Desolate towns

[PandaBear]

Wow, that's an awful lot of underutilized parking spaces.

I'm sure if you went to many areas in China, you'd observe the inverse of what's happened in those pics.
...and that my friends is where all of our resources, money and growth gets allocated to - thanks to globalization and greed.

You see that in China too on the so called lower tier cities or rural towns. Many moved to bigger cities for opportunities and older villages and bankrupted real estate development in boomtown went bust were left with old people raising grandchildren for the parents working in big cities.

 

[Allaneddie]

How far away from Centralia was your town?

Centralia is much farther east and the coal there is anthracite, not the bituminous coal in the area (Cambria County) I am from. Much of that bituminious coal was used by Bethlehem Steel to make coke for steel making. The mills in Johnstown, Pittsburgh etc are largely gone. Anyway, the towns are shrinking because of lack of jobs and income. Very pretty, hilly country on the Alleggheny Plateau/

 

[fdcg27]

If you happen to find yourself in Cincinnati and need to drive to Cleveland, spend all or at least a part of your trip on Rt 42.
Lots of small towns that really are time capsules from at least fifty years ago.
Not much employment in these places, although there are those who move to these places because housing is dirt cheap and they can bear the commute to a decent job somewhere else.
A lot of these little towns are surprisingly accessible from the larger urban areas and there are factories and warehouses that offer decent pay in some parts of the countryside.

 

[bbhero]

That wasn't the original plan. I395 would have been I95 and go through DC were it not for Marion Barry.

Ahh I understand that…

I remember thinking as a 5 year old kid it was very odd how that was in Washington.

 

[The Artillerist]

Somewhere in NYC:

 

[mk378]

That wasn't the original plan. I395 would have been I95 and go through DC were it not for Marion Barry.

Capital Beltway (495) was completed in 1961. The eastern side of the loop was always a shared road with I95 and the route to Baltimore and places north. The 395 "spur" into the city joined the existing Baltimore-Washington Parkway, which was not built or improved to Interstate standards.

Marion Barry did not live in the DC area before 1965. His first elected office (School Board member) was 1971.

 

[brianl703]

Capital Beltway (495) was completed in 1961. The eastern side of the loop was always a shared road with I95 and the route to Baltimore and places north. The 395 "spur" into the city joined the existing Baltimore-Washington Parkway, which was not built or improved to Interstate standards.

Marion Barry did not live in the DC area before 1965. His first elected office (School Board member) was 1971.

Allow me to quote the Wikipedia page about I395:

Interstate Highway through Washington DC[edit]​

Original plans called for I-95 to travel through Washington DC and Prince George's County, Maryland, toward the northeastern portion of the Capital Beltway, from which I-95 presently continues its northbound route. However, neighborhood opposition in DC halted this plan in 1977, diverting planned funding toward construction of the Washington Metro. The only remnant of the Maryland extension is a series of ramp stubs near College Park, which now lead to a park and ride. The portion of I-95 within the beltway became I-395, while the eastern half of the beltway was redesignated I-95 (and, later, cosigned I-95/I-495). I-395 terminates in Washington DC at a traffic signal at US 50, which is New York Avenue, near Mount Vernon Square.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_395_(Virginia–District_of_Columbia)

Here is a link to some of the anti-freeway activism that Marion Barry was associated with:

https://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2007/11/ectc-1970.html

Finally, here's what Scott M. Kozel says about I395.

I-95 in Virginia inside the I-495 Capital Beltway was redesignated as I-395 in 1977 because of the rerouting of I-95 to the eastern half of the Capital Beltway. This was done because of the cancellation of proposed I-95 from New York Avenue in D.C. northward into Prince George's County to I-495.

(Scott M. Kozel has a website with extensive history about Virginia, Maryland, and DC highways).

http://www.roadstothefuture.com/I395_VA_Desc.html

 

[The Artillerist]

The amount of people is impressive. Trams added —not subtracted — to the overall picture too:

1940, somewhere in Washington DC