The heroic Governor Sargent

Interstate highways proposed in the 1962 Massachusetts "Inner Belt and Expressway System" plan.

—Courtesy of the Boston Public Library

 On Nov. 30, 1972, Massachusetts Gov. Francis Sargent delivered an historic speech explaining why he had decided to block new superhighway construction in Greater Boston.

Central in his remarks was this:

“The problems of transportation have held us prisoner for 40 years and recently that captivity has become intolerable. You, your family, your neighbor have become caught in a system that’s fouled our air, ravaged our cities, choked our economy and frustrated every single one of us. To move ourselves, our goods and our services, we’ve built more and more and bigger and better superhighways and expressways. They seemed the easiest, most obvious answer to our multiplying needs. What we misunderstood was what those highways would create: massive traffic congestion.”