The Central Artery Dismantling Project Photographs by James F. Hunnewell Jr.

Historical/Biographical Note

Historical/Biographical Note

James F. Hunnewell, Jr. AIA, is a registered architect living and working in the Boston area. At the time that he took these photographs he was a Principal at the Boston architectural firm of Shepley Bulfinch Richardson & Abbott, which was located at 40 Broad Street, Boston, at that time. These photographs were taken from the top level of the Harbor Garage.
Opened in 1959, the Central Artery was a six-lane elevated portion of Interstate 93 (I-93) that ran through the center of downtown Boston. The deteriorating and congested artery caused significant challenges for the city over time, cutting off the North End and Waterfront neighborhoods from downtown and was the cause of large traffic delays and high car accident rates. As a solution, in the early 1990s, the City of Boston collaborated with the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority (now part of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation) and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to begin construction on the Central Artery/Tunnel Project. This massive endeavor created a network of underground highways beneath the Central Artery and two new bridges over the Charles River. Often referred to as the “Big Dig,” the project remains one of the largest and most complex highway projects in the United States. After the underground highways opened to traffic in 2003, the Central Artery was dismantled. Today the land that was once covered by the Central Artery is a public park called the Rose Kennedy Greenway.

Sources

Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy. (2026). History. The Conservancy. https://www.rosekennedygreenway.org/history/
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts. (2026). The Big Dig: project background. Mass.gov. https://www.mass.gov/info-details/the-big-dig-project-background