MINNEAPOLIS: I-35W CONSTRUCTION

I-35W cuts north towards Downtown through Old Southside and Powderhorn Park, the neighborhood where George Floyd was murdered last spring. From the @umntwincities: "Construction began on the I-35W corridor in South Minneapolis in 1959 when the Minnesota Department of Highways began demolishing more than 50 square blocks of homes and businesses. Planners and engineers decided the route the freeway would take. Residents in the area were not involved in the decision making process and “policy makers ignored the existence of an integrated neighborhood/community during their planning”. I-35W plowed through the heart of the Southside black community. Residents of the area later interviewed said that the design of Interstate 35W, including the design and location of entrance ramps, exit ramps, and bridges significantly "split and divided the community" and that “the routing had the cumulative effect of segregating the schools and creating a barrier between those on the east and west sides of the freeway.”

The last two images are a clipping from the Minneapolis Morning Tribune on November 11, 1962. The first image is the clipping itself and the second has an overlay of the eventual freeway route.