Henry G. Shirley Memorial Highway, Virginia's First Freeway
Near Dc Northern Virginia, Virginia
Virginia's first limited-access freeway was built in a hurry. Construction started in October nineteen forty-one, and by October nineteen forty-three the first section opened near the Pentagon in Arlington. The road was conceived before America entered the war and completed in stages through nineteen fifty-two, running from Woodbridge to the Fourteenth Street Bridge over the Potomac.
It was named for Henry G. Shirley, director of the Virginia Department of Highways from nineteen twenty-two to nineteen forty-one. Shirley approved the project just weeks before his death in July nineteen forty-one, he never saw it open. Between nineteen sixty-five and nineteen seventy-five, the highway was reconstructed to full interstate standards and redesignated Interstate Ninety-Five, then partially renamed Interstate Three Ninety-Five north of Springfield. The road that started as a wartime commuter route for Pentagon workers became the spine of Northern Virginia's entire highway network.
