Driving Boston 1976

north on the expressway and over the Tobin up rt/ 1 and back a bit in this 1976 film shot by Liz Cahill in my video lab class at MassArt - used in a class project for a music video we made to go with Kraftwerk's Autobahn.

[@andyleclerc3600]

This is how I remember seeing Boston for the first time the following Spring. My 6 year old mind was blown by the skyscrapers and riding through the tunnels. It was love at first sight 😊

[@pvpat92]

I love this!!! Love seeing the big old cars. I lived in Quinzy from 74-86. We'd always go over the Tobin and go to Augistines, and the hilltop steakhouse. Both of which I understand have since closed. I remember when I was a kid thinking it was a good 50-75 miles away, but really it was only about 20😁

[@BellaBellucci69]

Augustine's was my fave!

[@joeymaterese8095]

Where are you now?

[@ralphwinfield2872]

Yes!! Hilltop's Butcher Shop was A-1. Take good care!

[@ralphwinfield2872]

El Paso to the desert of Mexifornia is two days by car. Cheers, eh!!

[@realcolinmitchell]

Thank you for capturing this moment in time 🙏🏼

[@edwardmiessner6502]

Wow. The Central Artery - the OLD one - with free-flowing traffic on an afternoon! So much of what's in this video has changed... a *lot.*

[@sostdm617]

@jsst180 exactly it's extremely overcrowded now

[@troubledsole9104]

I used to know those roads like a cab driver.

[@lisam4066]

I'm from north of Boston. I can tell this is route 1 & the Tobin bridge.

[@jonimoroni7475]

I visited the first time ever in 1976. While driving around MA, I remember hearing the Bee Gee's song on the radio (alot), "You Should Be Dancing."

[@an3ony]

looks like he made it all the way to lynnfield junction. its cool seeing it prior to the overdevelopment now

[@ScarlettFire341]

Central Artery North in Downtown, then the Mystic Tobin Bridge, then Revere at the Rowe Quarry, then Rt 1 at the Lynnfield Underpass, then back into Boston on the elevated Rt 93 Southbound and then somewhere in triple deckerland !

[@billkeyes540]

Skipped all of Rt 1 North Saugus, the most famous stretch of Rt 1 in Massachusetts. Musta run out of soundtrack.

[@davidrobbio9816]

The last 40 seconds on the video is the exit off the central artery going to Cambridge via Storrow Drive where it curves left and then right and splits to Storrow Drive Cambridge or to the Museum of Science area by the old jail ...the 3 deckers might have been in Cambridge on Broadway or Cambridge Street...

[@HayastAnFedayi]

Love the video, music though....ehhhhhh, could use some Steely Dan 😂 being a lifelong Bostonian I love and appreciate your work😉!!

[@FUCKINGENIOUS]

The music started freaking me out after a while.

[@solarapex1]

It doesn't sound like Autobahn, but the background music is awesome.

[@jacksena6128]

Wow i remember that johnny walker sine.

[@fenandocastanonmanrriquez591]

Los 70s dekada Xenial. Gran video

[@Bassman968]

Great stuff...is there any more footage in addition to this?

[@lizcahill]

Unfortunately, no.

[@shernardparkerwood8313]

I was born in Boston 1976 February

[@brianvolpe3242]

Hahaha same month and year but in Natick MA

[@tiggarhill7269]

People didn’t use directionals back then either.

[@paull.6026]

Haha! Wonder if they tailgated as much as nowadays.

[@jeraleewood5969]

AND GAS WAS a Quarter OR 50 cents a Gallon!!!! AND MY PARENTS THOUGHT THAT THE WORLD WAS ENDING THEN!!!! Look at how, EVERYONE ON THE ROAD, was NICE and FORGIVING...AND NOT USING BLINKERS, AND CROSSINGS ROAD LINES!!! I was 8 THEN, and think that the SPEED was 70 then!!! At age 4, that was the SPEED in Utah, AND NO SEAT BELTS!!! Thank you, ((whoever filmed this, from "back in the day,) for showing AND NEW DRIVERS, how to be nice, kind, gentle, tolerance, patient and NOT HONK YOUR HORN ESCALATE OR GO INTO, "ROAD RAGE!!!"

