From Planetizen
What you see is not unusual. Eminent domain lawyers get to see a lot of aerial photographs of cities, and we have often been struck by the enormous amounts of urban land taken up by freeways and freeway interchanges, as well as parking lots and structures.
Downtown in 1957 (left) and 1965 (right). The dense urban fabric of Downtown Hartford was severely damaged during urban renewal in the 1960s.