Planned in the 1920s to ease New York’s traffic hell, the West Side Express Highway opened in various stages beginning in 1930. Also known as the Miller Elevated, it stretched from downtown to 72nd Street.
It looks pretty and spotless in this 1930 postcard. By the 1960s, it was rusted out and in disrepair, and huge chunks occasionally fell onto the streets beneath it. Wisely, the city tore it down in the 1970s and 1980s.
Tags: elevated highway West Side Manhattan, highways in New York City, Miller Elevated, New York City traffic, tearing down the West Side Highway, West Side Express Highway, West Side Highway construction
Ephemeral New York 
July 28, 2009 at 11:56 am |
ummm, you can’t really mention the WSH (9A) without talking about Mister Moses and Westway, to name just two items.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Side_Highway
June 8, 2010 at 1:45 am |
Also, your picture doesn’t show the elevated highway at all. It shows the Henry Hudson Parkway in Riverside Park. The style of the continuous roadway changed abruptly at 72nd Street, and again at 59th Street.
After a short section collapsed, the highway was off limits to cars but not to strolling pedestrians, runners and bikers. It was the Highline Park of its day, until the city tore it down.