[@LeoBarron-y3l]

I’m collecting early clips of the Boston highway for a documentary I plan on making about the people before highways movement in the GBA and would love to use some of this footage if at all possible!

[@interstellarphred]

2:05 note where I95 was to diverge on the right. This was only cancelled two years ago when this was filmed, and this was the year Guv. Dukakis had the state purchase just about all the rail lines in the area for mass transit substitutes for the highway. Half a century later, not one inch built from what was running at this time.

[@williamwooten6156]

Memories Roxbiry to Reading

[@TheBrooklynbodine]

Wouldn't mind having the car in the right lane at 1:54.

[@joeymaterese8095]

Plymouth

[@TheBrooklynbodine]

@@joeymaterese8095 OK, thamks. Along with Mercury, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and AMC, they're no longer made. I sometimes wish there was another major automaker to bring back those brands.

[@dalebabbitt6185]

Where is Joe Green in the WBZ copter saying the lower deck is backed up all the way to Sullivan Square

[@jessejames586]

I had to mute the repetitive sound track!

[@cheryljoseph3262]

Me too. It's awful and kind of ruins it.

[@pudgyv5223]

Changing lanes without signals and cutting others off yet no road rage. We expect stupid shit like that.

[@69mercurymarquis]

wow. my dad had 72 thunderbird like the one in video. same ski rack too. kinda sad, that was when boston was cool, blue collar city. now its a politically correct overpriced tourist trap. cool video though. thanks for posting.

[@paull.6026]

Seriously. I'm looking at the cars thinking man some of these are only a few years old! That Chevelle for instance. Every car seen in this footage was built to drive through walls too. As for your statement about current Boston, that's the sad and depressing truth. I was in South End on Harrison Ave for a job like a week ago and I'm like WHAT. Overpriced everything, sterile everything and pretty much boring as all hell. Live in a million dollar box, walk to the overpriced grocery store, hit the rip off pilates gym and then maybe extortion price dinner at the smug eatery. No thanks.

[@LavLab]

👍👽

[@griffin324]

0:44 Does the sign on the left say I-95?

[@geoffwallick]

Probably does. Route 1 (tobin bridge etc was supposed to be I95 before it was routed along route 128. If you look at 2:04 this is ober the route 60 rotary in revere where I95 would have split from route 1 again and up the shore to the current 59/128 interchange

[@geoffwallick]

im pretty sure by this time (1974) the 128/95 plan that we have today was well on its way to being built.

[@solarapex1]

Nice catch! Didn't notice it. Yes, it does. It makes me believe that I-95 was routed through route 1 before it was routed along Rte 128.

[@oasisgoat9918]

2:43

[@DJParticle]

@@geoffwallick- I believe at the time, I-95 was signed from the Route 60 rotary, across the Tobin, down the Central Artery, and ending at the Pike (95 was meant to head off where the Mass Ave connector is now, which would have been part of a monster 95/695/3 interchange.)

[@bobc4368]

was Bostonusa driving 1968

[@joes.949]

Anybody remember the Suicide X? I didnt see it in this movie.

[@mannysavage88]

What's the song in this video?

[@griffin324]

0:27 where is that?

[@danhardhat2]

Charlestown - Pre-City Square tunnel. The side by side highway stacked up before the Tobin outbound. 0:53 is about here on google maps but on the lower level: www.google.com/maps/@42.3740306,-71.0582608,3a,50.9y,355.58h,87.19t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sUzL7EvaCn8sAmWHqD21sQw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en&authuser=0 At 0:31, if you look close off to the left, you could see the Bunker Hill monument. And at 0:35, you'll see this building off to the left: www.google.com/maps/@42.3720573,-71.0620796,3a,60y,53.27h,103.49t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sBgNf24URb2VmJtwkszZqCg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en&authuser=0

[@ettoreneto3932]

At this time, the great genius John Lennon was stil alive :/.. The world miss him

[@michaelliberty1007]

Hasn't changed a bit

[@davysprokket]

nice video...but delete that god-awful music