Initial plans were developed in the 1950s for the proposed Washington Outer Beltway. The
National Capital Park and Planning Commission issued a ''Comprehensive Plan for the Nation's Capital and Its Environs
in 1950. The comprehensive plan included three different circular roads in and around the District of Columbia. The original Outer Beltway had been planned to pass south of the corporate limits of the City of Rockville, as shown on a map published in The Washington Post'' in 1951 with the caption "Ring Road suggested by
Bureau of Public Roads". In 1953, the portion of the Outer Beltway between Montgomery County and Prince George's County was included in the
Master Plan of Highways of the
Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. It was later included in the commission's
General Plan in 1957, and the commission's
On Wedges and Corridors plan in 1964. it was to run through southern and western Fairfax County, crossing the
Potomac River at
Mason Neck and north of
Great Falls, and passing generally west of
State Route 123 (Ox Road) and east of
SR 645 (Clifton Road, Stringfellow Road, and Lees Corner Road). The straight part of the current Fairfax County Parkway between south of Franklin Farm Road and north of Baron Cameron Avenue is built where the beltway would have been. By contrast, a 1964 plan proposed by a consultant for
Prince William County showed a freeway passing by
Quantico,
Manassas,
Leesburg,
Poolesville, upper
Montgomery County,
Fort Meade, southeastern
Prince George's County, and
La Plata. The original proposed routing in Maryland was south and east of the current Intercounty Connector alignment. The new route was motivated in part by a desire to move the routing of the proposed bridge over the Potomac River upstream from the area of River Bend to Watkins Island. Virginia residents and the
United States Department of the Interior objected to the proposed bridge over the Potomac River because they wanted to create state and federal parks along the river in order to protect sugar maple trees, vegetation, and bald eagles. Because of these concerns, the
Maryland State Roads Commission moved the proposed Outer Beltway to a route north of Rockville and eliminated a new bridge crossing the Potomac River. In 1975, the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board of the
Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments endorsed a request from the
State Highway Administration "for federal support of a $1.1 million planning and engineering study of the first segment of the road" (then called the Outer Beltway), By 1976, Maryland's Secretary of Transportation no longer supported state financial support of the Outer Beltway, although Montgomery County still supported it in concept. == Techway proposal ==