Craig, Peter Stebbins

Peter Stebbins Craig was a lawyer in Washington, D.C. who led legal challenges against the construction of interstate highways through the city in the 1960s abd 1970s. Taking the side of residents whose homes would be razed for new freeways, Craig successfully battled developers, business leaders, and members of Congress to block seven multilane highways that would have destroyed 200,000 housing units within the city. In 1960, as part of the Northwest Committee for Transportation Planning, Craig and two other lawyers won a 5-year ban on freeways west of Rock Creek and north of M street, stalling the proposed highway. In response to the ban, developers shifted their proposed higway to the west, proposing a North Central Freeway that would have sliced through the city from capitol Hill to Silver Spring. Joining with the Committee of 100 on the Federal City, Craig then pushed back against all planned freeways, arguing that they violated a law from the 1880s allowing no road in the city wider than Pennsylvania Ave. He and his team won in the U.S. court of Appeals in 1968, though they still faced significant opposition in Congress, which controlled the District's spending. An impasse lasted until 1976, when the Department of Transportation intervened. Transportation projects that were canceled in part due to Craigs work: the Three sisters Bridge across the Potomac; connecting to I-66; Interstate 266; the North Central Freeway; the South Leg Freeway; and I-70 S/Northwest Freeway.

From the description of Peter S. Craig papers, 1904-1983 bulk 1960-1975. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 692321131

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