Meanwhile, the Interstate Highway System, authorized in 1956, was said to be the largest public works project ever undertaken. Expressways destroyed black neighborhoods in cities like Syracuse, Baltimore, and Detroit. To the disappointment of some local officials, the big roads were not accompanied by federally funded parking garages, but they did entrench downtown’s dependence on suburban drivers, and the ruined properties alongside freeway trenches were soon torn down to make easy money parking cars. Federal spending subsidized driving, while cities scrambled to raise enough money to operate
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