Naming
The complex as a whole is named for the street that feeds into it on the D.C. end (carrying northbound US 1 off the bridge), 14th Street. Each of the five separate bridge spans also has its own name. From south to north, the bridges are named as follows:
- The 1903 (rebuilt 1943) Long Bridge carries CSX, Amtrak and Virginia Railway Express rail traffic over the river.
- The 1983 Charles R. Fenwick Bridge—named for Virginia state senator, Charles R. Fenwick, who played a critical role in the creation of Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority—carries the Yellow Line of the Washington Metro across the river.
- The northbound span, which opened in 1950, was originally named the Rochambeau Bridge, and was renamed the Arland D. Williams Jr. Memorial Bridge in 1983 for a passenger of Air Florida Flight 90 who died while saving others from the freezing water the previous year.
- At that time, the Rochambeau Bridge name was moved to the previously unnamed center bridge, which opened in 1972 and carries traffic in both directions.
- The southbound span, opened in 1962, is named the George Mason Memorial Bridge. A footpath is located on the upstream side of the bridge for pedestrians and cyclists.
Read more about this topic: 14th Street Bridge (Potomac River)
Famous quotes containing the word naming:
“See, see where Christ’s blood streams in the firmament!
One drop would save my soul—half a drop! ah, my Christ!—
Ah, rend not my heart for naming of my Christ!—
Yet will I call on him!—O, spare me, Lucifer!—
Where is it now? ‘T is gone; and see where God
Stretcheth out his arm, and bends his ireful brows!—
Mountains and hills, come, come and fall on me,
And hide me from the heavy wrath of God!”
—Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593)
“The night is itself sleep
And what goes on in it, the naming of the wind,
Our notes to each other, always repeated, always the same.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“Husband,
who am I to reject the naming of foods
in a time of famine?”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)