The inadequacy of roads approaching the Potomac River bridges crossing from Virginia to Washington, D.C., had been a matter of increasing concern for many years. For example, in January 1934, Chief MacDonald prepared a report on the situation for the National Capital Parks and Planning Commission. The report proposed a plan for a system of arterial highways to be used as a basis for a progressive program of improvements. Through the years, little was accomplished toward these objectives, and by 1941 the traffic flow across the Memorial, Key, and 14th Street bridges had reached an average daily total of 118,000 vehicles, with an hourly peak flow close to 11,000 vehicles.
The request from the War Department required the best design and planning engineers available. A special design section was established in the Public Roads Administration’s headquarters. Engineers were assembled from field offices to work on the largest single design project ever undertaken by Public Roads up to that time.
The design problem was superimposing a new high traffic volume created by the new government office buildings on an already congested road system. The location of the existing bridges across the Potomac River, the proximity of Arlington Cemetery, the necessity of connecting the principal highways, and the requirement that the design be functional as well as esthetically compatible, posed formidable problems.
Coincident with the studies for the Pentagon network, the Virginia Department of Highways conducted studies for a new highway from Woodbridge, Virginia, to Arlington, to bypass Alexandria and connect with the Potomac River bridges. (This highway today is known as the Henry G. Shirley Memorial Highway.)
In September 1942, agreement was reached that the portion of the Shirley Highway from an interchange with Virginia Route 7 to the connection with the Pentagon network would be certified by the War Department as a defense access road project, and the Public Roads Administration was directed to build it. Responsibility for construction of the two projects was assigned to Region 15, Eastern Parks and Forests Roads. The work was completed in 1952.[1] The Pentagon network today is a part of I-95 and has been reconstructed with some new alinement under the Interstate program.
Access Roads for the Bureau of Land Management
In 1949 the Interior Department Appropriation Act for 1950 provided for construction of access roads on and to grant lands that had been returned to the Federal Government in the early 1900’s. These lands, known as “O & C lands,” were under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and in 1950 a Memorandum of Agreement was drawn up between BLM and BPR identifying responsibilities for the work. The Interior Department Appropriation Act for 1951 directed that funds be turned over to BPR.
The Suitland Parkway near Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland.
The O & C lands were originally two separate land grants. The first was the Oregon and California Railroad grant in 1866 for a railroad from Portland to the California border consisting of odd numbered sections on each side of the road location for a 20-mile wide strip. In 1869 limitations were imposed that the land could be sold only to bona fide settlers and that not more than 160 acres at not more than $2.50 per acre could be sold to any one person. However, the conditions of the grant were violated, and in 1915
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- ↑ F. Cron, Appendix A, Statement of Historical Reference Relating to the Development of the Pentagon Road System and the Connecting Shirley Memorial Highway, Oct. 24, 1960, unpublished appendix to Pentagon Area Transportation Study (BPR, Washington, D.C, 1961).
