The laying of [[Riverside Drive, Perth|Riverside Drive]] as a subsistence project in 1937 provided an opportunity for the City of Perth to negotiate for control of the entire foreshore, which had previously been managed by the State Gardens Board.<ref>{{cite book|last=Stannage|first=Tom|title=The people of Perth|1979}}</ref> Designed as a boulevarde, the Drive encouraged tourists and Perth residents alike to travel along the river, in a 20th century version of the 18th and 19th century tradition of promenading.<ref>{{citation|journal|last=Faro|first=C.|title=To the lighthouse!The South Head Road and place-making in early New South Wales|journal=Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society|volume=December|year=1998}}</ref> Riverside Drive was widened when works on the [[Mitchell Freeway]] interchange commenced in the late 1950s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://register.heritage.wa.gov.au/PDF_Files/E%20-%20A-D/Esplanade%20Reserve%20%28I-AD%29.PDF|title=Esplanade Reserve - Assessment Documentation|work=Heritage Council of Western Australia|page=8|accessdate=16 June 2012}}</ref> In the early 1960s, a proposal to build a major freeway along the foreshore was being prepared by consultants for the [[Main Roads Western Australia|Main Roads Department]]. [[Perth City Council]], town planner [[Paul Ritter]], and others, argued that traffic volumes didn't warrant the plan, and that the new north-south freeway system was adequate. Visiting architect [[Theodore Osmundson]] suggested in 1968 that the city ring freeway project being considered would "encircle[s] the city like an iron collar [which] can only eventually choke the central city to death".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Alexander|first=Ian|coauthors=Phil McManus|title=A New Direction for Perth Transport?|journal=Urban Policy and Research|year=1992|volume=10|issue=4|pages=6–13|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08111149208551528}}</ref> Riverside Drive was further modified in the 1970s to provide access to the [[Mitchell Freeway]] and again in the late 2000s as part of the sinking of the railway to [[William Street, Perth|William Street]].
