Interstate 695 (District of Columbia)

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Interstate 695
Unsigned auxiliary route of the Interstate Highway System

Length:

1.39 mi (2.24 km)

Formed:

1958

West end:

I-395

Major
junctions:

I-295

East end:

Pennsylvania Ave.

Map of I-695 as built (red) and once planned (pink)

Interstate 695 (abbreviated I-695) is the unsigned designation for the 1.39-mile (2.24 km)^[1] Southeast Freeway in Washington, D.C. It runs from Interstate 395 south of the U.S. Capitol Building east past the north end of Interstate 295 (at the 11th Street Bridges) to Pennsylvania Avenue at Barney Circle, just northwest of the John Philip Sousa Bridge. Stub ramps at Pennsylvania Avenue, once meant to continue the freeway (as part of I-295) to Interstate 95 and U.S. Route 50 northeast of Union Station, with access to D.C. Route 295 via the Whitney Young Memorial Bridge (East Capitol Street), now provide access to RFK Stadium.

The route is not marked, being instead signed for its destinations - Interstate 395, Interstate 295 and Pennsylvania Avenue.

[edit] History

1955 plans (numbered in 1958) took Interstate 95 through Washington on what is now Interstate 395, turning east at U.S. Route 50 and leaving along the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. Interstate 295 was to run along its current route to south of the 11th Street Bridges, but then would have continued northeast along D.C. Route 295, ending at I-95 just outside the District. Interstate 695 was to run from I-295 over the 11th Street Bridges, turning west on what is now I-695 to end at I-95 (now I-395).

Soon (possibly by 1958, when numbers were assigned), I-95 between Baltimore and Washington was shifted to its present alignment, splitting from the US 50 corridor northeast of Union Station. I-295 was shifted to cross the 11th Street Bridges, and then turn east in the median of present I-695 (where the ramps to RFK Stadium now lie), continuing north and northwest to end at I-95 and US 50 at their split. I-695 would be the short section of freeway between I-95 and I-295, and ramps on both sides of the East Capitol Street Bridge would provide a freeway-to-freeway connection between I-695 and DC 295 (via I-295).

By 1971, an extension was added to the planned I-695. It would run concurrent with I-95 west to Maine Avenue, where it would split (the existing interchange provides for freeway-to-freeway ramps) and run northwest along Independence Avenue past the Lincoln Memorial to end at Interstate 66 at the east end of the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge (that interchange also has the appropriate ramps).

The Southeast Freeway, including the part planned as I-295 to Pennsylvania Avenue, was built in the late 1960s. Plans for the remaining Interstates in Washington were cancelled in 1977, and at some later time I-295 was truncated to I-695, with the former I-295 stub to Pennsylvania Avenue renumbered as part of I-695.

A plan was made in the 1990s for the Barney Circle Freeway, which was to run from the east end of I-695 northeast and east across the Anacostia River to D.C. Route 295. This would have filled a hole in Washington's freeway system, which currently has no connection between I-395 and DC 295. (This would have been provided by I-295 and the Whitney Young Memorial Bridge.) After the Barney Circle Freeway plan was cancelled in 1996, a left-turn movement was added at the interchange between Pennsylvania Avenue and DC 295, allowing traffic coming from I-695 to cross the Anacostia on Pennsylvania Avenue and join DC 295 directly, albeit passing through two traffic signals. However, no ramp was provided from DC 295 south to Pennsylvania Avenue west, and so traffic from DC 295 to I-395 must cross the Anacostia on South Capitol Street. There are plans as of 2006 to build two ramps at the I-295/DC 295 interchange to make these movements possible.

[edit] Exit list

Shields are shown at intersections with other Interstates.

Mile	Destinations	Notes
	to Interstate 395 south - Richmond, Virginia	westbound exit and eastbound entrance
	to Interstate 395 north	westbound exit and eastbound entrance; westbound exit first leaves before the merge from 6th Street before rejoining
	South Capitol Street	eastbound exit and westbound entrance
	6th Street Southeast - Navy Yard	eastbound exit and westbound entrance
	8th Street Southeast	westbound exit and eastbound entrance
	Interstate 295 south - Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue	eastbound exit and westbound entrance
	Pennsylvania Avenue to D.C. Route 295 north	eastbound exit and westbound entrance
	RFK Stadium	eastbound exit and westbound entrance

[edit] References

	Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Interstate 695 (District of Columbia)

^ Federal Highway Administration - Auxiliary Routes of the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System Of Interstate and Defense Highways

	edit Auxiliary routes of Interstate 95
I-195	Florida - Maine - Maryland - Massachusetts/Rhode Island - New Jersey - Virginia
I-295	Delaware/New Jersey - District of Columbia/Maryland - Florida - Massachusetts/Rhode Island - Maine - New York - North Carolina - Virginia
I-395	Connecticut/Massachusetts - District of Columbia/Virginia - Florida - Maryland - Maine
I-495	Delaware - District of Columbia/Maryland/Virginia - Maine - Massachusetts - New York
I-595	Florida - Maryland
I-695	District of Columbia - Maryland - New York
I-795	Maryland
I-895	Maryland - New York - Massachusetts/Rhode Island
past/ future	I-495: New Jersey I-595: Virginia I-695: Massachusetts - New Jersey - Pennsylvania I-795: Florida - Virginia I-895: Delaware - New Jersey/Pennsylvania - Virginia