Baltimore Transportation History Walk
June 2008
Speakers Notes
From lobby entrance of the Marriott, turn right, walk to the water, turn right, and walk to the first bridge.
We are next to the Jones Falls, a stream that has supplied water and power and was considered for transportation uses since 1800’s. In 1915 the Fallsway was built for $2m and in 1962 the $55 million JFX (Interstate 83) was built further hiding the waterway
Eastern Avenue Pumping Station - completed in 1912, was the crown jewel of Baltimore City’s ambitious plan to provide its citizens with a modern-day sanitary sewage system. Gravity fed from downtown Baltimore it originally had coal filed steam powered pumps to pump the sewage 7 miles east to the Back River treatment plant.
The pumping station is also home of the Public Works Museum and the Streetscape exhibit of what lies underneath a typical intersection.
Cross bridge on your left and continue straight to the next bridge.
The Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse - the oldest surviving screw-pile lighthouse built as an aid to navigation on the Chesapeake Bay. It was built at the mouth of the Patapsco River in 1855 and marked the shoal known as "Seven Foot Knoll" for 133 years. Its beacon was first lit in January of 1856. The innovative screw-pile lighthouse design, which made its first appearance in the United States in 1850, eliminated the need for underwater masonry foundations to support a lighthouse. Screw-pile lighthouses were suspended above the water by a system of cast-iron pilings with corkscrew-like bases, which could be screwed into the soft mud of the sea floor. The Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse was the second screw-pile lighthouse built on the Chesapeake Bay and was constructed on nine cast-iron screw piles supporting a gallery deck some nine feet above mean high water.
Across the Inner Harbor is Federal Hill – named for Baltimore’s celebration of the state’s ratification of the constitution in May 1788. It was mined for sand ad clay and at one time was proposed to be used as fill for the inner harbor however engineering at the time prevented such a large movement of fill.
Pause on the bridge facing the Power Plant and the Taney.
Power Plant – constructed in 1895 by the United Railways and Electric Company on Dugan Wharf. This plant powered Baltimore’s street car system as well as power to the city. It received coal from barges and the railroad on Pratt St. It was obsolete before streetcars stopped running in 1963.
USCGC TANEY - constructed at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1935-36 as one of seven Treasury/Secretary Class cutters produced for the US Coast Guard before World War II. Home ported in Honolulu, Hawaii beginning in 1937, TANEY was attached to Destroyer Division 80 in the summer of 1941 and was in action against Japanese planes during the Pearl Harbor Attack. By virtue of her 50 year career, she is the last surviving warship afloat today from the 7 December 1941 Japanese attack on Hawaii. Known as "The Queen of the Pacific," TANEY was home ported in Alameda, CA, from 1946 to 1972 carrying out ocean weather patrol, law enforcement and search and rescue duties. During 1969-70, the cutter was assigned to Coast Guard Squadron III off South Vietnam. Decommissioned on 7 December 1986.
Continue past the Power Plant and across the next bridge to the Aquarium entrance, and stop near the lightship.
The National Aquarium in Baltimore was opened in 1981, expanded in 1990, and again in 2005. It is located on the former Merchant and Miners Company Pier.
When completed in 1930, Lightship 116 "Chesapeake “was among the most modern and capable ships in use with the US Lighthouse Service. Lightship 116 was built in South Carolina at the Charleston Machine and Dry-dock Company at a cost of $274,424. Electricity for the ship's propulsion motor, lighting and machinery was supplied by four 75-kilowatt diesel engine/generator units located in the engine room. Her signaling apparatus consisted of a 13,000 candlepower electric beacon lamp atop each mast (later consolidated on the aft mast), an electric foghorn (later replaced with a compressed-air diaphone), radio beacon, and fog bell mounted on the main deck. The ship was equipped with two 5,000-pound mushroom anchors (one main and a spare) designed to hold her on station in all but the roughest weather. The US Lighthouse Service first assigned Lightship 116 to the Fenwick Island Shoal (DE) Station from 1930-33; after that assignment she marked the entrance to Chesapeake Bay until the beginning of World War II . Despite some equipment upgrades, such as radar, technology began to overtake Lightship 116 by the 1960s. In 1965, the Chesapeake Lightship Station was replaced by a Coast Guard offshore light tower built on stout pilings strong enough to withstand the roughest seas. Manned by a crew of just four, the light tower was cheaper to run and had a more powerful beacon visible for a distance of 17 miles. After being relieved at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, Lightship 116's final duty station was marking the approaches to Delaware Bay until replaced there by a large automated light buoy in 1970.
