The Embarcadero Freeway was possibly the worst piece of infrastructure in California history.
It limited access to the bay waters, hid the beautiful Ferry Building, and upset citizens across the peninsula. The San Francisco Chronicle even called it a "hideous monstrosity."
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The city's goal was to make it easier for motorists to get around.
Ultimately, the purpose of the Embarcadero Freeway was to connect the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge, allowing cars to easily exit the freeway and arrive downtown in minutes – or bypass the city entirely.
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Postwar America was on a concrete binge, and, terrifyingly, the freeway was only part of a larger car-infrastructure plan.
With California leading the way in concrete creations, San Francisco planed to build bisecting highways across the city.
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Hearing this, protesters across the city grew angry.
Their distress eventually peaked in a 200,000 person rally opposing the infrastructure plan, which would decimated Golden Gate Park. Folk singer Malvina Reynolds even wrote a song for the protest called "Cement Octopus."
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Eventually, the city gave in.
The Crosstown Tunnel, the Golden Gate Freeway and the Panhandle Freeway were all rejected by San Francisco. But the Embarcadero Freeway remained.
Despite all of the hard work, the battle waged on and protests continued for two more decades.
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Finally, in 1989, mother nature herself closed the freeway when the Loma Prieta earthquake struck.
Due to the damage incurred, fixing the freeway would cost as much as rebuilding it from scratch, so the Board of Supervisors narrowly voted to demolish it by a 6-5 margin.
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The official demolition began in February of 1991.
Since then, the Embarcadero has become a pedestrian's dream. Shops, parks, and benches litter the seaside. Take a walk along the promenade today and it's hard to believe a freeway ever scarred the air.
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Sydney has a similar problem with the Cahill Express way. A train road / structure that blocks the harbour from the city. Although not the same in that it’s not that bad it’s still has opponents who want it demolished.
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I’m torn on Cahill. On one hand, having the trains provide public transport with direct access to the water is great. On the other, you’re right. Despite being pretty manageable for pedestrians, the expressway is objectively ugly and the quay would be better off with it gone.
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We have the same monstrosity in Prague. Cutting through the whole city through the centre and creating a dead zone around it. Sad
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