Promotional film from the New York State Thruway Authority touts the benefits that the Thruway and accompanying highway construction projects will have for Binghamton. Identifier: NYSA_14512-91_mpf16_1951-aa-aa Date: 1951
120,000 industrial worksers. Wow. What a change (for the worse.) How we've gone from the world's greatest industrial power to a "consumer" nation in 60 years is a tragedy.
Obviously this was made before the Interstate Highway System was designed. The federal program supplanted this idea, so Interstates 81, 88, and future 86 are portions of what was planned at the time this video was made.
@sideswipe091976 Pardon? Look closely: that's not the old Owego 96 bridge (which used to carry 17), that's the Washington Street Bridge at the confluence and the Riverside Drive Bridge, complete with old-style NY 17 trailblazer
120,000 workers at those plants?! assuming that each employee at those plants had a family with the average household size of 5 people, binghamton looked like it had a population of 600,000!
Someone correct me if I am wrong but I think that the original plan was to make I-81 part of the Thruway system and thus, a toll road. How about those shots of the Thruway with soft shoulders? Any roadgeeks have any idea which interchange that is shown?
I have often wondered how many homes/businesses were torn down to create the path for the highway system. Streets were divided by the highway, leaving two streets with the same name throughout the city (and sadly, those neighborhoods went to shambles) Does anyone know of readily available overhead maps or pictures prior to the highway?
It is too bad that the Thruway never came through the Triple Cities, as they could have used the industry that it would have brought, and as it did not, Binghamton has all but died!
