Single Lane Bridge in Bethesda

[mrsman]

While talking with a colleague at work, who lives in Virginia (near I-495 / Georgetown Pike) and has a son who attends the Landon School in Bethesda.  He was talking to me about the commute to take his son to school and mentioned that there was a one-lane bridge that really backs up traffic.  I had no idea that there was a single lane bridge so close to DC, within the Beltway.

Take a look where MacArthur Blvd goes over the Cabin John Pkwy.  There are traffic signals on both sides of the bridge to control the traffic flow.

http://goo.gl/maps/pRLxk

[NE2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Arch_Bridge

[Mapmikey]

While talking with a colleague at work, who lives in Virginia (near I-495 / Georgetown Pike) and has a son who attends the Landon School in Bethesda.  He was talking to me about the commute to take his son to school and mentioned that there was a one-lane bridge that really backs up traffic.  I had no idea that there was a single lane bridge so close to DC, within the Beltway.

Take a look where MacArthur Blvd goes over the Cabin John Pkwy.  There are traffic signals on both sides of the bridge to control the traffic flow.

http://goo.gl/maps/pRLxk

There is an all-way stop fairly nearby west of this bridge that backs up in the afternoons such that once in a while WB traffic over the bridge gets stuck on the bridge preventing EB bridge traffic from being able to get on the bridge.

Mapmikey
Occasional user of that bridge when the beltway is messed up...

[1995hoo]

I didn't click the link NE2 posted, but if it's the bridge I'm thinking of, the bridge carries the Washington Aqueduct under the road and thus it is not salted during winter storms, increasing the potential for traffic issues there when people have to slow to a crawl.

I don't know the Maryland suburbs nearly as well as Virginia's, but off the top of my head I can't picture any other close-in one-lane bridges over there.

Most of the closer-in one-lane bridges on the Virginia side are gone. When I was a little kid, every day the school bus went over the old one-lane bridge on Woodburn Road near Spicewood Drive (and the bus driver rear-ended a VW Beetle there on the way home one day). That bridge was replaced in the mid- to late 1980s. The one on Lee Chapel Road was replaced sometime after 1989 (it was still there when I was doing the behind-the-wheel course that year). There are still two one-lane crossings (not really "bridges" as we usually think of them) on Springvale Road between Route 7 and L'Auberge Chez Francois and another nearby on Hunter Mill Road between Lake Fairfax Park and the Dulles Toll Road.

In Virginia I can think of one one-lane crossing inside the Beltway. It's on Cherokee Avenue just west of I-395 near that highway's "Turkeycock" HOV ramps (the crossing probably spans Turkeycock Run). I'll add a map link later this morning.

[froggie]

Can't think of any offhand inside the Beltway on the Virginia side, but outside the Beltway there used to be one in Lorton until that bridge closed.  And there's still a 1-lane underpass under the CSX tracks just north of the Occoquan (along SR 611).

[1995hoo]

Can't think of any offhand inside the Beltway on the Virginia side, but outside the Beltway there used to be one in Lorton until that bridge closed.  And there's still a 1-lane underpass under the CSX tracks just north of the Occoquan (along SR 611).

There is another one-lane underpass in Newington just east of I-95's interchange with the Fairfax County Parkway. It's on, appropriately, Newington Road.

I'll add links to that one and the Cherokee Avenue spot I mentioned once I'm at my PC (next half-hour or so).

[1995hoo]

Following up:

Turns out Cherokee Avenue crosses (appropriately enough) Indian Run rather than Turkeycock Run. This one is inside the Beltway.
Map link: http://goo.gl/maps/2FJ9U
Street View link showing why I referred to it as a "one-lane crossing" rather than a "one-lane bridge": http://goo.gl/maps/YjqVp


Street View of one-lane underpass in Newington: http://goo.gl/maps/0F9Gb


Street View of one-lane underpass froggie mentioned: http://goo.gl/maps/zlP0c
(As an aside, off the top of my head that's the only public road I ever recall seeing with a sign directing you to blow your horn. That sign is there because people coming the other way cannot see through the underpass due to how the road curves.)


Street Views of the two "one-lane crossings" on Springvale Road and Hunter Mill Road, respectively:
http://goo.gl/maps/t9WSU  (I said earlier there were two on Springvale. I was wrong, it's just one. I was thinking of the Hunter Mill one as the second one.)

http://goo.gl/maps/NelVD

I know a number of people who think of those types of things as "bridges," and at a community association meeting where a VDOT representative talked about the Telegraph Road widening near Greendale Golf Course the representative kept telling one resident the culvert there isn't a "bridge."

I do not have, and cannot find online, any pictures of the old one-lane bridge on Woodburn Road. It was wooden with fairly sharp approaches. I mentioned our school bus used it (going to and from the old Pine Ridge Elementary on Woodburn Road, now a police station). We all liked to sit in the back of the bus over that bridge because if the bus driver didn't have to stop to yield to someone, the sharp approach would throw everyone in the air. The things that amuse you when you're a kid.... We used to go over that bridge all the time in the car, too, typically on Sunday going to and from St. Ambrose Church on Woodburn Road (it's still there but much-expanded). That was a classic one-lane bridge that would never work there today because the road got too busy over the years.

[froggie]

The aformentioned former bridge in Lorton that I mentioned earlier.

[1995hoo]

The aformentioned former bridge in Lorton that I mentioned earlier.

I've passed under that many times on the Auto Train. It looks rather rickety.


Edited to add: froggie's post reminded me of another one-lane bridge on Furnace Road over near the old Lorton prison. I believe this bridge either has been or will be demolished as part of road reconstruction and widening. Street View link: http://goo.gl/maps/4svsE  I've always thought the sign was a little odd due to having "ON COMING" spelled as two words.