USS TORSK was commissioned on 16 December 1944 and built at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. She was one of only ten Tench Class fleet type submarines to see service in World War II. Deployed to the Pacific, TORSK operated from Pearl Harbor and made two war patrols off Japan during the spring and summer of 1945. After World War II, TORSK alternated between duties as a training boat at the Navy’s Submarine School in New London, Connecticut, and active deployments in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. Decommissioned on 4 March 1968, with an impressive record of over 10,600 career dives.
Walk to the base of the pedestrian bridge.
This is the sight of first major bloodletting of the Civil War, commemorated in Maryland’s state song as “the patriotic gore that flecked the streets of Baltimore.” Baltimore had split loyalties at the beginning of the war, though four years of military occupation following the riots and growth of defense industries to supply the Union armies resulted in an influx of northerners and immigrants that changed the city’s character by the end of the war. The riot occurred on April 19, 1861, six days after the fall of Fort Sumter, when Union troops changing trains on the way to Washington clashed with residents who supported the Confederacy. Trains from Philadelphia terminated at President Street Station near the Marriott hotel. Trains from Washington terminated at Camden Station a few blocks to the west of the Inner Harbor. Coaches were hauled by horse between the stations on tracks along Pratt Street. Switch engines hauled freight cars down the middle of the street to Inner Harbor businesses into the 1970s.
The World Trade Center was completed in 1977. Designed by the internationally renowned architectural firm of I.M. Pei, it is the tallest pentagonal building in the world. The Top of the World observation deck, located on the 27th floor, offers a 360 degree view of Baltimore from 387 feet above the harbor.
Walk past the Word Trade Center to the Pratt Street Pavilion of Harborplace, go up to second floor, cross the pedestrian bridge, and enter the hallway on your left.
This hallway highlights the history and archeology of the Inner Harbor. Note how far the old waterline extends all the way to Water Street.
The masts rising above Harborplace are on the USS Constellation, the last tall ship built by the US Navy before steam replaced wind as the standard means of power. It was launched in 1854, just before the Civil War, and was named after the first Constellation, a 1797 frigate built in Baltimore. For a long time it was thought to be the original fleet from the first US navy, only after extensive research was it realized that the original one was scrapped in 1853 to be secretly replace by this one in 1854 in an effort to avoid Congress’ prohibition on the construction of new Navy ships.
Go down the escalators to the front door of the shopping area, turn right on Calvert Street, walk one block to Lombard Street.
Several blocks to your left is the Bromo Seltzer Tower – built in 1911 by Capt. Emerson of the Emerson Drug Company and inventor of Bromo Seltzer. It is 306 feet high and was topped with a 51 foot replica of a Bromo seltzer bottle that had over 500 lights and could be seen from 20 miles away. The clock face spells out Bromo Seltzer instead of numerals.
Continue one block to Water Street.
As we mentioned earlier, Water Street was the farthest inland extent of the harbor’s earliest piers.
Continue one block to Redwood Street.
At the end of Redwood Street to your left is the 1960's-era Charles Center redevelopment project, where Baltimore’s renaissance began, and the Hansa House, a half-timbered structure built in 1912 for the North German Lloyd Steamship Company. Redwood Street was German Street until World War I, when the street was renamed for the first Marylander killed in that conflict.
Across the street is one of the few survivors of the great fire of 1904, the Mercantile Safe Deposit and Trust Building, built in 1886.
Turn right on Redwood Street, walk one block, turn left, walk one block to Baltimore Street.
To your right is Baltimore’s infamous Block, where maritime industry participants and others enjoyed lusty performances by artists such as Blaze Starr.
Down Baltimore Street to the left is the Alex Brown building. Founded in 1808, the firm Alex. Brown & Sons is the first and oldest continually operating investment bank in the United States. 1808 was a good year, when Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin completed the first national transportation policy study by the US government.
Continue one block to Fayette Street.
Further up this street is the Peale Museum. The first building in the Western Hemisphere specifically designed to house a Museum, Peale’s Baltimore Museum opened its doors in 1814. The building functioned as City Hall from 1830 to 1876 and Colored School No. 1 from 1878 to 1889. Baltimore citizens saved the building from demolition in 1930 and the building functioned once again as a museum until 1997. It was the first building in the US to be lighted with natural gas in 1816.
