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George Washington Memorial Parkway
Virginia, Maryland, Washington, D.C.
Parkway Construction near Key Bridge, 1949 (DCL) |
GEORGE WASHINGTON MEMORIAL PARKWAY
George Washington Memorial Parkway was an ambitious undertaking. Along with the technical difficulties involved in constructing roadways along the rugged banks of the Potomac, the project required close cooperation between federal, state, and local agencies. The National Park Service assumed overall responsibility, with the BPR again lending its road-building expertise. Funding problems plagued the parkway throughout its development, which continued in fits and starts for almost forty years.
By the late 1940s, the parkway had only been extended as far north as Spout Run. An extra arch was added to Key Bridge to accommodate the parkway drive at Rosslyn. The Spout Run Bridge, completed in 1959 to carry southbound traffic on the main parkway, provides a striking example of the artistic possibilities of modern concrete bridge design.
Spout Run, 1968 (CFA/Alexander) |
President Eisenhower opening parkway to Langley, 1959 (DCL) |
The northern portions of George Washington Memorial Parkway were mostly built in the 1950s-1960s. The longest section, between Spout Run and Langley, Virginia, was officially opened by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1959.
During the 1930s, parkways were seen as ideal ways to combine recreational development, scenic preservation, and traffic relief. By the 1960s, however, high-speed motorways were generally regarded as incompatible with natural resource protection. Preservationists played an important role in preventing the parkway's roads from extending all the way north to Great Falls, as originally planned. While the National Park Service acquired most of the Potomac shoreline between Washington and Great Falls, road construction stopped at the Capital Beltway on the Virginia side and just north of the Beltway in Maryland. The Fort Washington leg was abandoned for economic and political reasons. The final road segment, between Chain Bridge and the Maryland border, was opened in 1970.
Clara Barton Parkway, 1993 (HAER/Davis) |
| Introduction | Acadia | Blue Ridge Parkway | Colonial Parkway | Generals Highway | George Washington Memorial Parkway | Great Smoky Mountains | Mount Rainier | Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway | Shenandoah's Skyline Drive | Southwest Circle Tour | Vicksburg | Yellowstone | Yosemite | Discover History |
