Washington Street (Boston) - Extent and Description

Extent and Description

Washington Street begins at Keany Square, the intersection with Causeway Street and Commercial Street, at the south end of the Charlestown Bridge. This section of the street is known as North Washington Street or Joe Tecce's Way. The road ends north of Haymarket Square, where it joins the so-called Surface Artery (the road above the subterranean Big Dig.) Due to redevelopment, the original path of Washington Street has been pre-empted by Haymarket Square and Government Center (which used to be Scollay Square).

Washington Street begins once again at State and Court Streets as a one-way thoroughfare (for northbound traffic only). Through Downtown Crossing, from Milk Street south to Temple Place, Washington Street is closed to most vehicular traffic (and continues to be one-way northbound for authorized traffic only). South of Temple Place, Washington is, once again, one-way northbound, becoming two-way at Stuart Street and Kneeland Street. From Marginal Street, south to East Berkeley Street, including the bridge over the Massachusetts Turnpike and the adjacent Amtrak/Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) commuter-railroad tracks, the road is also one-way northbound, with a southbound contra-flowing bus lane for the Silver-Line bus.

At Dudley Square in Roxbury, Washington Street is southbound-only for several blocks, between Warren Street and Dudley Street. Northbound traffic bypasses this section to the east using those two streets. Just after passing under the Arborway in Jamaica Plain, Washington Street becomes Hyde Park Avenue, and traffic staying on Washington Street must turn west on Ukraine Way to cross over the Amtrak/MBTA Commuter Rail tracks, and then south at South Street, which becomes Washington Street again.

Southbound traffic must use short sections of South Street and Poplar Street at Roslindale Square. South of there, near the border between Roslindale and West Roxbury, Washington Street crosses West Roxbury Parkway and acquires a median strip. This median lasts until just before the Dedham city line, where the road continues as an undivided road.

Washington Street continues southwestward, through the center of Dedham, the outskirts of Westwood, the centers of Norwood, and East Walpole and South Walpole. At the Walpole-Foxborough line, it no longer crosses the railroad tracks (the old Mansfield and Framingham Railroad), and traffic must detour via Water Street and North Street. North Street connects to the Boston-Providence Turnpike, which carries US Route 1 (and was never actually a turnpike, a toll road). This road merges into the old path of Washington Street south of the railroad. From there to Rhode Island, except through North Attleborough center (which it bypasses using East Washington Street as opposed to North and South Washington Streets), US Route 1 stays with Washington, as it passes through the outskirts of Foxborough (past Gillette Stadium), Wrentham and Plainville, and then through South Attleboro.