All told, 1,220 structures were wiped from the Fifth Ward, including eleven churches, five schools, and two hospitals.

The idea to use interstate highways to remove "slums" and "blight" originated in the 1939 report Toll Roads and Free Roads, published by the highway engineer Thomas H. MacDonald. In it, MacDonald suggested that urban highways could serve a dual purpose: move cars and clear slums. "Citizens with adequate income"-white citizens- were leaving their homes in the center of the city in favor of the suburbs, he wrote. "The motor vehicle itself is the primary cause of this phenomenon."

— City Limits by Megan Kimble (Page 40 - 41)