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47-459: The Downtown Connector carries more than 437,000 vehicles per day at its busiest point — just south of 10th Street in Midtown , while the least traveled portion carries 243,000 vehicles per day — just south of Fulton Street, near the interchange with Interstate 20 . The area around the connector and associated interchanges are considered one of the ten-most congested stretches of interstate in

94-489: A business district integrated as far as business ownership was concerned. But competition between working-class whites and blacks for jobs and housing gave rise to fears and tensions. In 1906, print media fueled these tensions with hearsay about alleged sexual assaults on white women by black men, triggering the riot, which left at least 27 people dead (25 of them black) and over 70 injured. Black businesses started to move from previously integrated business district downtown to

141-424: A bypass around construction through the center of the city, the perimeter road (I-285) was completed first. The radiating expressways were then upgraded, and the last phase was reconstruction of the depressed sections through downtown Atlanta. By June 1983, some $ 252 million in discretionary funds had been used to complete most of the highways save for some major interchanges and the downtown section. The eight miles of

188-466: A detailed analysis of traffic in the whole metro area and how it relates to traffic on the Downtown Connector. The Stitch is a proposed engineering project that would see portions of the Downtown Connector capped and covered with public greenspaces. In August 2016, Central Atlanta Progress (CAP) announced plans to cover the Downtown Connector, converting it to a subterranean roadway and building

235-544: A former slave from Walton County, Georgia . The central building of the Atlanta Life Insurance Company complex is a Beaux Arts building facing Auburn Avenue. The district also includes the Rucker Building, Atlanta's first black-owned office building , constructed in 1904 by Henry A. Rucker , a former slave turned businessman and politician. Also located on Auburn Avenue was The Atlanta Daily World ,

282-469: A prolonged cold wave that kept temperatures below freezing for several days in the Atlanta region. GDOT engineers believe that heavy rain in previous months raised the water table and caused it to seep upward through joints between lanes , where it subsequently froze. Commuter traffic was stopped briefly on at least two days in order to treat it with deicing materials and inspect the freeway to determine

329-478: A rest stop to both freedmen and displaced Confederate veterans, some who had been left morphine addicts. Just north of the ravine where Peachtree crossed a country road (now 14th Street), was a wagon yard, where freight was unloaded, destined for the merchants in the city, which lay further south. Merchants on their way to the wagon yard and carrying the cash that the freight companies demanded, or merchants returning with wagons loaded with goods, slowed to circumvent

376-581: A sculpture at the Hyatt Midtown hotel. During this period 10th Street was also known as Bleckley Avenue . By 1883 the area was rechristened "North Atlanta". From the 1920s to the early 1960s the area was an upscale shopping area, the first major one outside the Central District ( Downtown Atlanta ), attracting customers from affluent neighborhoods throughout the city. The 1959 opening of Lenox Square and 1964 opening of Ansley Mall lowered sales in

423-518: A series of greenspaces on top of the road to cover an area of approximately 14 acres (5.7 ha), similar to Klyde Warren Park in Dallas . The proposal was first put forward by CAP as a way to reclaim land area taken by the Downtown Connector. Similar discussions had been held at CAP as early as 2003 and have included similar proposals for the area near the Georgia State Capitol . This project

470-496: A transportation engineering firm which had been formed earlier that year, was hired to provide a comprehensive transportation plan for the region, using data conducted by the BPR and the state highway department from 1936 to 1945, and future growth projections. The report, which was released on January 10, 1946, recommended a total of six radiating expressways be constructed in the city, with the intent of being integrated into what later became

517-493: Is a historic African-American neighborhood along and surrounding Auburn Avenue, east of downtown Atlanta , Georgia , United States. The name Sweet Auburn was coined by John Wesley Dobbs , referring to the "richest Negro street in the world," one of the largest concentrations of African-American businesses in the United States. A National Historic Landmark District was designated in 1976, covering 19 acres (7.7 ha) of

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564-514: Is an annual festival held the first weekend in October on Auburn Avenue. Civil rights leader Hosea Williams founded the first festival in 1984. Charles Johnson founded the festival in 1994 as a way to celebrate the African American achievements as established on Auburn Avenue. The festival offers food, art, and entertainment throughout the day while celebrating Auburn Avenue's past and growth, and

