Central Artery opens.

Officially the John F. Fitzgerald Expressway, it runs between the Mystic Bridge and Dewey Square. The first elevated expressway built in the U.S., some 10,000 residents [20,000-BSOC] were displaced and more than 1,000 buildings torn down for construction of the six-lane highway, which began in 1951. While the Boston Globe describes it as a highway in the skies, it is subsequently derided by Architectural Digest as, “[A] rude gash [through downtown Boston].” Wags later joke that it is called the Central Artery “because it is always clogged.” The artery is connected to the Southeast Expressway by a tunnel in 1959.*