14th Street Bridge (Potomac River)

14th Street Bridge (Potomac River)

The 14th Street Bridge is a complex of five bridges across the Potomac River, connecting Arlington, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Three of the spans are each four-lane automobile bridges—one northbound, one southbound, and one with two general purpose lanes in each direction—that carry Interstate 395 and U.S. Route 1 traffic. Adjacent to the automobile bridges are two bridges for rail traffic, one for the Yellow Line of the Washington Metro and the other for a CSX Transportation rail line, the only mainline rail crossing of the Potomac River in Virginia. The bridge was the location of the Air Florida Flight 90 airplane crash on January 13, 1982.

At the north end of the bridge, in East Potomac Park, the three roadways merge and split into two two-way bridges over the Washington Channel into downtown Washington, one carrying traffic (including northbound US 1) north onto 14th Street, and the other carrying I-395 traffic onto the Southwest Freeway. The Metro line enters a tunnel in the East Potomac Park, and the main line railroad from the Long Bridge passes over I-395 and runs over the Washington Channel just downstream of the 14th Street approach before turning northeast along the line of Maryland Avenue. The original bridge ran to the junction of 14th Street and Maryland Avenue, with access to either for cars.