Four Bridges Connecting Va. to D.C. Will Be Closed Starting Tuesday
JUST IN: A number of bridges to D.C. will be closed starting on Tuesday, part of "the strongest Capital-area security response in history"
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Matt Blitz January 15, 2021 at 5:45pm
(Updated at 7 p.m.) A number of bridges connecting Arlington to D.C. across the Potomac River are closing due to presidential inauguration security measures. ... Virginia State Police is working with the United States Secret Service to close Roosevelt Bridge, the I-395 Bridge and the 14th Street Bridge starting Tuesday morning through Thursday at 6 a.m., according to a joint statement from Virginia lawmakers.
The Arlington Memorial Bridge closed tonight, according to news reports, and will remain closed until Thursday. The HOV span of the 14th Street Bridge is set to close Saturday morning until Thursday, according to the Secret Service. ... That would leave the Key Bridge in Rosslyn and the Chain Bridge from N. Glebe Road as the main routes from Arlington into the District for two days.
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Additionally, Metro announced this afternoon that the Pentagon Metro station will be closed, and bus service there suspended, on Inauguration Day. ... “Blue and Yellow Line trains will continue to operate but will pass through the station without stopping,” Metro said. “The Pentagon Transit Center, served by six Metrobus lines, will also be closed. Buses will be relocated instead to Pentagon City, on the east side of Hayes Street S. and 12th Street S. for the day.”
Arlington Cemetery station is also closing, along with a number of D.C. stations, starting today. ... Virginia Railway Express trains, meanwhile, will not be running Monday through Wednesday, due to the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday and “enhanced security measures” related to the presidential inauguration.
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VDOT and Virginia State Police said Friday that state authorities will be helping with the 48-hour closures of the Potomac River bridges under an agreement with the Secret Service. Drivers are urged to plan ahead, avoid the area and use alternate routes.
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All of the Potomac bridges in the DC vicinity are shown on this approach chart for the DCA airport, with the exception of the Wilson Bridge (I-95), a few miles to the south of DCA. The National Mall is, basically, depicted as P-56 with the Washington Monument icon.
NOTE: CHART FOR GEOGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION ONLY. NOT TO BE USED FOR NAVIGATION
Think: the Air Florida crash. That's where the I-395 bridge is. The American Legion Bridge carries I-495 over the Potomac.
Look at the chart in this thread:
Wed Jan 13, 2021: 39 Years Ago Today; Air Florida Flight 90 plunges into Potomac River after takeoff
When I-95 nears DC from Richmond, it makes a three-way split. One way is to keep going (mostly) due north. That's I-395, which goes into DC. It goes past the Pentagon and under the approach path of aircraft headed into DCA coming downriver, from the northwest. On the chart above, I-395 crosses the Potomac River on the George Mason Bridge and what used to called the Rochambeau Bridge, now renamed the Arland D. Williams Jr. Memorial Bridge (but I've never heard anyone use that name). Everyone calls the I-395 bridges, collectively, "the 14th Street Bridge."
14th Street bridges
To stay on I-95 and go around DC, you make a right turn. This takes you into Prince George's County, Maryland, by way of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. That stretch of I-95 is shared with I-495, the Capital Beltway. That way puts you on the Outer Loop, going counter-clockwise.
If you make a left turn, you head toward Montgomery County, Maryland, by way of the American Legion Bridge. This is also I-495, the Capital Beltway. This way puts you on the Inner Loop, going clockwise.
American Legion Memorial Bridge (Potomac River)