The freeway proposal was part of urban planner Robert Moses’s original postwar infrastructure plan for Portland.

Plans for the freeway triggered a revolt in Portland in the late 1960s and early 1970s, leading to its eventual cancellation.

When the freeway was canceled, a segment was already completed southeastwards from East Burnside Road and Southeast Powell Blvd in Gresham, continuing to Sandy, which remains in use today.

[citation needed] The freeway would have run from the Willamette River (at the Marquam Bridge) to about SE 50th Avenue adjacent to the south side of Division St.

[citation needed] The final segment of the proposal continued southeast from Gresham and ran to the outskirts of Sandy.

US 26 would be taken off Powell Blvd, the Ross Island Bridge, and downtown Portland streets, continuing on I-5 and I-405 to the Sunset Highway.

On one hand, it was seen as benefiting only suburban Gresham and East Multnomah County at the expense of Portland's neighborhoods.

Approval for the Mount Hood Freeway was withdrawn by the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners on February 21, 1974,[4] which was followed by a similar action from the Portland City Council in late July.

After the successful battle over the Mount Hood, activists were pushing for I-205's cancellation, while some neighborhoods and businesses wanted it further east or west (depending on the proposal).

A total of 415 parcels in the future path of the Mount Hood Freeway were acquired by the state government, costing $7.8 million in 1975.

believe the Mount Hood Freeway is one of the things most recognizable as a reason for the development and promotion of alternative forms of transportation in Portland.