The Washington Post Lies About Inside the Beltway I-95

In its issue of November 26, 2000, The Washington Post Magazine ran an article titled “Lost Highways” that appeared with the byline Bob and Jane Freundel Levey.

The cover juxtaposed two pictures: one of a group of college students camping out on the 3 Sisters “islands” rocks protesting the then impending 3 Sisters Bridge; the other of the interchange of the Capitol Beltway and Route 1 in Alexandria, Virginia. Perhaps the message this was meant to convey was that we do not want the former looking like the latter.

Fictitious I-95 Northeast Freeway route through Takoma Park, intersecting the North Central Freeway just north of Piney Branch Boulevard

This article included a map showing a fictitious alignment through Takoma Park for I-95. This maneuver mis-reports history by taking the 1973 route which would require 0 homes via using the existing PEPCO power line right of way, and rotating it in a graphics program; the actual route intersected the North Central B&O corridor at New Hampshire Avenue.

This has the effect of turning this highway from having low impacts by using the existing 250 foot wide PEPCO power line right of way, by instead running an all new swath through Takoma Park on a less direct route with inferior geometry for the connection to the North Central Freeway (compare the above and below)

DeLeuw, Cather Associates and Harry Wesse & Associates, LTD, 1971

Numerous people caught this gross error and contacted The Washington Post via writing letters to the editor, and by posting to that newspaper’s Talk Central bulletin board. (I have not been able to locate an archive of that late 2000 thread found at a November 27 discussion with the Leveys). Here's a discussion on misc.transport.road:

http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2007/03/bob-and-jane-levey-refuted.html

NO one at The Washington Post responded, nor would they print a correction of this, nor of any of the other errors.

The article would end on a hard-line anti-public highway note: not here, never. Never mind that the area referred to is WMATA parking lots which could be reconstructed atop a cut and covered highway.

Notably, it’s a position they chose to back up with non-facts.

The Anti-Freeway Dogma's Indifference Towards The Consequences