Interstate 695 (I-695), also known as the Southeast Freeway, is a

auxiliary Interstate Highway Auxiliary Interstate Highways (also called three-digit Interstate Highways) are a subset of highways within the United States' Interstate Highway System. The 323 auxiliary routes generally fall into three types: spur routes, which connect to or i ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

It travels from an

interchange Interchange may refer to: Transport * Interchange (road), a collection of ramps, exits, and entrances between two or more highways * Interchange (freight rail), the transfer of freight cars between railroad companies * Interchange station, a rai ...

with I-395 south of the

US Capitol The United States Capitol, often called the Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the Seat of government, seat of the United States Congress, the United States Congress, legislative branch of the Federal government of the United States, federal g ...

building east then south across the

11th Street Bridges The 11th Street Bridges are a complex of three bridges across the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C., United States. The bridges convey Interstate 695 (District of Columbia), Interstate 695 across the Anacostia to its southern terminus at Int ...

to an interchange with

I-295 Interstate 295 is the designation for the following eight Interstate Highways in the United States, all of which are related to I-95: *Interstate 295 (Delaware–Pennsylvania), a bypass of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania * Interstate 295 (Florida), a be ...

and District of Columbia Route 295 (DC 295) in

Anacostia Anacostia is a historic neighborhood in Southeast (Washington, D.C.), Southeast Washington, D.C. Its downtown is located at the intersection of Marion Barry Avenue (formerly Good Hope Road) SE and the neighborhood contains commercial and gover ...

. Access also exists from eastbound I-695 to

Pennsylvania Avenue Pennsylvania Avenue is a primarily diagonal street in Washington, D.C. that connects the United States Capitol with the White House and then crosses northwest Washington, D.C. to Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown. Traveling through So ...

at Barney Circle, just northwest of the

John Philip Sousa Bridge The John Philip Sousa Bridge, also known as the Sousa Bridge and the Pennsylvania Avenue Bridge, is a continuous steel plate girder bridge that carries Pennsylvania Avenue SE across the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C., in the United Stat ...

. Stub ramps at Pennsylvania Avenue, once meant to continue the

freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...

(as part of I-295) to

I-95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, north to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the ...

and US Route 50 (US 50) northeast of

Washington Union Station Washington Union Station, known locally as Union Station, is a major train station, transportation hub, and leisure destination in Washington, D.C. Designed by Daniel Burnham and opened in 1907, it is Amtrak's second-busiest station and North ...

, now provide access to

Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, commonly known as RFK Stadium and originally known as District of Columbia Stadium, is a defunct multi-purpose stadium in Washington, D.C. located on East Capitol Street near the Anacostia River. Opened in 1 ...

. Though the I-695 designation has existed since near the birth of the Interstate Highway System, the route was only signed in late 2011 along with the 11th Street Bridges reconstruction project. The route number is planned to be decommissioned in favor of an extension of the I-395 designation, but the resigning work is yet to commence .

Route description

I-695 begins at an interchange with I-395, following through the densely populated areas of Washington DC. The road comes to an interchange with

South Capitol Street South Capitol Street is a major street dividing the southeast and southwest quadrants of Washington, D.C., in the United States. It runs south from the United States Capitol to the D.C.–Maryland line, intersecting with Southern Avenue. Afte ...

, providing access to the

Nationals Park Nationals Park is a baseball stadium along the Anacostia River in the Navy Yard (Washington, D.C.), Navy Yard neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It is the ballpark of Major League Baseball's Washington Nationals. Since its completion in 2008, it wa ...

baseball stadium. It then continues east, passing over 6th Street Southeast. The Interstate comes to another interchange, providing access to I-395 north (westbound only) and 11th Street and Southeast Boulevard (eastbound). It then proceeds to cross the

over the

Anacostia River The Anacostia River is a river in the Mid-Atlantic states, Mid Atlantic region of the United States. It flows from Prince George's County, Maryland, Prince George's County in Maryland into Washington, D.C., where it joins with the Washington Ch ...

before reaching its terminus at

and DC 295.

History

Plans from 1955 (numbered in 1958) took

through Washington on what is now I-395, turning east at US 50 and leaving along the

Baltimore–Washington Parkway The Baltimore–Washington Parkway (also referred to as the B–W Parkway) is a controlled-access parkway in the U.S. state of Maryland, running southwest from Baltimore to Washington, D.C. The road begins at an interchange with U.S. Route&n ...

was to travel along its current route to south of the

, but then would have continued northeast along DC 295, ending at I-95 just outside DC. I-695 was to travel from I-295 over the 11th Street Bridges, turning west on what is now I-695 to end at I-95 (now I-395). Soon—possibly by 1958, when numbers were assigned—I-95 between

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...

, and Washington DC was shifted to a new alignment, splitting from the US 50 corridor northeast of

. I-295 was shifted to cross the 11th Street Bridges and then turn east in the

median The median of a set of numbers is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a Sample (statistics), data sample, a statistical population, population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as the “ ...

of present I-695 (where the ramps to

now lie), continuing north and northwest to end at I-95 and US 50 at their split. I-695 would be the short section of freeway between I-95 and I-295, and ramps on both sides of the

Whitney Young Memorial Bridge The Whitney Young Memorial Bridge is a bridge that carries East Capitol Street across the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C. in the United States. Finished in 1955, it was originally called the East Capitol Street Bridge. It was renamed for civ ...

would provide a freeway-to-freeway connection between I-695 and DC 295 (via I-295). By 1971, an extension was added to the planned I-695. It would travel

concurrent Concurrent means happening at the same time. Concurrency, concurrent, or concurrence may refer to: Law * Concurrence, in jurisprudence, the need to prove both ''actus reus'' and ''mens rea'' * Concurring opinion (also called a "concurrence"), a ...

with I-95 west to

Maine Avenue Maine Avenue is a diagonal avenue in the Washington, D.C. (southwest), Southwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. Maine Avenue connects Independence Avenue (Washington D.C.), Independence Avenue with M Street (Washington, D.C.), M Street SW, and has ...

