Part 1, Pages 142-183
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In the world of the loop and radial freeway system, downtown is the center of the universe. Call it the hub. Houston’s eight spokes converging on downtown are just about the limit of what a downtown freeway interchange system can handle. But as space opens away from downtown, the next tier of six spokes takes root, mostly along Loop 610. Even the Beltway gives birth to a spoke. Houston’s system of spokes is one of the most extensive and well-balanced among the major cities in the United States.
 
The Gulf Freeway launched Houston into the freeway era on September 30, 1948. As the history of the Gulf Freeway unfolded, it became a classic story of the rise of the American urban freeway and the myriad of issues that would accompany it. Intertwined in the story of the Gulf Freeway is the demise of the urban electric railway, the unprecedented demand for new freeways in the postwar era, huge suburban development, malls, traffic jams, the development of better freeways, urban protest, and the never-ending battle to catch up to demand. The newly dedicated Gulf Freeway was ahead of its time, yet it couldn’t keep up with the times. It would be brought into the modern era, not just once, but twice.
 
 
With the freeway now in service, it quickly became apparent that something was missing: the freeway had no name. Press reports called it the Interurban Expressway, referring to the Galveston-Houston interurban railway that previously occupied the corridor. Mayor Holcombe quickly took action to solve the problem and launched a contest to name the freeway. There was no shortage of suggestions. The six judges sifted through 86 pages with the 13,000 entries, and on December 17, 1948, the winner was announced. The freeway would be named the Gulf Freeway. The exact name “Gulf Freeway” was suggested by only one entry, that of Miss Sara Yancy of the Heights. She received a $100 prize and, perhaps more importantly, placed her mark on Houston’s freeway system.
 
 
It didn’t take long for Houston motorists to develop a love for their new freeway. On October 2, 1948, the second day of operation, 28,800 vehicles used the Gulf Freeway at its busiest point. A traffic count meter resembling a big thermometer was erected alongside the freeway to keep motorists up to date on the increasing traffic volume. Traffic increased rapidly, and by September 1950 the traffic meter had reached 66,300 vehicles per day. Unfortunately for motorists, the traffic count would go off the meter scale by 1954 and then continue to increase, soon causing traffic congestion.
 
 
Freeways and shopping malls were a match made in heaven, so it was only a matter of time before the Gulf Freeway would get its first mall. In March 1954 ground was broken for Gulfgate Shopping City, an open-air mall located at the intersection of the Gulf Freeway and the planned South Loop. The grand opening of Gulfgate Shopping City and its 62 stores took place on September 20, 1956. A huge crowd converged on the shopping center opening day, and Gulfgate Shopping City was highly successful.
 
While the space program was pushing science and technology to new levels, five of the astronauts had a more down-to-earth interest: fast cars. Gordon Cooper, Gus Grissom, Walter Shirra, Alan Shepherd, and Scott Carpenter were all automobile enthusiasts. Two in particular, Cooper and Grissom, were especially fanatical about auto racing and were partners in an Indy car racing team that participated in major racing events. The racing enthusiasts didn’t limit their speed contests to the race track. The roads around NASA, especially the Gulf Freeway and State Highway 3, were the scene of frequent high-speed races between the astronauts.
 
"Like the pyramids of Egypt, the freeway has consumed much of the working careers of many of the workers involved in its construction." -Houston Post, 1976
 
 
 
The relationship between land developers and freeways has always been a cozy one. The freeway gets built, the land becomes prime for real estate development, and developers make millions. But what if the freeway doesn’t come, or what if it is indefinitely delayed? If you are the real estate developer, you do whatever it takes to get the freeway built. That includes offering to donate the land for the freeway and aggressively lobbying political officials to build it. In 1957 the Southwest Freeway became the recipient of Houston’s first big freeway land giveaway when real estate developer Frank Sharp pulled together a large coali-tion of landowners to donate a 10.5-mile (17 km) right-of-way strip for the freeway.
 
Just southwest of the urbanized area of Houston was a huge tract of land whose destiny would be shaped by the imminent age of the freeway and freeway-driven suburban development. The newly designated Southwest Freeway was aligned to cut a diagonal path right through the property. For land developer Frank Sharp, the owner of the tract, the freeway would be the backbone of his new vision of urban America—a vision he modestly named Sharpstown.
 
 
The BMW 600 was an enlarged version of the Motocoupe, a popular minicar of the 1950s that originated with the Italian company Iso in 1953 and was licensed to numerous automobile manufacturers, including BMW in Germany. What was believed to be the first Motocoupe in the United States arrived at the Port of Houston in late 1956 and was put on display in the lobby of the Houston Bank and Trust Company. The 772-pound (350 kg) Motocoupe had an air-cooled one-cylinder motorcycle engine capable of speeds up to 60 miles per hour (96 km/h). The BMW 600 was slightly larger than the Motocoupe, weighing about 1140 pounds (515 kg). Notice that the Motocoupe and BMW 600 do not have driver-side doors. The front panel of the vehicles including the steering wheel hinged open to let the driver in.
The Lamar Weslayan subdivision had the unfortunate luck of being in the path of the Southwest Freeway and the westward expansion of the Greenway Plaza office complex. Most of the subdivision remained intact, for the moment, when the freeway was built in the early 1960s. The Greenway Plaza real estate development was launched in the late 1960s. The developer, Kenneth Schnitzer, needed more land, so he bought all the homes in the Lamar Weslayan subdivision to make way for expansion of the office complex. By the late 1970s all the homes in the neighborhood had been removed.
 
 
When the storm hit in June 2001, it un-leashed a major freeway flood event in Houston and filled the Southwest Free-way trench nearly to ground level. At that time, construction was in progress to widen the trench. Most motorists were able keep their vehicles out of the water, but the construction contractor, Williams Brothers Construction, wasn’t so lucky. It lost 42 pieces of equipment, including 22 pieces of machinery (including large cranes, such as the one shown in the lower photo), 17 trucks, and 3 message boards.
 
 
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