611-570: Is now Tenth and Peachtree Streets began as Tight Squeeze , a lawless shantytown during the period following the American Civil War . It consisted of shanties, together with a blacksmith shop and several small wooden stores, beside a 30-foot-deep ravine, still visible to the east of Peachtree north of 10th Street. During the desperate times after the Civil War, the hungry, homeless, wounded, and hopeless filled Atlanta's streets. The ravine became

658-536: Is operated by the Sweet Auburn Committee. The festival's entertainment varies from comedians to up and coming artists from diverse genres of music. The Sweet Auburn Heritage Festival searches for entertainment from cities such as Atlanta, Macon, Savannah, Augusta, Huntsville and Chattanooga in hopes to help non- established artist's path to stardom. Artist such as Usher Raymond , Outkast , India.Arie , and Raven-Symoné have started out performing on stage at

705-645: The Downtown Connector freeway that split it in two. In 1992 the National Trust for Historic Preservation recognized that it was one of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places and, in 2005, the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation included the area in its 2006 list of Places in Peril . The Historic District Development Corporation (HDDC) was formed to turn the trend around, starting with houses surrounding

752-524: The Georgia Department of Transportation to carry some south–north traffic through the eastern side of the city, but most of this was canceled in the 1970s by the then-governor of Georgia , Jimmy Carter . Parts of that road are now I-675 and SR 400 . The highway was heavily reconstructed during the 1980s as part of GDOT's Freeing the Freeways program to widen Atlanta-area freeways, with most of

799-469: The Georgia Railroad and in 1879 was at the endpoint of a newly graded road called simply Boulevard , which led from the railroad to North Avenue near Ponce de Leon Avenue and Angier Springs. The rise of Auburn Avenue as "the" black business district in Atlanta was to a great extent an outcome of the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot . Prior to this time black businesses operated largely in downtown Atlanta —

846-483: The Interstate Highway System , which at the time was expected to eventually be authorized by Congress. The report recommended that four of these expressways converge into a single north-south route through downtown, which was referred to at the time as both the "Downtown Connector" and the "Downtown Connector Expressway". Work of the first section of the Downtown Connector, located between Williams Street and

893-517: The 55 over the connector portion alone, had to be designed and built. In addition to the general-purpose lanes, provisions for high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes and dedicated on-ramps at Williams Street, Piedmont Avenue , and Memorial Drive were built, and were subsequently converted to HOV usage in 1996. Between 2000 and 2004, the six-lane wide 17th Street Bridge was constructed over the Brookwood Interchange, connecting Midtown Atlanta with

940-708: The Brookwood Interchance, as well as the approximately 1 ⁄ 3  mi (0.54 km) stretch of what is now I-85 north to Peachtree Street, began in September 1948, and was dedicated and opened to traffic on September 25, 1951. The 0.6 mi (0.97 km) stretch from Piedmont Avenue to Williams Street opened on May 5, 1959. Work on a southern stretch of the Connector, a 1.4-mile (2.3 km) section between University Avenue and Richardson Street, began in March 1955, and

987-511: The Connector's width being doubled from three to six or seven lanes in each direction. The project included work to increase lanes from six to eight on I-20 , I-75, I-85 , and I-285 ("The Perimeter"), as well as ten lanes on the downtown connector, involving 126 total miles and was phased over 13 years between 1976 and 1988. The improvement campaign also included elimination of sharp curves and grades, left-hand exits, excessive interchanges, and short acceleration/deceleration lanes. So as to offer

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1034-650: The Downtown Connector from North Avenue to 10th Street. The proposal connects that area of the city to the main campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology , which is located on the other side of the Interstate. Exit numbers follow the mileposts along I-75. The entire route is in Atlanta , Fulton County . Tenth Street (Atlanta) Tenth Street is a street in Midtown Atlanta , Georgia. The area around what

1081-485: The Downtown Connector from Spring Street to Piedmont Avenue in downtown. The study, which compared the project to the Klyde Warren Park in Dallas , said the project would cost approximately $ 300 million and stimulate approximately $ 1.1 billion in land development and increased property value . Unlike Klyde Warren Park, The Stitch would involve the creation of multiple parks. The reclaimed land would also allow for

1128-501: The Downtown Connector has three large overhead electronic message signs , and four smaller HOV-dedicated message signs on the median barrier wall. Traffic flow data is gathered through a video detection system, using pole-mounted black-and-white cameras spaced every 1 ⁄ 3 mile (0.54 km) on both sides of the roadway. All video and data is fed into the GDOT's Transportation Management Center (TMC), via fiber-optic cable located under

