Capital Beltway turns 60 years old this month
Traffic backups are not unusual where the Capital Beltway meets the I-270 spur in either direction any time of day December 02, 2019 in Bethesda, MD. Plans are in the works to add more lanes. (Photo by Katherine Frey/The Washington Post via Getty Ima
WASHINGTON - The Capital Beltway — the 64-mile highway enveloping Washington, D.C. and its inner suburbs — turns 60 years old this month.
The original plan for the Beltway was approved in September 1955 as part of President Dwight Eisenhower’s vision for an interstate highway system. Over the next nine years, construction efforts on the Beltway took place in segments.
Residents across some developed suburbs in Maryland disagreed with the plan, seeing that the road would cut through and between their neighborhoods. In Montgomery County, Parkwood Drive residents even filed suit to prevent construction from taking place in Rock Creek Park but they were ultimately unsuccessful.
Residential political actions formed some of the hurdles that the early Beltway faced and still faces, to this day. On Aug. 17, 1964, Maryland Governor J. Millard Tawes cut the ceremonial ribbon in front of the Beltway’s final stretch, thus completing the loop.