Friday, January 26, 2007

Bicentennial I-95

To mark this bicentennial year of the U.S. declaration of independence, officials followed the recommendations of those promoting signs over construction, and hence the placing of I-95 signs on the southeastern portion of the Capital Beltway between the I-95 interchange in Beltsville Maryland and Springfield Virginia as “I-95”. This is the segment of the Capital Beltway that includes the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and a portion of the Springfield interchange- neither of which were designed for the idea of placing I-95 on the Capital Beltway. I-95 would penetrate Washington, D.C. only for a few hundred feet of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.

Under this scheme, existing inside the Beltway I-95 in Virginia (the Shirley Highway) and in D.C. became I-395.

According to popular sentiment of the mid 1970s, simply resigning this portion of the Capital Beltway was the solution.

Although it would seem to many to be a good idea during the mid 1970s, this decision undoubtedly shifted the burden in ways that went virtually unmentioned by the people who pushed the idea of canceling the D.C. freeway system.

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