1175-715: The Shopping District. The area became a famous hippy hangout and acquired the name of The Strip . By 1967 the hippy movement had been seriously repressed and the area stagnated. Many businesses were set on fire (arson) and many buildings were torn down to make way for parking lots. Today Tenth Street west of Piedmont Avenue is an integral part of the Midtown Core high-rise business and residential district. 33°46′53.5″N 84°23′37″W  /  33.781528°N 84.39361°W  / 33.781528; -84.39361 Sweet Auburn The Sweet Auburn Historic District

1222-638: The Top Hat Club when it opened in 1938, the club hosted local talent and national acts such as B.B. King , the Four Tops , the Tams and Atlanta's own Gladys Knight . One of the many significant commercial buildings within the district is the Atlanta Life Insurance Company . The second-largest black insurance company in the United States, Atlanta Life Insurance was founded in 1905 by Alonzo Herndon ,

1269-467: The U.S. Due to this fact, many motorists often compare Atlanta to Los Angeles , which is also known for its notoriously-congested freeway system. The highway is fully instrumented with Intelligent transportation system (ITS) devices. There are more than 25 closed-circuit television cameras between the Langford Parkway interchange (south end) and the Brookwood Interchange (north end). Additionally,

1316-520: The ULI estimated that the project could take four years of planning and pre-development and six years of construction. As of 2019, the project was still in the pre-construction phase, with an estimated timeline and budget of ten years and $ 452 million, respectively. In 2021, the Midtown Connector Project (MCP) Foundation released a proposal to build a park over 10 blocks of the Midtown portion of

1363-516: The age of 35, he was murdered in Tight Squeeze after delivering a load of firewood to customers in Atlanta. In the late 1800s the area was rechristened Blooming Hill and consisted of elegant single-family houses. By 1872 the Atlanta Constitution called it "a considerable little town outside the corporate limits of Atlanta" which had two grocery stores. Blooming Hill is commemorated by

1410-442: The avenue, such as Big Bethel AME and First Congregational, helped build and maintain the heritage of the street. Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church , located just off the avenue, was also a significant force as the first Black Catholic parish in the city. The Royal Peacock Club provided an elegant setting where many African Americans could perform and bring the changing styles of black popular music to Atlanta. Originally called

1457-609: The birth home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. , and working outward. In 2014, the city of Atlanta completed the installation of the Atlanta Streetcar , a line that creates a loop connecting the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park to downtown and the tourist attractions of Centennial Olympic Park . The streetcar travels east along Edgewood Avenue and west along Auburn Avenue. Several churches located along

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1504-583: The cause. In January 2016, GDOT started a study of the Downtown Connector. Citing high levels of congestion that occur outside of peak periods, the purpose of the study is to gather data and explore options for reducing congestion. Data collection took place all year in 2016, and the data is being analyzed and options evaluated throughout 2017 and 2018. The study is expected to be completed in 2019. The study has already released their data on their website , including nine "Hot Spots", or dangerous and congested points that could most benefit from design improvements, and

1551-446: The downtown section, which includes the 4.4-mile long downtown connector, was the most complicated section of the entire reconstruction. Work was started on it in 1984, and it included redesigning the massive interchange between I-20 and I-75/85 at Memorial Drive where much of the mileage was on structure. The downtown connector was to be widened to ten lanes, and this required quite a bit of right of way acquisition. Many bridges, including

1598-495: The festival. Ultimately, the Sweet Auburn Heritage Festival entertainment has grown much farther than originally anticipated from its beginning stages in 1984. Edgewood Avenue which runs through the heart of Sweet Auburn has become a hotspot for viewing for street art in Atlanta . Works by international artists such as Sten Lex and local artists such as Dr. Dax and Chris Veal can be found on Edgewood Avenue and

1645-567: The first black-owned daily newspaper , which was founded here in 1928. (The Atlanta Daily World is still the nation's longest running African American newspaper.) In 1948, the Atlanta Police Department was integrated, hiring eight black police officers , all of whom were assigned to Auburn Avenue. Sweet Auburn celebrates the annual Auburn SpringFest , and in the Fall, the Sweet Auburn Heritage Festival. The Sweet Auburn Heritage Festival

