TOMORROW'S ROADS TODAY - Maryland State Highway ...

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and Maryland. Maryland’s initial portion would be thirty-three miles long in Prince George’s
and Montgomery counties. In addition to a four lane highway separated by a median and
interchanges with the radial roads, the highway would require two bridges, one at the south end
of the highway between Oxon Hill, Maryland and Alexandria, Virginia and the second between
Cabin John, Maryland and Langley, Virginia. Shortly after the meeting, the SRC hired the
engineering firm of Michael Baker, Jr. of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to oversee the construction of
the Capital Beltway. Although Baker was not a Maryland engineering firm, it was one of thirty
firms that received contracts with the SRC to complete certain projects that were included in the
Twelve-Year Plan. 68
While design planning continued, the SRC first began to improve the radial roads which
had become state highways once they passed into Maryland in Montgomery and Prince George’s
counties. The first road to be improved was MD 97, Georgia Avenue, which was rebuilt as an
urban, two-lane highway in 1952, In 1955 and 1956, the SRC Report noted that Columbia Pike
(US 29), New Hampshire Avenue (MD 650), and Branch Avenue (MD 5) had all been dualized
in anticipation of connecting the circumferential routes, particularly the Capital Beltway. 69 By
1960, the SRC programmed $75,000,000 in the two counties to complete extending the radial
roads to the Beltway.
In 1955, the SRC began construction of the circumferential highway between the Indian
Head Highway (MD 210) and the Palmer Highway (MD 704) in Prince George’s County. At the
same time, the Capital Beltway’s construction in Montgomery County also began in 1955
starting with the Cedar Lane overpass east of Wisconsin Avenue. This segment of the highway
was rather controversial because it passed through the Maryland portion of the Rock Creek Park
which in the District of Columbia is a federal park, purchased with funding from the Capper-
Crampton Act of 1930. In Maryland, the M-NCPPC purchased portions of the park lands using
the Capper-Crampton Act funding, although the county agency also received state funds for park
land purchases. Local residents living in Chevy Chase near the highway opposed construction of
the Beltway through the park because of the damage to the trees, as well as the potential damage
to the residential property values. Many of the opponents were among Washington’s political
and business elite, unlike the residents in Prince George’s County near the Indian Head and
Palmer highways. Although their objections were considered, the county and federal agencies,
the M-NCPPC and the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC), overruled their
objections and agreed to allow the SRC to construct the highway. 70
The SRC completed construction of the 1.5 mile segment of the highway near Wisconsin
Avenue in 1957. By then, other portions of the highway had been constructed between
Wisconsin Avenue in Montgomery County and Kenilworth Avenue in Prince George’s County,
but it was not complete. Governor McKeldin and his wife both cut ribbons to celebrate the
68 Jeremy Louis Korr, Washington Main Street: Consensus and Conflict on the Capital Beltway, 1952-
2001,University of Maryland, College Park, MD (2002), p. 111, State Roads Commission of Maryland; Report of
the State Roads Commission of Maryland, 1955-1956, Baltimore, MD: 1956, p. 11
69 State Roads Commission of Maryland, Report of the State Roads Commission of Maryland, 1951-1952, Baltimore,
MD: 1952, p. 137; and State Roads Commission of Maryland, Report of the State Roads Commission of Maryland,
1955-1956, Baltimore, MD: 1952, p. 147.
70 Op. cit., pp. 126, 152 and 180-182