Even while stuck in traffic, many people don't give the freeways they drive a
second thought.
But they always fascinated Eric Slotboom.
"Freeways are one of the most influential factors in our way of life. We have
two of the world's most impressive freeway systems right here in Texas --
Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth," muses Slotboom.
Northwest Freeway (US
290) at the Beltway 8 interchange/(E. Slotboom)
|
When the tech bubble burst in Austin, the computer programmer switched from
writing code to writing a book.
He looked to his hometown for inspiration, and Houston Freeways is the
end product.
The project began when he discovered the gold mine of historical highway photos
in the Texas Department of Transportation archive library. He scanned the
photos and put them online at TexasFreeway.com in 2000.
The site features historical photos from around Texas, focusing on Houston,
Dallas-Fort Worth, and Austin.
Plans for a book took off when Slotboom got laid off in 2001.
With the time to devote to highway history, Slotboom began researching the
concrete behemoths of the Bayou City.
But he did not have to go back home to get the job done.
Southbound IH
45./(E. Slotboom)
|
"I wrote just about all of the book while riding out the high-tech bust in
Austin. In fact, about a third of the research material for the book is located
in Austin, including TxDOT, government agency archives, and the UT libraries,"
says Slotboom.
"The actual writing was the most difficult part. For a techie like me, trying to
take the history of freeways and make it into an interesting story was
certainly a challenge. Fortunately, there is a surprisingly large amount of
fascinating history behind Houston's freeways, and that made the job easier,"
he adds.
Coming in at a whopping 416 pages, with 526 illustrations, Houston Freeways
was finished this year.
The book concludes that Houston is the world's most freeway-influenced city,
even more so than Los Angeles.
To check out more than 100 photos and see thumbnails for the entire book, visit
www.Houstonfreeways.com.
To see five decades of photos from Austin's highway history,
click here.
