Halt The Highway, 1972: The Bypass That Never Happened

Esperanza and Irwin go back 50 years to what may have been the brouhaha of the century on eastern Long Island.  The proposed Highway Bypass was to go north of Route 27 through North Sea, Watermill, Bridgehampton, Sagaponack, Wainscott, East Hampton and ultimately ending in eastern Amagansett.  "Build it and they shall come", was one perspective, saying traffic will be even worse.  Farmland would be decimated.  In a 1974 letter to the East Hampton Star, Tom Twomey, the Chair of the Halt The Highway committee  claimed "the super highway will make our Town a bedroom community for migrants from Western Suffolk.  They will skyrocket our taxes and make possible new giant shopping centers".   But a 1974 Star editorial made the point that we can't turn back the clock, the people were already there garnered support from residents wanting the summer traffic eased.   Hindsight is always 20/20.  The writer Tim Ferguson's thought that "The protective impulse of 50 years ago just bought us more trouble today" is a point of view many believe.   Let us know what you think after you listen!