"It took an earthquake—the 7.1 magnitude 1989 Loma Prieta event—to do what government could not: Show that cities could successfully remove urban highways without disastrous consequences. San Francisco's Embarcadero Freeway was an elevated, 1.2-mile stretch of highway built (not without opposition) in 1958, originally envisioned as part of a larger network of proposed "trafficways" crisscrossing the city (the majority of which were rejected by the burgeoning and noisome "freeway revolts")." - Amit Patel from Bookmarklet

http://www.youtube.com/watch... - Richard Chen

Wow. I had no idea there was ever a freeway there. Keep in mind, my first visit to that area was in '03. Knowing that, now the landscape in certain areas make more sense. Those bits I saw were leftover freeway parts. - Anika

IMO, having that eyesore come down was one of the true blessings of the '89 quake. - vicster

vicster is correct. That freeway was an eyesore. Both for those on it and those located nearby. And what has happened since (both at Embarcadero and over at Octavia St.) is a vast improvement. Although you will still find people who bitch about there not being a freeway... - Spidra Webster

And the waterfront and SOMA have improved so much, since the freeway went away. - vicster

too bad people had to pay for it with their lives. - Joe Silence

AFAIK, no one died on the Embarcadero Fwy or the Central Fwy. It was the 880 in Oakland that killed 42 people. It took 11 years to rebuild it on a new alignment, this time eschewing the double deck design - Victor Ganata

i sit orthopaedically! - Joe Silence

I once read about the original plans for the SF Freeway system--it was pretty crazy. The Central Fwy was supposed to connect with the Golden Gate, the 80 was supposed to go all the way to the Sunset District, there was supposed to be a second bridge connecting Candlestick to Alameda, and the Embarcadero Fwy was supposed to run offshore to the Golden Gate. And I thought the freeway plans in L.A. were ambitious. - Victor Ganata

I'd visit San Francisco and surrounding areas much more if there were a freeway. However the Embarcadero Freeway was in an awful place. I really like what they've done with that area now. I'd prefer the freeways to be underground, but I have to wait three more decades before the robotic tunnel digging machines become cheap enough for this to happen. - Amit Patel

Tunneling through the San Andreas Fault? I think it's going to take a *long* time to perfect that kind of technology - Victor Ganata

There are fault lines, and then there are continental plate boundaries moving in opposite directions at almost 2 inches a year. - Victor Ganata

If I remember correctly, the San Andreas fault is entirely west of San Francisco, and the Hayward fault is entirely east of San Francisco. Are there any major faults running through the city? - Amit Patel

True, the San Andreas runs just south and west of the city http://pubs.usgs.gov/of... and the Hayward fault is on the other side of the Bay, but the problem is that a lot of the city is built on soil that has a high risk of liquifaction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... -- I would think tunneling through that would be almost as risky as actually going through a plate boundary - Victor Ganata

We need to solidify the soft areas: http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2009... - Amit Patel