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The Impact of Highway Construction on Wheeling’s Neighborhoods
From the churn of paddlewheels on the Ohio, to the rattle of Conestoga wagons along the Old National Pike, to the mournful cry of steam locomotives pulling into station, Wheeling’s storied neighborhoods have long been filled with the beautiful noise and bustle of transportation. And both the boundaries and character of each of those neighborhoods have been defined, in large part, by the city’s role as a transportation hub.
But perhaps no other mode of transportation has had a greater impact on Wheeling’s neighborhoods than the automobile and the transportation infrastructure built to accommodate it: the modern interstate highway system and the bridges, overpasses, ramps, and tunnels that make it work. For better or worse, the construction of the Fort Henry Bridge, Wheeling Tunnel, I-70, I-470, and the changes to Route 2, dramatically altered Wheeling at all levels. And perhaps the most profound impact came at the level of neighborhood.
