Interstate 695 (Maryland) - History

History

The Baltimore County Planning Commission first conceived the Baltimore Beltway as a county-level roadway project in 1949; by 1953 the project was taken over by the state due to slow progress at the county level. The project was included as part of the Interstate Highway System by 1956, increasing the speed of construction due to federal funds available.

The first part of the Baltimore Beltway to be completed was in December 1955 between MD 25 (Falls Road) and the Harrisburg Expressway (present-day I-83). In 1956, the next portion of the road between the Harrisburg Expressway and MD 45 (York Road) opened. Several more segments of the Baltimore Beltway would be built in the following years, with the section from MD 168 (Nursery Road) to the Glen Burnie Bypass (present-day I-97) opening in 1957; the portions from MD 45 to MD 542 (Loch Raven Boulevard), MD 7 (Old Philadelphia Road) to US 40 (Pulaski Highway), and from MD 168 to US 40 (Baltimore National Pike) opening in 1958; the segment from MD 2 (Ritchie Highway) to the Glen Burnie Bypass completed in 1960; the portion from US 1 (Belair Road) to MD 7 finished in 1961; and the portions from MD 542 to US 1 and from US 40 to MD 25 finished in 1962. At this time, the original length of the Baltimore Beltway, from MD 2 in the south clockwise to US 40 in the northeast, was fully completed and opened to traffic, providing the first Interstate-grade bypass of Baltimore and the first beltway in the United States built under the Interstate Highway System. A segment of the road completed in 1973 ran from MD 10 to MD 2, heading toward the Outer Harbor Crossing.