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I-90 Freeway (#39)

In the early 1960s, the State Highway Department proposed a plan for 15 freeways across Seattle, the densest system of highways in the world. After witnessing the consequences of constructing the 1-5, Seattleites decided that enough was enough, and the Seattle Freeway Revolt, a grassroots, city-wide coalition, was created. After years of organizing, the activists succeeded. Seattle residents voted in 1972 to block the R.H. Thomson Expressway and the Bay Freeway and to significantly scale back the I-90 bridge—saving thousands of homes, small businesses, and parks.