Interstate 495 (Capital Beltway)

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Interstate 495—widely known as the Capital Beltway or simply as the Beltway—is a freeway-class interstate highway which circles Washington, DC and its inner suburbs in Maryland and Virginia. It is the basis for the phrase "inside the Beltway", used when referring to issues dealing with American government and politics.

Contents

History

Image:Cap beltway.jpg

The federal government gave final approval for the construction of the Capital Beltway (also known as the Circumferential Highway in the planning stages) on September 28, 1955. The first section of the 64-mile long Beltway (including the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge over the Potomac River) was opened on December 21, 1961; the highway was completed on August 17, 1964.

Originally designated I-495, in 1977 the eastern portion of the Beltway was re-designated I-95 when a proposed alignment of I-95 from New York Avenue in Washington, DC, through Prince George's County, Maryland to I-495 was cancelled. Motorists never fully adjusted to the two halves of the Beltway having different numbers, so in 1989 the I-495 designation was restored to the eastern portion, making it a dual I-95/I-495.

Traveling clockwise, the Beltway is designated as the Inner Loop; traveling counter-clockwise, it is designated as the Outer Loop.

The Beltway crosses the Potomac River twice, on the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge and on the American Legion Memorial Bridge.

Traffic congestion

Traffic volume on the Beltway can be as high as 225,000 vehicles per day. Despite numerous widening projects during its history, heavy traffic on the Beltway is a continuing problem.

Two intersections on the Capital Beltway are ranked in the top 20 on a study of the "worst bottlenecks in the nation." They are the I-495 at I-270 interchange in Montgomery County, Maryland, ranked third overall, which receives 243,425 cars daily, and the I-495 at I-95 interchange in Prince George's County, Maryland, ranked 11th, with 185,125 cars. The Springfield Interchange, where I-395, I-95, and I-495 meet, was previously ranked fifth worst in the nation, but recent improvements have taken it off the top 20. Local commuters refer to the Springfield Interchange as "The Mixing Bowl", although this designation is reserved by highway officials for the even more complicated interchange complex adjacent to the Pentagon on the original Henry G. Shirley Memorial Highway (currently better-known as Interstate 395) at Virginia State Highway 27 in Arlington.

In April, 2005, the Virginia Department of Transportation signed an agreement with two private companies to build high-occupancy toll lanes on the stretch of the Beltway between Springfield and Georgetown Pike. Maryland officials are considering such lanes on their segment of the Beltway, as well as other major commuter highways in the state.

Capital Beltway trivia

Even most local travelers around the entire loop are probably unaware that the circumferential roadway not only is located in the states of Virginia and Maryland, but also crosses briefly through a small portion of the District of Columbia in the Potomac River at the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge. [1]

The Capital Beltway also interchanges with a "secret" unsigned section of the Interstate Highway System, the long lost Interstate 595 in Maryland, completed in 1995. This roadway is still signed as U.S. Highway 50. [2]

Originally, the exits in Virginia also were numbered starting with 1, which caused problems because there were some exits that had the same number in Maryland and Virginia. This was changed around 2000 by renumbering all of the low-numbered Virginia exits starting with the next highest number used by the Maryland portion, thus creating a consistent numbering system around the entire beltway, and making all exit numbers on the entire beltway unique to both states.

List of exits

Maryland

Virginia

  • 43 – George Washington Memorial Parkway
  • 44 – Georgetown Pike (VA 193)
  • 45 – Dulles Access Rd / Dulles Toll Rd (VA 267)
  • 46 – Chain Bridge Rd (VA 123)
  • 47 – Leesburg Pike (VA 7)
  • 49 – I-66 (Custis Memorial Parkway)
  • 50 – Arlington Blvd (US 50)
  • 51 – Gallows Rd (VA 650)
  • 52 – Little River Turnpike (VA 236)
  • 54 – Braddock Road (VA 620)
  • 57 – I-95 / I-395 (Shirley Memorial Highway)
  • 173 – Van Dorn St (VA 401/613)
  • 174 – Eisenhower Ave
  • 176 – Telegraph Rd (VA 611 / 241)
  • 177 – Richmond Hwy / Patrick St (US 1)
Image:I-blank.gif
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Image:Interstate95.png
Three-digit Interstates from Interstate 95
I-195 Florida - Maine - Maryland - Massachusetts/Rhode Island - New Jersey - Virginia
I-295 Delaware/New Jersey/Pennsylvania - District of Columbia/Maryland - Florida - Massachusetts/Rhode Island - Maine - New York - North Carolina - Virginia
I-395 Connecticut/Massachusetts - District of Columbia-Virginia - Florida - Maryland - Maine
I-495 Delaware - District of Columbia/Maryland/Virginia - Maine - Massachusetts - New York
I-595 Florida - Maryland
I-695 District of Columbia - Maryland - New York
I-795 Maryland
I-895 Maryland - New York
past/
future 		I-195: District of Columbia - North Carolina
I-495: New Jersey
I-595: Virginia
I-695: Massachusetts - New Jersey - Pennsylvania
I-795: Florida - Virginia
I-895: Delaware - Massachusetts/Rhode Island - New Jersey/Pennsylvania - Virginia

External links

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