forest Park,
November
2017.
U.S. Route 40, and Missouri State Highway
Number 14 became U.S. Route 66. These roads
allowed drivers to travel beyond the state’s bor-
ders, but they were not modern superhighways.
Instead, these early “interstate” roads were
usually 18-feet wide with minimal shoulders.
These roads also followed local topography,
making them a hilly, winding challenge for Mis-
souri drivers. Deadly accidents were common
on these roads. For example, some stretches of
Route 66 within Missouri were referred to locally
as “Bloody 66” for the large number of fatali-
ties that occurred. Clearly Missouri needed to
improve its highways to carry increasing loads of
traffic. In the late 1950s, the federal govern-
ment stepped forward to help build a national
system of superhighways that offered hope for
quicker, safer travel.
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St. Agatha’s Catholic
Church and Interstate 64,
St. Louis, November 2017.
BUILDING THE RURAL INTERSTATES
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the
Missouri State Highway Department began
to build interstate highways throughout rural
Missouri. The initial projects chosen by the
department for interstate upgrades were the
major highways between Missouri’s three
largest urban centers - St. Louis, Kansas City
and Springfield. Although U.S. Highways 40
and 66 already connected these cities, the
older roadways did not meet the standards of
the interstate system. The interstate system
called for fully controlled access, meaning
that vehicles could enter the road only at
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designated interchanges. In addition, federal
rules called for the interstate highways to
feature two 12-foot driving lanes in each
direction divided by a median at least 36-feet
wide. Route 66 and Route 40 needed to be
expanded to meet these new standards, and
the work proved to be challenging for Missou-
ri’s highway designers and engineers.
When the interstate system was
built, the project reflected a new road building
philosophy. Highways built in the first half of
the 20th century usually followed the lay of
the land, and roadways were often curvy, hilly
challenges for drivers attempting to cross the
nation. Interstate highways, in contrast, were
to be smooth, straight expressways designed
for unimpeded high-speed travel.
To meet the need for high-speed traffic
movement, highway builders had to overcome
the challenges of Missouri’s varied topography.
Constructing a divided highway to rigid federal
standards through rough Ozarkian terrain meant
that hills had to be leveled, valleys filled in
and scores of bridges and culverts built across
Missouri’s numerous waterways. Fortunately,
Missouri’s road builders were ready to face
this construction challenge. The department
had already built a divided highway through a
mountain in the early 1940s when it constructed
Hooker Cut along Route 66 in Pulaski County.
New equipment developed just for the con-
struction of interstate highways, such as huge
scrapers, and earthmovers were turned loose,
and soon the path was clear for concrete to be
laid across the countryside. Construction of rural
interstates ultimately proved to be the largest
earthmoving project ever, with more than 42
billion cubic yards of earth moved to make way
for the interstate system.
Although Missouri’s drivers were excit-
ed about having high-speed interstate highways
link their largest cities, many rural Missourians
were less enthusiastic about the impacts that
the interstate system would have upon their
Forest Park Parkway and
apartment buildings in St.
Louis , November 2017.
lives. Missouri’s rural interstates were built right
through the countryside, often taking land from
farms that had been in families for generations.
Farmers were not happy to have a ribbon of
concrete cut through their property, and many
refused to sell right of way for interstate projects.
In addition, rural residents objected to losing
immediate access to Missouri’s highway sys-
tems. Farmers were used to being able to drive
onto highways at any point along the road, and
they disliked having to drive on frontage roads or
side roads to access the interstate system. The
interstates were designed to carry traffic across
the state quickly and efficiently, and the farmers’
needs for easy highway access did not enter into
the equation.
Finally, many rural residents saw the
interstates as a threat to the economic survival
of Missouri’s small towns. U.S. highways often
passed directly through such towns, and many
service industries sprang up to serve travel-
ers. The interstate system, however, usually
bypassed small towns, carrying traffic away from
them. Businesses in small towns lost a signif-
icant portion of their potential customer base,
leading to widespread economic decline. In
the long run, all Missourians benefited from the
interstate system, but when it was built, many
rural residents saw it as a disaster for their local
community and a threat to their survival.
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Forest Park Parkway and the
MetroLink cutting through the
northeast end of Forest Park, St.
Louis, November 2017.