Turn right on Fayette Street and walk toward the Shot Tower.
Across the street is City Hall. begun in 1867, its architecture reflected the latest style from Europe—Second Empire French made popular by Napoleon III. Built almost entirely by local craftsmen using materials from the area, it was completed eight years later in 1875. The building’s dome was designed by Baltimore engineer Wendell Bollman, who also designed the dome for the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
Facing City Hall across the plaza is the War Memorial. Erected in 1921 in honor of the 1,752 Maryland citizens who died during World War I, the memorial building carries each of their names etched in marble on the walls inside. In 1977 the building was rededicated to honor all Marylanders who have fallen in our nations’ battles. Today the building is used by veterans groups, patriotic societies, and for other civic gatherings.
Across the plaza is Zion Lutheran Church, the spiritual home of German speaking Lutherans since 1755. The church was once known as the “German Cathedral of Baltimore.” It still holds German language worship services on a regular basis and remains a gathering place for the city’s German community. The church sanctuary, erected in 1807, is one of the oldest structures in the downtown area.
Continue on Fayette Street across President Street to the Shot Tower.
We are at the end of Interstate 83, the Jones Falls Expressway or JFX, which was to continue along President Street through the site of the Marriott, where it would meet Interstate 95 at a bridge across the mouth of the Inner Harbor and continue through Fells Point. The downtown business community nixed the idea of the bridge, and the alignment through Fells Point was stopped in one of the great battles of the Freeway Revolt. One of the community activists was a social worker who subsequently went into politics: Senator Barbara Mikulski.
In front of us is the Phoenix Shot Tower. The last remaining of three shot making towers that pierced the city’s skyline in the 19th century, this shot tower stands 234 feet tall. Built in 1828 using 1.1 million bricks, the tower produced as many as half a million 25 pound bags of gun shot each year and was one of the largest suppliers in the nation. Molten lead was raised to the top and poured through a sieve and dropped into water. The tower remained the tallest structure in the United States until 1846, when Trinity Church, New York was erected. It was the tallest free-standing masonry structure in the world until 1864, when it was passed by the Washington Monument in the District of Columbia. In 1921 the tower was purchased for $14,500 by the Union Oil Company, which planned to tear it down and put a gas station in its place. There were strong objections by the community, and by 1928 enough money was raised to purchase the tower and present it to the City of Baltimore. The tower was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1972 and converted to a museum in 1977.
Across the street is St. Vincent de Paul - Established in 1841, St. Vincent’s is the oldest Catholic church in continuous use in America’s oldest Archdiocese. The Baltimore Basilica is older - built between 1806 and 1821.
Not far from here is the Friends Meeting House. Constructed in 1781, this is the oldest religious building in Baltimore and one of the few from the 18th century still standing. This meeting was home to famous Quakers, including: Johns Hopkins, founder of the country’s first research university and hospital, Phillip E. Thomas, first president of the B&O Railroad, and Elisha Tyson, founder of the first abolitionist society in the South.
Turn right and follow the cobblestone streets paralleling President Street.
The area between the towns of Baltimore and Fells was Jones Town. Founded in 1732, Jones Town consolidated with Baltimore in 1745. At first the home to wealthy residents, in the 19th century it became the port-of-entry neighborhood for immigrants seeking opportunity—especially East European Jews, who established its largest and most enduring ethnic community. With urban renewal in the mid-20th century, Jonestown’s tenements gave way to massive public high-rises. These were demolished by century’s end, to be replaced by new, mixed-income housing modeled on the traditional Baltimore rowhouse.
Across the street to the right is the Fish Market, which was built after the 1904 fire and replaced in 1980 by a modern facility in Jessup to be closer to customers in Washington and to air cargo facilities at BWI. Most fish came from the Chesapeake in the early days, so proximity to the port was valued. Now fish come from all over the world, so proximity to the airport is prized.
At Lombard Street, turn left.
We are next to the Carroll House. Named for its most distinguished resident, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, last living signer of the Declaration of Independence, the Mansion is the best preserved example of a grand 18th century merchant’s townhouse still standing in Baltimore. It was built in 1811. Charles Carroll, once the wealthiest man in America, helped lay the cornerstone of the B&O Railroad.
