Interstate 66

Interstate 66

Just barely entering the city of Washington, Interstate 66 concludes the relatively short route in the District of Columbia at U.S. 29 near George Washington University. I-66 enters the city across the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Bridge alongside U.S. 50 before turning northward along the Potomac River Freeway. The east end of I-66 ties into K Street east and the Whitehurst Freeway west. Exits are unnumbered for I-66 in the Nation's Capital.

I-66 was originally planned to continue east from the Whitehurst Freeway through a tunnel along K Street (North Leg Freeway). The North Leg Freeway would have extended I-66 east to an end at I-95 (Center Leg Freeway), a short distance north of where I-395 concludes at New York Avenue (U.S. 50). Provisions in the 1960s were made at the interchange with the Whitehurst Freeway for the North Leg Freeway. The unused ramps were later demolished when the Whitehurst was reconstructed in the late 1990s.1

Interstate 66 utilizes a 0.9 mile portion of the West Leg Freeway, a component of the Washington Inner Loop system planned in 1955.1 The West Leg was to tie into the South Leg Freeway (I-695) running southeast by the Tidal Basin to the ramps connecting Maine Avenue and I-395 (Southwest Freeway). Directional ramps with Ohio Drive remain from the South Leg Freeway plan.

Work commenced on the Potomac River Freeway section of I-66 in 1960. The Roosevelt Bridge opened in June 1964, but with ramps just to Constitution Avenue (U.S. 50). Progress along I-66 to the north followed with a July 1965 opening to the E Street Expressway. Further work completed by late 1965 included the cut and cover tunnel below Virginia and New Hampshire Avenues to the east of the Watergate Complex.1

References:

  1. Potomac River Freeway (I-66), DCRoads.net.

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Page Updated Tuesday December 17, 2024.