New York is spending $1 billion to tear down a one-mile highway with a controversial history

Skye Gould / Business Insider

The Sheridan Expressway may seem like a typical, six-lane highway - but for decades, residents in the South Bronx have called for its removal.

The highway has become a symbol of ruthless 20th-century planners who built the US' interstate highway system at the expense of lower-income communities of color.

Hunts Point, a once vibrant jazz community, is now defined by the Sheridan. Roads are clogged by trucks exiting the Sheridan, and blocks are lined with chain-link fences, auto-salvage yards, and warehouses. The community suffers from abnormally high rates of asthma from vehicle exhaust.

After decades of activism, however, the Sheridan may be the nation's next highway torn apart as states shift their priorities to consider the role infrastructure plays in shaping communities.

Below, a history of the highway that divided a neighborhood: