Fort Washington Way
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.
Fort Washington Way | |
|---|---|
| Interstate 71 / U.S. Route 50 | |
Fort Washington Way highlighted in red | |
| Route information | |
| Maintained by ODOT | |
| Length | 0.9 mi (1,400 m) |
| Existed | June 29, 1961–present |
| Major junctions | |
| West end | I-71 / I-75 I-75 / US 50 |
| East end | I-71 US 50 |
| Location | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Ohio |
| Highway system | |
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Fort Washington Way is named after Fort Washington, a fort that preceded the establishment of Cincinnati. 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. It opened in 1961 after one of the most expensive road construction projects per mile in the United States. 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.