In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Interstate Highway Act, the largest public works project in American history. But ideas for highways going in, out and around Cleveland had been in the works for at least a decade before that.
During World War II, civic leaders worked on a “Thorofare Plan,” which included an Innerbelt Freeway, originating at the eastern Shoreway near what’s now Burke Lakefront Airport. It skirted Downtown, spanned the Cuyahoga River south of the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge into Tremont, and connected with the Medina Freeway, taking drivers out to the airport.
Construction began in earnest in 1954 on an eight-lane bridge that, at its completion five years later, was just the second span of that width in the world. Gradually, the pieces all joined together, culminating on Dec. 5, 1961, when a ceremony opened the 2.85-mile expressway.
RELATED: Cleveland mayor Ralph Perk Become's Cleveland's Mayor
“Don’t call this a freeway,” A.G. Donovan of the Ohio Department of Highways told The Plain Dealer. “At $25 million a mile, it is not free.” (The PD noted that the cost of $69,910,000 wasn’t quite $25 million a mile, but it was close enough.)
Broadway actress Gretchen Wyler, who was playing in Bye Bye Birdie at the Hanna Theatre, wore a mink coat as she passed out souvenir plastic shovels on a blustery but warm winter day.
And Mayor Anthony Celebrezze officially launched the highway not with a ribbon cutting but by firing up an acetylene torch and cutting through a one-inch cable. The party — with an estimated attendance of around 200 by the Cleveland Press but only about 100 by The Plain Dealer — then set out in a procession led by a 1911 Mercedes on the new highway.
The Innerbelt remains a well-used road today, as part of Interstate 90.
For more updates about Cleveland, sign up for our Cleveland Magazine Daily newsletter, delivered to your inbox six times a week.
Cleveland Magazine is also available in print, publishing 12 times a year with immersive features, helpful guides and beautiful photography and design.