Next to the Carroll House is the 1840 House, named for the period it represents, and the Flag House, home of Mary Young Pickersgill, who sewed the 30 foot by 42 foot flag-the Star-Spangled Banner-that flew over Fort McHenry and inspired Francis Scott Key to compose the poem, “The Defense of Ft. McHenry,” also known as our National Anthem.
Walk one block to Albemarle Street, turn right, and walk across Pratt Street.
This is the Little Italy neighborhood. Note the many eating opportunities as we near the Marriott.
Continue to Fleet Street.
On your right is President Street Station - the oldest surviving big city train station in the country. Built in 1849, it was the original terminus for the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, and later became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad. After passenger service ended in 1911, it was a freight station and then a warehouse until 1970. Tracks immediately east of the station were still used for another decade. Construction of the Marriott revealed early 19th century iron-topped wooden rails beneath the street.
Continue to the traffic circle at Aliceanna Street.
In front of us is the National Katyn Memorial, a soaring golden statue and fountain that commemorates the 1940 massacre of Polish soldiers by Soviet troops during World War II.
When Frank Francois became executive director of AASHTO in 1980, the Chief Engineer of the Maryland State Highway Administration announced that the last traffic circle in the state was being removed. When Frank retired from AASHTO in 1999, the State Highway Administration had installed the first in a new generation of traffic circles. And history came full circle...
Turn right on Aliceanna Street and return to the Marriott.
And this concludes our history walk.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
History Hike to Adams Morgan, Pictures - January 12, 2009
The Committee led a History Hike to Adams Morgan on Sunday afternoon, January 12, 2009 starting at 2:45pm and ending at 3:30pm at The Reef, a local restaurant. The meeting point was the entrance to the Woodley-Park Metrorail Station. No RSVP was required and everyone was prepared for walking in the cold.
One of the many murals in Adams Morgan, this one is of the US Presidents from Dwight Eisenhower to Barack Obama (with a blank space for the next president). In the center of the group is the owner of the restuarant Karlisima and the background features famous Washington, DC landmarks and landscapes.
View from the rooftop of the apartment of one of the tour leaders. Included in the photo are the Wardman Park Marriott and the National Cathedral.
Included in the photo is a view of Calvert Street from an apartment rooftop.
One of the many murals in Adams Morgan, this one is of the US Presidents from Dwight Eisenhower to Barack Obama (with a blank space for the next president). In the center of the group is the owner of the restuarant Karlisima and the background features famous Washington, DC landmarks and landscapes.
View from the rooftop of the apartment of one of the tour leaders. Included in the photo are the Wardman Park Marriott and the National Cathedral.
Included in the photo is a view of Calvert Street from an apartment rooftop.Wednesday, January 14, 2009
History Hike Information - Washington DC 2009
Interesting Sights near the Hotels
Adams Morgan, DC
Adams Morgan is a culturally diverse neighborhood in Northwest Washington, D.C., centered at the intersection of 18th Street NW and Columbia Road NW. Adams Morgan is considered the heart of Washington's Latino community, and is a major night life area with many bars and restaurants, particularly along 18th Street, the main commercial street. Much of the neighborhood is composed of 19th- and early 20th-century row houses and apartment buildings. Despite recent improvements in public safety and revitalization efforts, crime remains a problem in the neighborhood.
Dupont Circle
Dupont Circle is a traffic circle, neighborhood, and historic district in Northwest Washington, D.C. The traffic circle is located at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue NW, Connecticut Avenue NW, New Hampshire Avenue NW, P Street NW, and 19th Street NW. The Dupont Circle neighborhood is bounded approximately by 15th Street NW to the east, 22nd Street NW to the west, M Street NW to the south, and Florida Avenue NW to the north. Many important institutions are located nearby, including: The Brookings Institution, U.S. Green Building Council, and National Geographic. Up the street from the circle you can find the 130 year old Cosmos Club at Massachusetts Avenue and Florida Ave, NW where the National Geographic Society was founded in the 19th century: with several members of the Club who are also members of the History Committee.
Interesting Transportation Sights in Washington, DC
C&O Canal, Georgetown
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, abbreviated as the C&O Canal, and occasionally referred to as the "Grand Old Ditch," operated from 1836 until 1924 parallel to the Potomac River in Maryland from Cumberland, Maryland to Washington, DC. The total length of the canal is about 184.5 miles (300 km). The elevation change of 605 ft (185 m) was accommodated with 74 canal locks. The canal way is now maintained as a park, with a linear trail following the old towpath, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park.
