Although it was torn down nearly 25 years ago, the eyesore that was the double-decker Embarcadero Freeway/Skyway still lingers in the memories of non-millennial San Franciscans. Although as a millennial myself, I was only a few years old when the freeway was demolished in the years following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Still, from what I can gather, the freeway was a breeze to drive on, got residents around the city a bit faster, provided tons of business to Chinatown, and despite blocking the waterfront Embarcadero views we’ve gotten used to today, managed to raise 20,000 signatures against its demolition. But in 1991 Mayor Art Agnos tore it down anyway, and replaced it with the massive plaza we have now.
Luckily, for those of us too young to have ever done anything with AOL CDs except use them as frisbees, there exists footage of the journey down the Embarcadero freeway from one of the best art house movies to have ever been made; the Godfrey Reggio epic film Koyaanisqatsi. As an aside, this movie should be required viewing for everybody. It is essentially a series of grand scaled time-lapses set to a Philip Glass soundtrack that is still extensively used in media today. If there were ever a movie to get high for and zone out and watch, this is absolutely it. Trust.
The video clip of the Embarcadero freeway from Koyaanisqatsi is a bit unnerving; it feels like an alternate reality where there used to be a massive concrete structure almost totally devoid of cars, running through a part of the city we can’t even build high-rises in. Redditors who were around before and after the demolition pointed out that entire apartment complexes now stand where there were once on-ramps and concrete columns.
Anyway, go watch all of Koyaanisqatsi if you’ve never seen it.
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