Unlocking the Hidden Power of a Highway

This post is part of a CityLab series on power—the political kind, the stuff inside batteries and gas tanks, and the transformative might of mass movements.

Highways can connect, divide, and they can conquer. In that sense, they’re one of the most powerful pieces of infrastructure in the U.S. Yet when Mary Anne Lanier and Harriet Langford examined the 16-mile stretch of highway named after their late father—Ray Anderson, an entrepreneur and pioneer of industrial sustainability—they saw right through to its vulnerabilities.