Don’t it always seem to go,
That you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone?
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.
Big Yellow Taxi – Joni Mitchell
In keeping with the spirit of my last post, I’d like to once again delve into the history of Atlanta. This time with something that could have changed some of the most vibrant parts of the city forever.
Atlanta is world renowned for its traffic. It’s up there with New York and LA, sometimes even worse. Back in the 70′s and 80′s, the solution to traffic was just to build more and bigger freeways. A simple cruise down I-85 from I-285 on the the top end to the bottom end will sufficiently demonstrate that. With so many Atlantans moving out to the suburbs yet still working in town, the proposed solution was to build new freeway arteries to ease the flow of traffic into town. This is the story of the three most notorious proposed projects.
I-420
I-420 (Also called GA-166) is sort of an oddball proposition in today’s terms. It was slated to begin in Douglasville, run south of I-20 into Atlanta and intersect with the Downtown Connector. It would then run from the connector and intersect I-20 East somewhere near Gresham Rd. This project was eventually canceled, because quite frankly, it was pointless. The section of the proposed freeway running between I-285 and the Connector was already planned and it became know as Lakewood Freeway (now Langford Parkway). This relieved most of the traffic issues on that side of town. The entire project, minus the Lakewood Freeway portion, was scrapped in 1983.
Here’s a map from 1981 of the eastern end of the project I was able to find. Notice how I-675 is slated to connect to the proposed I-420. We’ll get to that in a moment.
I-420 eastern portion
I-485 East/West (GA-410)
This is where shit gets weird. I-485 had two proposed segments; one running east/west and one running north/south. If these had been built, Atlanta would be a very different place.
Think back to your last visit to Stone Mountain Park. (I contend that if you’ve lived in Atlanta for any period of time and have never been to Stone Mountain, you’re probably a Carpetbagger and not worthy of my time. Rectify this.) You most likely traveled on US 78, also known as Stone Mountain Freeway. It’s a freeway, but it’s only like 4 miles long and it’s in such an odd spot. What’s the point in that?
Now, let’s say you’re leaving the Ted after another Braves victory and you’re heading north on the Connector. You need to get back to Decatur where you live, so the best route is to get off at Freedom Parkway and take Ponce De Leon Ave. to Decatur.
Freedom Parkway is about the oddest stretch of road you’ll ever drive on. It’s a full-fledged interchange that’s almost never crowded and seems way too complicated for its purpose. Combine this with Stone Mountain Freeway and what do you have? You guessed it, the beginning and ending of a freeway cutting through the Hwy. 78 Corridor east of Atlanta.
It’s nearly unthinkable to imagine a freeway cutting through this portion of town now, but the reality is, it mostly followed the old Seaboard Coastline Railway. It would have continued on where Stone Mountain Freeway ends today, cut through the property where North DeKalb Mall is located (although the mall was still in its prime when this plan was proposed), and follow Peachtree Creek until it reached the railroad tracks. It would follow the railroad tracks south across Ponce De Leon and then swing west running roughly parallel to Ponce through a heavily wooded area and clipping off the northern section of Candler Park.
Here’s where the story gets interesting. Right of way for the proposed freeway had already been purchased by the state for the portion west of Candler Park, and construction was underway. If you look at Atlanta on Google Maps, you’ll see a large X-shaped swath of green just east of Freedom Parkway that’s now known as Freedom Park. This was the route I-485 was to take to connect to I-75/85. In fact, the freeway was already under construction beginning at the Connector, before neighborhoods such as Druid Hills, Morningside, and Atkins Park were able to muster enough opposition to stop the project.
I-485 North/South (GA-400)
I have a hard time believing this section of I-485 ever even got off the ground. It was a proposed route to connect GA-400 with I-675. There would have been a large Spaghetti Junction type interchange in that are where Freedom Park is that I mentioned above.
Despite the fact that the area the freeway would have run through was far more blighted than it is now, bisecting these neighborhoods would have amounted to heresy in my eyes. Imagine the Virginia-Highlands or Grant Park today with a freeway running through them. Jenn, of Curiouser and Curiouser fame, used to live in a beautiful house on Greencove Avenue in the Virginia-Highlands. There’s a park across the street from her former house. Had they built this freeway, you’d have seen that freeway instead of the park.
I’m not one to fuss too much when the powers that be want to tear down a shanty town to run a freeway through or build a stadium, but shanty towns aren’t million dollar turn of the century homes. Thankfully, these neighborhoods were able band together and put up some real opposition. The entire project was permanently put out to pasture when Jimmy Carter put his Presidential Library right in the middle of the land purchased for the I-485 interchange where Freedom Park is now located. When the 1996 Olympics came to Atlanta, Freedom Parkway was finished and the remaining land was turned into Freedom Park.
Here are a couple more maps I found of the proposed routes and a Google Map with the entire proposed layout of both I-420 and I-485. The maps differ slightly so I did the best I could with the information I’ve gathered.
1972 Exxon map of I-485
1972 Map of I-485
View I-485/I-420 in a larger map
Freedom Parkway is an odd drive because it was a political compromise that achieved none of its original goals. It was and is a paradox, a road built in order to STOP a road being built.
But “a full-fledged interchange that’s almost never crowded”? I’m guessing you don’t drive it much. There is still a crying, desperate need for a way in and out of Atlanta on the east side: I-20 is too far south and I-85 is too far north.
Oops. I hit enter without saying it, so let me say it now: Great reading! You’ve found more information on the exact routes of these proposed roads than I’ve ever managed to do.
I think for clarity’s sake, I’ll refer to the second big north-south corridor as “I-675 / GA 400″: Had it been built, I’ve no doubt it would be known end-to-end by one of the two designations. Similarly, I’m sure the entirety of Lakewood/Campbellton Parkway would have been “I-420 / GA 166″.
As for the Stone Mountain Freeway, I suppose we would have been stuck with “I-485 / GA 410″ even though it violates interstate numbering standards (it would be unquestionably an east-west route, and thus should be a three-digit EVEN-numbered road, most likely I-220).
Thanks for the feedback! I’d previously made a Google Maps overlay, but it somehow disappeared from the post, so put it back in. Hopefully you can see it now.
The proposed 675/400/485 interchange would have been almost in my backyard. At the time all this was proposed, and considering the shape some of these neighborhoods were in, I can see how this might have seemed feasible. But now, I can only imagine the fallout from proposing a freeway through the E. Ponce Corridor, no matter how badly it’s needed.