the Three Sisters, upstream from the Key Bridge
Source: ESRI, ArcGIS Online
the Three Sisters, upstream from the Key Bridge
Source: ESRI, ArcGIS Online
During the Great Depression and World War Two, the population of Northern Virginia grew rapidly. The military headquarters of the War Department and Navy Department were moved to a new building in Arlington County, the Pentagon, but traffic trying to get to the 14th Street Bridge, Memorial Bridge, and Key Bridge was heavily congested.
The US Congress created the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) and National Capital Regional Planning Council (NCRPC) in 1952, and in 1959 they proposed the "Mass Transportation Survey" as the solution. It proposed constructing 248 more miles of highway, as well as an express bus and a mass transit rail system.
Key to the project was a proposed Inner Loop of roads inside the District of Columbia, as well as an Outer Loop (which ended up as the Capital Beltway, I-495.) Officials in the Virginia Department of Highways were supportive, anticipating the Federal government would fund 90% of the costs based on the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956.1
President Richard Nixon supported a dramatic House of Representative vote that finally blocked funding for the proposed Three Sisters Bridge in 1971
Source: District of Columbia Department of Transportation, Three Sisters Bridge: What It Might Have Looked Like
how the Three Sisters Bridge would have looked
Source: District of Columbia Department of Transportation (D.Dot), Three Sisters Bridge
After receiving the Mass Transportation Survey report, the US Congress created the National Capital Transportation Agency (NCTA) and gave it responsibility for planning a new transportation network for the region. In 1962, that agency published "Transportation in the National Capital Region" and proposed focusing on construction of a rail network, and eliminating much of the freeway construction. The National Capital Transportation Agency was replaced by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) in 1967. 2
the Teddy Roosevelt Bridge, which opened in 1964, was the first new crossing of the Potomac River since the Arlington Memorial Bridge in 1932
Source: District of Columbia Library, Theodore Roosevelt Bridge
Rep. William Natcher (D-KY) was the key official in the US House of Representatives with control over the Federal funding. He advocated for building highways through the District of Columbia, and refused to acceed to the desires of local residents.
Urban renewal projects had already disrupted neighborhoods. District of Columbia residents objected to the destruction of more housing in order to carve new highways through the city, in part because the proposed roads would benefit long-distance drivers rather than meet the needs for local transportation.3
In the 1960's, the District of Columbia was still governed by three Presidentially appointed commissioners. President Johnson establshed a mayor-council form of government in 1967 and appointed those officials. The US Congress did not authorize "home rule" with a locally-elected Mayor and City Council until 1973.4
piers for the Three Sisters Bridge were built before the project was cancelled; in 1972, Hurricane Agnes washed them away
Source: District of Columbia Department of Transportation, Three Sisters Bridge