West Side Elevated Highway
The West Side Elevated Highway (West Side Highway or Miller Highway, named for Julius Miller, Manhattan borough president from 1922 to 1930) was an elevated section of New York State Route 9A (NY 9A) running along the Hudson River in the New York City borough of Manhattan to the tip of the island. It was an elevated highway, one of the first urban freeways in the world, and served as a prototype for urban freeways elsewhere, including Boston's Central Artery.

Built between 1929 and 1951, the highway had narrow confines—which could not accommodate trucks—and sharp S exit ramps that made it obsolete almost immediately. Maintenance was minimal, and the use of corrosive salts to de-ice the highway in winter accelerated its decay. When chunks of its facade began to fall off due to lack of maintenance, and a truck and car fell through it at 14th Street in 1973, the highway was shut down, and a debate began whether to renovate it or dismantle it. Attitudes to urban planning had changed in the intervening decades, and the decision was made not to repair the decaying structure.

The need to replace the deteriorating highway was recognized in the 1950s. Plans were drafted, but not executed. By 1971, a plan evolved for the elevated highway to be replaced by an underground interstate-quality highway, which came to be called Westway. It received approval from many levels of government, from the city to the federal, but was scuttled in 1985 owing to environmental issues. In the time between the closure of the elevated highway and the completion of its dismantling, while debate about Westway was proceeding, remaining sections of the old highway structure began to be unofficially utilized as an elevated urban park, for jogging and bicycling.

By 1989, the old elevated highway structure was totally dismantled except for a small portion from 59th Street to 72nd Street, which, in effect, became the southern extension of the Henry Hudson Parkway. Eventually, a grade-level six lane "urban boulevard" was built, which is generally referred to as the West Side Highway, although the elements of it use the names of the surface streets which existed before the elevated highway was built: West Street, Eleventh Avenue and Twelfth Avenue. It connects to the remaining elevated structure via a ramp at 57th Street.
Q6309965
Julius Miller
PER
Q4946327
borough president
PER
Q2485904
New York State Route 9A
LOC
Q3140
Hudson River
LOC
Q60
New York City
LOC
Q408804
borough
LOC
Q11299
Manhattan
LOC
Q25325210
elevated highway
Concept
Q46622
freeway
Concept
Q100
Boston
LOC
Q2454390
Central Artery
LOC
Q1434081
de-ice
Concept
Q191013
14th Street
LOC
Q69883
urban planning
Concept
Q130424
Westway
LOC
Q22746
urban park
LOC
Q245364
59th Street
LOC
Q264022
72nd Street
LOC
Q2487838
Henry Hudson Parkway
LOC
Q54114
urban boulevard
Concept
Q130424
West Side Highway
LOC
Q130424
West Street
LOC
Q130405
Eleventh Avenue
LOC
Q130424
Twelfth Avenue
LOC
Q2711129
57th Street
LOC
Q7986503
West Side Elevated Highway
LOC
1922-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1922
DATE
1930-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1930
DATE
1929-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1929
DATE
1951-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1951
DATE
1973-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1973
DATE
1950-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1950
DATE
1971-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1971
DATE
1985-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1985
DATE
1989-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1989
DATE
+9^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
9
NUMBER
+9^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
9
NUMBER
+14^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
14
NUMBER
+59^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
59
NUMBER
+72^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
72
NUMBER
+57^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
57
NUMBER
applies to jurisdiction
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located in or next to body of water
located in the administrative territorial entity
located in the administrative territorial entity
located in or next to body of water
instance of
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