Jeff Balke of the Houston Press wrote that the freeway "is as much a social and philosophical divide as a physical one".

[4] Mike Snyder in the Houston Chronicle wrote that, as someone from inside I-610, he historically felt "kind of special" due to being close to "the city's historical core and its major business, educational and cultural institutions".

The concept of building a bypass highway around Houston was first proposed in 1931, but plans did not begin to formalize until 1941.

When the Interstate Highway System was authorized in 1956, the then-C-shaped Loop 137 (now designated I-610) was adopted into the plan.

That segment was finished in 1973 with the opening of the Sidney Sherman Bridge over the Houston Ship Channel.

In the early 1990s, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) proposed a widening project for the West Loop, which, at the time, was the busiest freeway in Houston.