, where it would split (the existing

provides for freeway-to-freeway ramps) and run northwest in a tunnel to end at

I-66 Interstate 66 (I-66) is a 76.32 mile east–west Interstate Highway in the East Coast of the United States, eastern United States. The highway runs from an interchange with Interstate 81 in Virginia, I-81 near Middletown, Virginia, on its w ...

, at the east end of the

Theodore Roosevelt Bridge The Theodore Roosevelt Bridge (also known as the Teddy Roosevelt Bridge, Roosevelt Bridge, or T.R. Bridge) is a bridge crossing the Potomac River which connects Washington, D.C., with the Commonwealth of Virginia. The bridge crosses over Theodore ...

(that interchange also has the appropriate ramps). Though this was never built, an I-695 South sign remained on I-66 westbound at the planned location of the terminus, covered with plywood, until its removal in 2018. The Southeast Freeway, including the section planned as I-295 to Pennsylvania Avenue, was built in the late 1960s. Plans for the remaining Interstates in Washington DC were canceled in 1977 after much opposition, and I-295 was later truncated to I-695, with the former I-295 stub to Pennsylvania Avenue renumbered as part of I-695. In the 1990s, the Barney Circle Freeway was planned to travel from the east end of I-695 across the

to DC 295. This would have filled a hole in Washington DC's freeway system, which had no connection between I-395 and DC 295. (This would have been provided by I-295 and the Whitney Young Memorial Bridge.) After the Barney Circle Freeway plan was canceled in 1996, a left-turn movement was added at the interchange between Pennsylvania Avenue and DC 295, allowing traffic coming from I-695 to cross the Anacostia on Pennsylvania Avenue and join DC 295 directly, albeit passing through two

traffic signal Traffic lights, traffic signals, or stoplights – also known as robots in South Africa, Zambia, and Namibia – are signaling devices positioned at intersection (road), road intersections, pedestrian crossings, and other locations in order t ...

s. No ramp was provided from DC 295 south to Pennsylvania Avenue west, however, and so traffic from DC 295 south to I-395 south needed to cross the Anacostia on

. That decommissioning was foretold in April 2003, when the DC Office of Planning stated that "the elevated Southeast Freeway and industrial landscape create formidable psychological barriers" between the surrounding neighborhoods. In October 2008, the freeway was named one of ten US "Freeways Without Futures" by

Congress for the New Urbanism New Urbanism is an urban design movement that promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating walkable neighbourhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually in ...

. In December 2009, construction began on replacement of the 11th Street Bridges and their interchange with I-295/DC 295, including ramps that now allow for highway-only travel between DC 295, I-295, and I-395 in all directions. The renderings for that project also show a deletion of the connections between the bridge and I-695 east, indicating that the stretch of the Southeast Freeway between 11th Street Southeast and Pennsylvania Avenue would soon be decommissioned and replaced by an at-grade

boulevard A boulevard is a type of broad avenue planted with rows of trees, or in parts of North America, any urban highway or wide road in a commercial district. In Europe, boulevards were originally circumferential roads following the line of former ...

with traffic signals. In 2011, as a part of the project, I-695 was signed along the Southeast Freeway. Prior to the 11th Street Bridge Project, the unsigned I-695 did not cross the bridges and terminated north of the Anacostia River. New signage installed by the

District Department of Transportation The District Department of Transportation (DDOT, stylized as d.) is an agency of the government of the District of Columbia, in the United States, which manages and maintains publicly owned transportation infrastructure in the District of Colu ...

(DDOT) in 2011–2012 marks the first time I-695 has appeared on directional signs in the District of Columbia; some signs referring to I-695, however, still read "To I-295" along I-395, and some remaining "To I-395" signage can still be found along I-695 westbound. The new signs designate I-695 as extending from the point where I-395 branches off from the Southeast Freeway, with I-695 continuing along the Southeast Freeway and over the new 11th Street Bridge to the interchange with I-295. Some commentators contend the new signage is confusing and that the Southeast Freeway is often confused with Baltimore's Beltway, a highway with the same route designation. In January 2021, as part of an effort to eliminate driver confusion in the area of the Center Leg Freeway, the

American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) is a standards setting body which publishes specifications, test protocols, and guidelines that are used in highway A highway is any public or private road ...

(AASHTO) approved a request by the District of Columbia to eliminate the I-695 designation and renumber it as an extension of I-395. I-395's previous route along the Center Leg Freeway will be renumbered as a new I-195. The

Federal Highway Administration The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program a ...

(FHWA) approved the request of resigning I-695 as I-395 on April 23, 2021; though some printed and digital maps have made the change, no progress was made in physical re-signing .

Exit list

Exits were unnumbered until July 2014. The entire route is in

References

External links

kurumi - I-695 Washington, D.C.
* ttp://www.dcroads.net/roads/southeast Steve Anderson's DCroads.net: Southeast Freeway (I-695) and unbuilt Barney Circle Freeway {{Authority control 95-6 District of Columbia 95-6 6 District of Columbia