Frederick Gottemoeller - Bridgescape LLC

The Woodrow Wilson Bridge carries I-95 and the Capital Beltway across the Potomac River just south of Washington, DC. Increasing traffic required the construction of a new 12 lane bridge with passage for ocean-going ships. Because the bridge is part of the city’s monumental core, the design was selected through an international design competition. The competition rules required a bridge with an arch-like appearance similar to Washington’s other monumental bridges. 

The winning design is based on a V shaped pier with a tension tie at its top. This system creates the arch-like appearance but avoids the horizontal forces an arch would exert on the site’s poor soils. The piers allow unusually long spans with a minimum number of piers, opening up view corridors through the bridge from every direction. The piers carry continuous haunched steel girders that continue the arched lines initiated by the piers. A 260’ double bascule span over the channel is similar in appearance to the other spans.  The result is that this very wide bridge is transparent and visually seamless. 

The concept was enthusiastically endorsed by the competition jury and the Washington DC community.