Woodrow Wilson Bridge

Interstate 95 (District of Columbia) redirects here. For the former I-95, see Interstate 395 (District of Columbia).

The Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge is a bascule bridge that spans the Potomac River between the independent city of Alexandria, Virginia and Prince George's County, Maryland. The bridge carries Interstate 95 and Interstate 495, and is the southern Potomac River crossing of the Capital Beltway. The drawbridge is opened approximately 260 times a year, disrupting traffic on the beltway.

History

The Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge was planned and built as part of the Interstate Highway System created by the U.S. Congress in 1956. Construction of the bridge was begun in the late 1950s, and it opened to traffic on December 28, 1961. Coincidentally, President Wilson's widow, Edith, died that very morning; she was supposed to have been the guest of honor at the bridge's dedication ceremony. The bridge has its west abutment in Virginia, and its east abutment in Maryland, and about 300 feet (90 m) of the mid-span portion of the bridge crosses the tip of the southernmost corner of the District of Columbia. The bridge has 6 traffic lanes, and is 5,900 feet (2,053 m) long. The structure was built as a bascule bridge to allow large, ocean-going vessels access to the port facilities of Washington, D.C.

President Woodrow Wilson

It was named in honor of the 28th President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), who when elected in 1912 was serving as Governor of New Jersey but was a native of Staunton, Virginia. While he was President, Wilson reportedly spent an average of two hours per day riding in his automobile to relax or "loosen his mind from the problems before him."

President Wilson was advocate of the automobile and highway improvements in the United States. In 1916, he stated "My interest in good roads is ...to bind communities together and open their intercourse so that it will flow with absolute freedom and facility."

Capacity and maintenance

The amount of traffic on his namesake bridge would undoubtedly amaze President Wilson today. In fact, it has exceeded all expectations of the highway planners.

The Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge was originally designed to handle 75,000 vehicles a day. Due to substantial growth in and around the Washington metropolitan area, travel demand across the bridge has grown to 200,000 vehicles per day, more than twice its original design capacity. The bridge has serious and well-documented maintenance problems and has undergone continuous patchwork maintenance since the 1970s. It was completely re-decked in 1983. The bridge remains in distress, in part because of the large volume of traffic that passes over it daily.

One of the reasons for the excess traffic of the bridge is that the eastern half of the Capital Beltway carries I-95 traffic between points south of Washington and points north of Washington. It was originally planned in the 1960s and 1970s that north-to-south traffic outside the Washington area would travel through the city on the proposed North Central Freeway. Construction of this urban freeway was subject to considerable neighborhood and political dispute, and was ultimately cancelled (see I-395). This resulted in the main route of I-95 being forced to combine with that of I-495 over the bridge and had the effect of more than doubling the forecasted bridge traffic.

Replacement facilities

Maryland, Virginia, and federal highway officials have been confronting the problems and exploring alternatives for many years. After considerable study and public debate, it was determined that a plan doubling the capacity and increasing the height of the draw portion to reduce the frequencies of openings at the same location offered the best solutions.

Construction began on the replacement facilities and approaches in 1999. The existing Wilson Bridge is being replaced by two new side-by-side drawbridges with a total of 12 lanes and 70 feet of vertical navigational clearance at the draw span. The first new six-lane Potomac River bridge opened for northbound Outer Loop traffic on June 10, 2006, with only minor delays (the lane striping of the bridge and approach did not match up initially). The first car to cross was a Toyota Corolla.

The Inner Loop of the Beltway was transitioned onto the future outer loop express lanes for a two-year interim basis on July 16, 2006 at mid-night. The original bridge is to be demolished in the following months, whereupon the second six-lane bridge (the future permanent home of the Inner Loop) will be built in the space previously occupied by the original 1961 bridge. The actual bridge section is expected to be complete by May 2008, with the majority of the project completed by 2009, and the Telegraph Road interchange by 2011.

The new spans are 20 feet (6 m) higher, which is tall enough to allow most boats to pass underneath without having to raise the bridge, thus eliminating the large traffic tie-ups that opening the span causes, though very tall ships will still necessitate opening the bridge. It is hoped that the number of openings will be reduced to about 65 per year, according to FHWA. The enormous bridge replacement project also includes an extensive redesign and reconstruction of the Capital Beltway as it approaches the new bridge from both the Maryland and Virginia sides. The new bridge will also have a pedestrian/bicycle trail.Brochure from the dedication of the eastbound span May 18, 2006Woodrow Wilson Bridge Replacement National Capital Planning Commission, August 5, 2004 The entire cost of the project is estimated at $2.5 billion.

The Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge is one of only a small number of drawbridges on the Interstate Highway System.

References

External links

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