U.S. Route 29 in The District of Columbia - History

History

Various alignments of Route 29 used to exist, including segments along New Hampshire Avenue NW, Dupont Circle, 16th Street NW, and Alaska Avenue NW.

Prior to construction of the Whitehurst Freeway, the Georgetown waterfront experienced periods of prosperity and decline. The freeway was seen as a component of what would eventually be the "Inner Loop", a system of three concentric high-speed freeways. Whitehurst would form part of the innermost loop, which was an ellipse roughly centered on and built about a 1-mile (1.6 km) from the White House. (By the 1950s, planners envisioned replacing the Whitehurst Freeway with a much more massive, eight-lane road.) Planning for a "sky-road" above K Street NW along the Georgetown waterfront was already long-planned by the time architectural drawings were released to the public in December 1941. Congress authorized construction of the freeway on January 24, 1942, and appropriated $2.2 million of federal funds for its construction on February 6. But with the outbreak of World War II and the diversion of steel for war material, construction of the freeway was indefinitely postponed in May 1942. Gas rationing during the war caused the number of automobiles on roads to drop precipitously, helping to make the freeway unnecessary. Planning for post-war construction did not cease during the war, however. In May 1943, the United States Commission of Fine Arts approved a plan for post-war construction in Washington, D.C., that gave a high priority to the K Street freeway in fiscal 1947 (which began in July 1946).

Construction of the $3.294 million freeway began on June 1, 1947. The structure was built by engineer Archibald Alexander. The Des Moines, Iowa, firm of Alexander & Repass successfully bid to construct the viaduct. The cost of the freeway was split between the D.C. and federal governments, with cost overruns to be paid from D.C. reserves. Extra federal funds were procured in the fiscal 1949 budget to speed its construction. Construction of the freeway required the demolition of the Francis Scott Key home at 3516 M Street NW. Although efforts to have the home dismantled rather than demolished were successful, President Harry S. Truman declined to expend federal funds to have the home rebuilt elsewhere, and the structure went into storage.

Herbert C. Whitehurst, director of the D.C. highway department, died on September 1, 1948, and just a week later D.C. officials proposed that the then-under construction freeway be named for him.

The Whitehurst Freeway opened on October 8, 1949.