JFK Administration Gave us the B&O North Central Freeway Concept

Recommendations for Transportation in the NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION Finance and Organization: A Report to the President for transmittal to Congress ,the NATIONAL CAPITAL TRANSPORTATION AGENCY, November 1, 1962

at p 29:

The 1959 plan proposed three radial highways between downtown and Montgomery County and western Prince Georges County: one in Northwest, a second in North Central and a third in Northwest Washington. Considerable controversy has developed over all three routes, but in the Northwest has generated by far the most controversy.

It is the Agency’s view that the North Central and Northeast freeways should be brought into the District and joined as a single route connecting with the recommended downtown freeway system and that the George Washington Memorial Parkway be built as planned. This highway system and the high speed raid transit service in Northwest, North Central and Northeast Washington will more than accommodate predicted traffic

at p 44:

Routes 70S and 95 in the District of Columbia and Maryland

The Third Street Leg will be extended along New York Avenue to 9th Street, N.E. From there the route will turn and follow the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad tracks towards Silver Spring. This will be the means of bringing Interstate Routes 70-S and 95 into the city from Maryland and of serving the central and eastern portions of Montgomery County and the western portions of Prince Georges County. Freeway service between downtown and western Montgomery County will be provided by the George Washington Memorial Parkway and the Potomac Freeway.

The North Capitol Street Expressway from Route 70S to downtown is an essential part of the freeway network in this area.

As pointed out in Chapter III, the combination of these freeways, improvements in arterial streets, and rail rapid transit lines in the northwest and north central corridors will provide all the capacity needed by 1980 for auto, truck and public transportation trips between Montgomery Counties and the District

Significance of Using B&O Route. [italics original] Use of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad corridor to bring Routes 70-S and 95 into the city is the key to meeting the need for additional highway capacity in northern Washington, Montgomery County and northwestern Prince Georges Counties and at the same time avoiding the substantial relocation of persons, loss of taxable property and disruption of neighborhoods that would result from construction of the Northeast, North Central and Northwest Freeway proposed in the 1959 plan. Further savings are realized by placing the rapid transit line to Silver Spring and Queen’s Chapel in the same railroad corridor.

B&O Route North Central Freeway in green
along the northerly Metropolitan Branch RR

Following this November 1, 1962 report, John F. Kennedy issued this letter dated June 1, 1963.
The John F. Kennedy letter of June 1, 1963 enumerates the cross town I-66 North Leg and Three Sisters Bridge as the most controversial segments require further study

“…I noted that certain portions of the highway network within the District of Columbia required further study. The guidelines which I believe should be followed in this re-examination are as follows:

The re-examination should focus upon the sections of the highway plans which have from the beginning been the most uncertain and the most controversial- the North Leg of the Inner Loop and the Three Sisters Bridge, both of which involve the manner in which necessarily involve a re-study of those additional portions of the plan which are directly affected by the conclusions reached in the re-examination…”

The very large part of the highway program which is not under study can go forward as scheduled.”- John F. Kennedy letter June 1, 1963

The B&O Route North Central Freeway, which is not mentioned above as then being controversial, was about to undergo its initial engineering study, commissioned by the relevant authorities in Maryland and the District of Columbia, with its report released October 1964.

That report would seriously undermine the B&O route concept by essentially excluding it.

That report did not study a single option that followed the B&O RR for its entire route, instead it considered an upwards of 37 routes basically all over the map in a vast band between 16^th Street and the Masonic Eastern Star property at 6000 New Hampshire Avenue NE.

LINK- Highway Routing Mystery 1964

LINK- 1964 North Central Freeway

LINK- 1964 North Central Freeway Engineering Study

LINK- 1966 Supplementary Study Report North Central Freeway