Columbia Heights on 14th Street
In 1968, following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., riots ravaged Columbia Heights along with many other Washington neighborhoods. Many homes and shops remained vacant for decades. In 1999, a revitalization initiative for the neighborhood focused around the Columbia Heights Metro station that opened that year. The opening of the Metro station served as a catalyst for the return of economic development and residents. Within five years, it had gentrified considerably, with a number of businesses including the theatre, Tivoli Square, now a commercial and entertainment complex and middle-class residents settling in the neighborhood. Columbia Heights is arguably Washington's most ethnically and economically diverse neighborhood, composed of high-priced condominiums and townhouses as well as public and middle-income housing. In 2008, a 546,000 square-foot (51,000 m²) retail complex across the street from the Columbia Heights Metro station opened. The space is anchored by retailers Target and Best Buy and includes 390,000 square feet of underground parking.
National Museum of American History
The National Museum of American History collects, preserves and displays American heritage in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific and military history. The museum is administered by the Smithsonian Institution and located in Washington, D.C., on the National Mall. After being closed for two years of renovations, the National Museum of American History reopened to shed new light on American history, literally and figuratively. The renovated museum includes a five-story sky-lit atrium, surrounded by artifact displays showcasing the breadth of the museum's three million objects from the cultural, social, technological and political history of the United States. A grand staircase now links the museum's first and second floors and six landmark objects located in the wings of each of the three exhibition floors help orient visitors. New galleries such as the Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Hall of Invention join old ones like "The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden" and the excellent transportation exhibits in "American on the Move". The Star-Spangled Banner Flag has been given a new state of the art home at the heart of the museum. The grand reopening starts off a year of new exhibition openings that culminates in summer 2009.
National Building Museum
The National Building Museum, in Washington, D.C., in the United States, is a museum of "architecture, design, engineering, construction, and urban planning". It was created by an act of Congress in 1980, and is a private non-profit institution; it is adjacent to the Judiciary Square Metro station. Two important transportation-related institutions are located nearby, the Transportation Research Board (TRB) is located in the Keck Center at 500 Fifth St. N.W., and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) and also know as Metro, is located across 5th Street, NW from the Building Museum. Click here for more info on Metro’s history.
US Department of Transportation
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has moved its new Headquarters to the Southeast Federal Center. DOT is housed in two connected buildings – the East Building and the West Building. The new headquarters building for the DOT, which opened in Spring 2007 in Southeast Washington, near the Washington Navy Yard and Nationals Park. The office buildings are the first new cabinet-level headquarters to be designed and constructed in the Capitol in over three decades. The DOT HQ sits on an 11-acre site and is the first building to mark the redevelopment of the Southeast Federal Center, a 55-acre site along the Anacostia River, adjacent to the Washington Navy Yard. Although a highly secured facility, the buildings present an open appearance to the public. Amenities offered to the community include landscaped meeting areas, regular farmer markets and a new Transportation Walking Museum that contains a series of temporary and permanent outdoor exhibits.
9th & F Street, NW in Penn Quarter
Presidential Inauguration Sights
Swearing-in of the President
The swearing-in of the President of the United States occurs upon the commencement of a new term of a President of the United States. The swearing-in traditionally takes place at noon on Inauguration Day at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., with the Chief Justice of the United States administering the oath. From the presidency of Martin Van Buren through Jimmy Carter, the ceremony took place on the Capitol's East Portico. Since the 1981 inauguration of Ronald Reagan, the ceremony has been held at the Capitol's West Front. The inauguration of William Howard Taft in 1909 and Reagan in 1985 were moved indoors at the Capitol due to cold weather. Until 1937, Inauguration Day was March 4. Since then, Inauguration Day has occurred on January 20 (the 1933 ratification of the Twentieth Amendment changed the start date of the term).
Pennsylvania Avenue
Pennsylvania Avenue is a street in Washington, D.C. joining the White House and the United States Capitol. Called "America's Main Street," it is the location of official parades and processions, as well as protest marches and civilian protests. Moreover, Pennsylvania Avenue is an important commuter route and is part of the National Highway System. Laid out by Pierre Charles L'Enfant, Pennsylvania Avenue was one of the earliest streets constructed in the federal city. Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson considered the Avenue an important feature of the new capital. After inspecting L'Enfant's plan, President Washington referred to the thoroughfare as a "Grand Avenue". The symbolically important street was named for Pennsylvania as consolation for moving the capital from Philadelphia. From 1862 to 1962, streetcars ran the length of the avenue from Georgetown to the Anacostia River.
