From the 1950s through the 1970s various plans were drafted by local and federal agencies to build a comprehensive urban expressway to link D.C. to the national interstate highway system. In the 1960s The Emergency Committee on the Transportation Crisis (ECTC) grew out of the efforts of residents in northeast D.C. and Maryland who organized to prevent government confiscation of homes in the path of the freeway. ECTC lobbied public officials; and testified at hearings to prevent the building of the North Central Freeway through D.C and before Congress to curtail funding for highway construction. ECTC spurred the formation of the National Coalition on the Transportation Crisis, which coordinated similar grassroots movements throughout the nation. As a grassroots organization, ECTC relied on public demonstrations, rallies, and meetings to gain support for its cause in the late 1960s. In particular, ECTC was involved in a prolonged demonstration and sit-in at the construction site of the Three Sisters Bridge, held rallies to protest confiscation of homes in the Brookland neighborhood of D.C., and picketed Mayor Walter Washington's home in opposition of freeway construction. ECTC was interested in a number of related issues such as urban planning, environmental issues, home rule, D.C. statehood, and civil rights. It also supported a metrorail system as an alternative to freeways.