Now is our chance to fix Baltimore’s ‘Highway to Nowhere’

For decades, the stretch of roadway known as the Highway to Nowhere has split West Baltimore in half. Its origins date back to the 1950s, when the Federal-Aid Highway Act incentivized towns and cities across America to build out the growing interstate highway system. With federal highway funds nearly guaranteed, and later secured, Baltimore officials moved forward with a plan to link Interstate 70 and Interstate 95 with a crosstown expressway. Project leaders broke ground on the west side of the city and bulldozed through Black neighborhoods to make room for the new highway — razing 971 homes, destroying 62 businesses, and displacing 1,500 residents.