🚀 go-pugleaf

I checked out this exhibit last Saturday.  A few points:

It was incorrect in stating that I-395 was completed in 1963; perhaps
this is true with the SW Freeway portion, but the I-395 3rd Street
Tunnel had its southern portion to Massachusetts Avenue constructed
between 1966 and 1973, and its northern segment constructed between
1977 and 1982.

It fails to show any design evolutions, either with the road's built
(e.g. I-66 by the Kennedy Center) or not built (e.g. the I-66 K Street,
and the later version of the East Leg of the Inner Loop to RFK Stadium.


The former went through at least two different designs, 1955 with an
underground connection to the Inner Loop beneath Washington Circle, and
1957 on a straight line route, before the adaptation of a later (3rd?)
design with the curves that avoid the Embassy of Saudi Arabia.

The K Street Tunnel was the idea initially promoted by NCPC's
Elizabeth Rowe in 1965-66 as an alterative way of achieving a
cross-town I-66 minimizing building displacement and avoiding bisecting
the area.

The East Leg of the Inner Loop to RFK Stadium was the replacement for
the 11th Street Route that was canceled around 1962, in order to avoid
building displacement and neighborhood bisection.  (Alas, no covered
version was ever offered in order to avoid reduced pedestrian access to
the Anacostia waterfront.)

Also, it should have expanded its focus upon the freeway opposition
beyond Sammie Abbott, and included information about the more
established opposition, such as the "Committee of 100" and
Covington & Burling.

Douglas A. Willinger
Takoma Park Highway Design Studio
http://www.HighwaysAndCommunities.com
http://www.HighwaysAndCommunities.com/southcapitolstreet
http://wwwsouthcapitolstreet.blogspot.com/