Ever since an impromptu procession formed around Jefferson's second inauguration, every United States president except Ronald Reagan has paraded down the Avenue after taking the oath of office (Reagan paraded down the avenue for his first inauguration, in 1981, but not for the second in 1985 because of freezing temperatures which high winds made dangerous). From William Henry Harrison to Gerald Ford the funeral corteges of seven of the eight presidents who died in office and two former presidents followed this route. Abraham Lincoln's funeral cortege solemnly proceeded down Pennsylvania Avenue in 1865; only weeks later the end of the American Civil War had been celebrated when the Army of the Potomac paraded more joyously down the street.
Capitol Visitors Center
The United States Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) is an addition to the United States Capitol which serves as a gathering point for up to 4,000 tourists and an expansion space for the US Congress. It is located below the East Front of the Capitol, between the Capitol and 1st Street East. The CVC contains 580,000 square feet (54,000 m2) of space below ground on three floors. The overall project's budget was $621 million. Visitors are free to explore the CVC, which houses an exhibition hall, two gift shops, and a 530-seat food court. Visiting the CVC and the Capitol are free. Tickets for Capitol tours are also free and are available online for order ahead of time for the first time ever.
Regional Transportation Centers
Union Station
Union Station is the grand ceremonial train station designed to be the entrance to Washington, D.C., when it opened in 1907. It is one of the busiest and best-known places in Washington, D.C., visited by 20 million people each year. The terminal is served by Amtrak, MARC and VRE commuter railroads, and the Washington Metro transit system of buses and subway trains. Architect Daniel Burnham, assisted by Pierce Anderson, was inspired by a number of models: Classical elements included the Arch of Constantine (exterior, main facade) and the great vaulted spaces of the Baths of Diocletian (interior); prominent siting at the intersection of two of Pierre L'Enfant's avenues, with an orientation that faced the United States Capitol, just five blocks away; a massive scale, including a facade stretching more than 600' and a waiting room ceiling 96' above the floor; stone inscriptions and allegorical sculpture in the Beaux-Arts manner; expensive materials such as marble, gold leaf, and white granite from a previously unused quarry.
Ronald Reagan National Airport
Transportation Mega-Structures
14th Street Bridge
The 14th Street Bridge is a complex of five bridges across the Potomac River, connecting Arlington, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Three of the spans are each four-lane automobile bridges—one northbound, one southbound, and one with two general purpose lanes in each direction—that carry Interstate 395 and U.S. Route 1 traffic. Adjacent to the automobile bridges are two bridges for rail traffic, one for the Yellow Line of the Washington Metro and the other for a CSX Transportation rail line. At the north end of the bridge, in East Potomac Park, the three roadways merge and split into two two-way bridges over the Washington Channel into downtown Washington, one carrying traffic (including northbound US 1) north onto 14th Street, and the other carrying I-395 (and southbound US 1) traffic onto the Southwest Freeway.
New Woodrow Wilson Bridge
The Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge (also known as the Wilson Bridge) is a bascule bridge that spans the Potomac River between the independent city of Alexandria, Virginia and Oxon Hill in Prince George's County, Maryland. The bridge is one of only a handful of drawbridges in the U.S. Interstate Highway System. The Wilson Bridge carries Interstate 95 and Interstate 495 (the Capital Beltway). The drawbridge on the original span opened approximately 260 times a year and carried approximately 250,000 cars each day. The new, higher span will require fewer openings.
Springfield Interchange
The Springfield Interchange, also known as the Mixing Bowl, is the interchange of Interstate 95, Interstate 395, and Interstate 495 in Springfield, Virginia, outside of Washington, D.C.. The interchange is located at exit 57 on the Capital Beltway and exit 170 on I-95. This interchange is nicknamed the "Mixing Bowl" because, prior to the reconstruction, local and long distance travelers shared the same lanes and travelers had to merge to the right or left to reach the correct lanes for their destination. The last of this weaving and merging was eliminated on April 21, 2007. The interchange is one of the busiest highway junctions in the U.S., serving about 430,000 cars per day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