1692-513: The neighborhood, significant for its history and development as a segregated area under the state's Jim Crow laws . Sweet Auburn was also added to the National Register of Historic Places the same year. Sweet Auburn is one of 242 officially recognized neighborhoods of Atlanta . It is bounded by: The first settlement here was on land formerly occupied by Union troops and was called Shermantown for many years. It developed quickly being near

1739-644: The northern and southern ends. On December 14, 1944, the Georgia State Highway Department, the predecessor agency to the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), collaborated with the city of Atlanta, Fulton County, and the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR), the predecessor to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to work on a plan to improve traffic and connectivity within the Atlanta area. Chicago -based H.W. Lochner & Company,

1786-441: The ravine. Tight Squeeze's residents, as well as professional highwaymen, attacked merchants and robbed them of their merchandise and cash. It was said that it "took a mighty tight squeeze to get through with one's life," the origin of the settlement's name. Desperation inspired rowdyism and "lewd vagrancy". John Plaster was a member of a pioneer farm family for whom Plaster's Bridge Road was named (now Piedmont Road ). In 1866 at

1833-495: The reconnection of Atlanta's street grid, which was interrupted by the construction of the Connector. Between 2017 and 2018, CAP conducted a year-long viability study on the project that involved Jacobs and John Portman and Associates . In March 2019, the Urban Land Institute (ULI) published a feasibility study on the project, while that same month the estimated cost for the project was stated at $ 452 million. Advisors from

1880-565: The relative safety of the area around the Atlanta University Center west of downtown, and to Auburn Avenue in the Fourth Ward east of downtown. "Sweet" Auburn Avenue became home to Alonzo Herndon 's Atlanta Mutual , the city's first black-owned life insurance company, and to a celebrated concentration of black businesses, newspapers, churches, and nightclubs. In 1956, Fortune magazine called Sweet Auburn "the richest Negro street in

1927-473: The shoulders of the roadway. Virtually all entrance ramps are metered , with the exception of the freeway-to-freeway connection ramps from I-20. As with every other freeway inside the Perimeter, the Downtown Connector is lined with streetlights mounted in the center median, with high-mast lighting at major interchanges. Atlanta's skyline , both Downtown and Midtown , can be seen from the highway, especially at

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1974-588: The surrounding streets. Several of the Sweet Auburn murals can be found on the Atlanta Street Art Map . The Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History is an institution dedicated to preserving and highlighting African American culture and history. This article incorporates text from the National Park Service website, a work of the U.S. government, and therefore in

2021-493: The then-new Atlantic Station development. In 2008, reconstruction of the 14th Street Bridge took place in order to accommodate increased traffic flow and pedestrian amenities. This work also included the construction of two new off-ramps: a southbound ramp to 10th Street, and a northbound ramp to 17th Street . This work was completed on May 28, 2010. In early January 2010, a section of the highway between 14th and 17th streets developed an unusual problem dubbed "phantom ice" during

2068-588: The world", a phrase originally coined by civil rights leader John Wesley Dobbs from the poem The Deserted Village by Oliver Goldsmith . Sweet Auburn and Atlanta's black colleges formed the nexus of a prosperous black middle class and upper class which arose despite enormous social and legal obstacles. Sweet Auburn was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976. However, like so many other inner-city neighborhoods, Sweet Auburn fell victim to lack of investment , heavy, widespread crime , homelessness , and abandonment , compounded by construction of

2115-439: Was dedicated and opened on July 25, 1957. Construction on the final stretch, the 2.3-mile (3.7 km) stretch between Richardson Street and Piedmont Avenue, including the interchange with I-20, began on February 26, 1962, and was opened to traffic on September 18, 1964. A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Downtown Connector, attended by Governor Carl Sanders , FHWA administrator Rex Marion Whitton , and Atlanta mayor Ivan Allen Jr.

2162-401: Was drafted by Jacobs Engineering Group and is called "The Stitch", as one of the intents of the project would be to "stitch" together roads that had been divided with the creation of the Downtown Connector. The study, prepared for CAP by Jacobs Engineering Group at a cost of $ 100,000, called for a 14-acre (5.7 ha) stretch of reclaimed land covering a 0.75-mile long (1.21 km) stretch of

2209-470: Was held inside the Georgia State Capitol on October 15, 1964. Initial construction of the highway displaced parts of Techwood Drive and Williams Street in Midtown Atlanta . It also destroyed street grids east and south of downtown, dividing Sweet Auburn in two and the interchange with I-20 leveling the northern part of the Washington-Rawson district. The proposed I-485 was originally planned by

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