[Move further along the park]
In the 1950s the federal government planned to extend highway I-95 through the Stony Brook Valley into downtown Boston. So an eight lane highway would have been right here where we are standing. By the 1960s hundreds of modest houses were demolished and a great swath of wasteland made its way through Jamaica Plain and Roxbury. But the politically-active local residents in all the neighborhoods that would be affected banded together and this measure was defeated in 1972. It was the first time that a federal highway project was stopped by local opposition.
After the highway project was stopped the cleared area was then used to relocate the orange line (the old elevated train was removed from Washington Street). The orange line and the train lines (Commuter Rail and Amtrak) wereput below ground. The new Orange Line opened in 1988. The state also created the Southwest Corridor Park from Forest Hills to Back Bay stations which opened in 1989. The granite from the old railroad embankment [seen in this stop's image] was put to use throughout the park. You can see it in the border walls, the splash park, etc.