Fort Washington Way

For other places with the same name, see Fort Washington.
This article is about the section of Interstate 71 and U.S. Route 50 in Cincinnati. For the entire route, see Interstate 71 and U.S. Route 50.
Interstate 71 marker
U.S. Route 50 marker
Fort Washington Way
Interstate 71 / U.S. Route 50
Map
Fort Washington Way highlighted in red
Route information
Maintained by ODOT
Length0.9 mi[2] (1,400 m)
ExistedJune 29, 1961[1]–present
Major junctions
West end I-71 / I-75
I-75 / US 50
East end I-71
US 50
Location
CountryUnited States
StateOhio
Highway system
  • Ohio State Highway System

Fort Washington Way is an approximately 0.9-mile-long (1.4 km) section of freeway in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. The eight-lane divided highway is a concurrent section of Interstate 71 (I-71) and U.S. Route 50 (US 50) that runs from west to east from an interchange with I-75 at the Brent Spence Bridge to the Lytle Tunnel and Columbia Parkway.[2]

Fort Washington Way is named after Fort Washington, a fort that preceded the establishment of Cincinnati.[1] One of the city's first freeways, it was conceived in 1946 as the Third Street Distributor in conjunction with a major urban renewal project along the riverfront.[3] It opened in 1961 after one of the most expensive road construction projects per mile in the United States.[4] Fort Washington Way's complex system of ramps made it the most crash-prone mile of urban freeway in Ohio. During the late 1990s, it was rebuilt with a simpler, more compact configuration, improving traffic safety and facilitating the riverfront's redevelopment as The Banks.[1]

  1. ^ a b c "History of Riverfront Development". The Banks Public Partnership. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
  2. ^ a b "Hamilton IR 71" (PDF). Straight Line Diagrams. Ohio Department of Transportation Office of Technical Services. January 2002. pp. 1–2. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
  3. ^ Riverfront Redevelopment. City Planning Commission of Cincinnati. November 1946. p. 30. hdl:2027/mdp.39015006720802. Retrieved October 26, 2015 – via HathiTrust Digital Library.
  4. ^ "Penker Nears Completion Of Major Cincinnati Expressway Projects". Modern Highways. Vol. 3. Scranton, Pennsylvania: Scranton Publishing Company. 1959. p. 6.