Lower Manhattan Expressway
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The Lower Manhattan Expressway (also known as the Canal Street Expressway or LOMEX) was a controversial plan for an expressway through lower Manhattan conceptualized by master builder Robert Moses in the early 1960s. It was to be an eight-lane elevated highway, stretching from the East River to the Hudson River, connecting the Holland Tunnel on the west side to the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges to the east. By 1961, Moses had set in motion two immense federal initiatives, which would have leveled fourteen blocks along Broome Street in SoHo. The highway would have required thousands of historic structures to be condemned, and would have displaced nearly 10,000 residents and workers.
Members of the affected communities, led by community activist Jane Jacobs, banded together to fight the expressway. They held rallies, staged demonstrations and attended hearings to block the expressway at every step of the process. On December 11, 1962, there was a special executive session of the New York City Board of Estimate on the second floor of New York City Hall, where city officials voted unanimously to block the planned expressway. Assemblyman Louis DeSalvio said in a speech:
- "Except for one old man, I’ve been unable to find anyone of technical competence who is for this so-called expressway. And this old man is a cantankerous, stubborn old man who has done many things which may have, in their time, been good for New York City. But I think it is time for this stubborn old man to realize that too many of his dreams turn out to be nightmares for the city. And this board must realize that if it does not kill this stupid example of bad city planning, that the stench of it will haunt them and this great city for many years to come."
The final plan, approved by the Board of Estimate on September 15, 1960, would have cost over $80,000,000, later rising to $100,000,000. It would be mostly elevated, with the spur to the Williamsburg Bridge mostly depressed, passing under Chrystie Street and the Chrystie Street Connection of the New York City Subway. The short section directly under Chrystie Street, with its south edge aligned with the north edge of Broome Street, was actually built; the low bid of $1,017,585 was accepted on January 26, 1961 for this 156-foot (48-meter) section, and the road was completed in January 1964.
The route from the Holland Tunnel to the Williamsburg Bridge was planned as part of Interstate 78, and the main line from the split to the Manhattan Bridge was to be Interstate 478 (later assigned to the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel and West Side Highway).
Robert Moses planned to build other expressways through Manhattan, most of which were never constructed as planned. The Mid-Manhattan Expressway would have been an elevated highway running above 30th Street. The Cross Harlem Expressway would have run at ground level at 125th Street. The Trans-Manhattan Expressway, the only one of Moses's planned Manhattan expressways ever constructed, connecting the George Washington Bridge with the Cross-Bronx Expressway, was completed in 1962.
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- State Presses City on Starting Lower Manhattan Expressway, The New York Times, December 26, 1960, page 1.
- City Link Gets Start, The New York Times, January 27, 1961, page 13.
- Verrazano Link Will Open on S.I., The New York Times, January 27, 1964, page 25.
