Anyone who has driven up and down the East Coast of the US has probably driven interstate 95 through Virginia and passed through the Springfield interchange, a.k.a. the Mixing Bowl. I'm painfully aware that it can take anywhere from a couple of minutes to a couple of hours to get through it!
It's where I95, I495 (the circuitous route around Washington, DC, which is coincident with I95 on the eastern side just to confuse everyone), I395 (goes straight from Springfield, where I95-north turns right and joins I495-eastish, into DC where it kinda' sorta' connects to I295 but only southbound, not to be confused with DC 295 which goes north and can be reached from I395 only if you know where the connections are), and local roads (we're back in Springfield now) all converge and cross every which way. The road right in front of you, BTW, is a local one, VA Route 644, known as Old Keene Mill Road on this side of the interchange and as Franconia Road on the other side. Don't ask me why; we just like to change road names and/or numbers randomly to confuse the tourists.
The interchange has been under reconstruction for something like 10 years now and the number of ramps and flyovers crisscrossing each other now is stupendous. Traffic seems to flow a little better but rush hour is still backed up faithfully twice a day (this shot was taken in midafternoon when traffic is lighter). Unfortunately I can only see a piece of it from the bridge in "downtown Springfield" (which exists only in the mind of the Chamber of Commerce). Wish I owned a helicopter; that would be perfect! Next best thing is the satellite view from Google maps.
nope, we got nuthin' like this heer in the sticks of VT...
you must have pulled over, or shot this from your car, no traffic to sit & be bored in at this hour eh? :)
Looks fine to me, but then I come from the town that is so anti-freeway that for twenty years we had the only stoplights on US101 between the Mexican and Canadian borders.
Changing names of streets to confuse tourists?! Thanks for sharing the information. So confusing. Have you ever been to Los Angeles? The rush hour traffic is from 6 am to 10 pm. Everyday, on every freeway. I had to move out of there and up to the Central Coast where we have no traffic!
I was not aware you live in Springfield VA. Very small world, I moved to Phoenix 3 years ago from Woodbridge VA. I have been through the mixing bowl so many times I still have nightmares about it.
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