Viewpoint: American Legion Bridge Should be Maryland's Top Transportation Priority

Bravo to the Washington Post for publishing two Letters to the Editor about the region’s worst traffic bottleneck, the American Legion Memorial Bridge. Individual kudos to WATF Board Director, Bob Buchanan, and former Maryland Secretary of Transportation Robert Flanagan for speaking out and offering solutions to fix the problem and forge a path forward. The Washington Airports Task Force is keeping its Eye on the Future by strongly supporting the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance and its goal of maintaining reliable funding sources and plans for the expansion of our transportation infrastructure.

Growing up in Montgomery County, I have seen firsthand how the opening of the Capital Beltway in the early 1960s transformed our community. It’s no coincidence that today the Beltway connects the D.C. region’s three most populous jurisdictions — Montgomery, Prince George’s and Fairfax counties. From Tysons and Springfield to Greenbelt and National Harbor, it’s clear that this critical transportation infrastructure facilitates tremendous economic growth for the D.C. region.

But while Virginia has continued to make significant investments in the Beltway, I-95 and I-66 over the last two decades, Maryland has done nothing. And this inaction is most felt by commuters when trying to cross the Potomac River. The American Legion Bridge is now more than 60 years old and was last improved in 1992. Since that time, Fairfax and Montgomery counties together have added half a million residents.

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