In twentieth-century urban history, interstate highway construction is the third leg of urban disinvestment and redevelopment, along with redlining and urban renewal. But urban historians think about the interstate system differently than the broader public does. The lore of the interstate highway system is known far and wide, and it is often referred to as the world’s greatest public works project. Until quite recently, the legacy of racialized displacement has not garnered public attention and there has been no good way to assess the extent of the displacement.

This collaboration is working to bring the development and displacement of the interstate highway system into the public eye in two ways. First, it will survey the available archival resources and public data to enable a visualization project that makes the creation and displacement of the interstate system legible to the public. Second, it will help build and support a network of projects from the scholars and local advocates who are documenting the impact of the interstate highways in their own communities.

Connecting the Interstates is led by LaDale Winling, an associate professor of history at Virginia Tech, and Thaisa Way, the program director in garden and landscape studies at Dumbarton Oaks, as well as professor of landscape architecture at the University of Washington. They are assisted by Carmen Bolt, an oral and public historian and PhD student at American University.