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 Forest Park Parkway cutting through
the northeast end of Forest Park, St.
THELouis,
DISRUPTIVE
November 2017. 27
HIGHWAY
BUILDING THE URBAN INTERSTATES
By the late 1960s, work was almost complete
on Missouri’s primary rural interstates, I-70
and I-44. Additional rural interstate work would
continue up into the 1980s on other key routes
such as I-29, I-35, I-55 and I-57. However, in
the early 1960s the highway department turned
its attention to accomplishing another task,
building interstate beltways to ease traffic in
Missouri’s major urban centers. Although the
interstate system was officially created as a
way to promote quick, efficient cross-country
travel, the system was also to feature beltways
and loops around and through America’s major
cities to help ease traffic conditions for com-
muters in urban and suburban areas. Even
before the highway department began to build
the interstates, local governments in St. Louis
and Kansas City had constructed several urban
expressways, and these expressways were often
integrated into the interstate system.
Work on Missouri’s urban interstates
continued throughout the 1970s and 1980s,
and many suburban residents welcomed these
new roads with open arms as they made it
easier to commute between their homes and
their jobs. City planners also welcomed the in-
terstates in St. Louis and Kansas City, believing
that they would spark the renewal of depressed
downtown and central city neighborhoods.
However, construction of the interstates through
Missouri’s cities often led to the demolition of
historic buildings. One example of this oc-
curred in St. Joseph when construction of I-229
destroyed several historic buildings and districts,
including segments of the historic Robidoux
Row. Historic buildings were also leveled in
Kansas City’s Quality Hill neighborhood to make
way for new interstate highways, becoming part
of Missouri’s history that had to be sacrificed to
make way for the interstate system.
In addition, the construction of urban
interstate highways frequently led to the destruc-
tion of vibrant, working-class neighborhoods
in both St. Louis and Kansas City. Interstate
construction disproportionately affected poor,
ethnic residents in urban areas. Highway
planners wanted to keep costs low, so they
designed roads that went through depressed
neighborhoods where property values were
low and right of way could be acquired cheaply.
Thus, minority neighborhoods were often split by
interstate highway projects, and many local res-
idents lost their homes to highway construction.
Urban residents complained as new highways
ripped apart their neighborhoods, leading some
to conclude that interstates were the “white
men’s roads through black men’s homes.” An-
ger over the destruction of local neighborhoods
eventually led to a lawsuit against the Missouri
State Highway Department claiming that de-
partment officials deliberately built highways in
Kansas City to guarantee racial segregation in
local schools and to ensure that the economic
burdens would fall primarily on black residents.
Although the lawsuit was dismissed, racial and
economic justice issues continued to haunt the
department throughout construction.
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Saint Mary of Victories Catholic
Church, St. Louis, November 2017.

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THE DISRUPTIVE HIGHWAY 33
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Roll Call newspaper, a publication contain-
ing Congressional news and information,
recently printed an article listing the 10 most
important pieces of legislation during the
past half-century. Fourth on the list was the
Federal-Aid Highway Act passed in 1956.
In listing the bill among the top 10,
the newspaper said, “Its title is obscure, but
its impact is not: The act created the Inter-
state Highway System, which touched virtually
every aspect of American life in the past 50
years. Faster roads intensified economic
growth, boosted domestic tourism and made
possible just-in-time manufacturing processes.
Interstates also produced suburbanization,
which dramatically changed lifestyles (more
space, but longer commutes), drove down-
towns into decline and led to the development
of previously empty land. Population shifted to
the Sun Belt, changing the nation’s political bal-
ance. And the Interstates irreversibly solidified
the primacy of the automobile, worsening air
THE DISRUPTIVE HIGHWAY 34
pollution and climate change and cementing
the strategic importance of the Middle East.”
Missouri’s interstate system has
been a significant player in the transportation
arena and an important contributor to the
nation’s technological, economical and social
advances. While the interstates have been
both a boon and a bust for business, they con-
tinue to be an important facet of Missouri’s
economy, social well-being and recreation and
tourism industries.
But problems loom. We have not
provided the necessary resources to keep our
interstate infrastructure in optimum condition,
causing congestion, injuries and fatalities
and economic loss. We’re at a crossroads,
requiring critical decisions to be made. Do we
continue with the status quo and risk losing
the benefits generated by our interstates or do
we step up to the plate to invest in a system
that will keep Missouri and the nation growing
in a positive direction for years to come?
Left: Forest Park
Parkway and the
MetroLink cutting
through the north-
east end of Forest
Park, St. Louis,
November 2017.

Right: Saint Mary

of Victories Catholic
Church, St. Louis,
November 2017.
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The font used is Franklin Gothic URW.
The body text used is from the Missouri Department of
Transportation website.

This book was made by Devon Litteral for the Content to

Cover class at Washington University in St. Louis Sam
Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.
All photography © Devon Litteral 2017.