As American infrastructure developed, the idea of urban freeways became a major part. Large maps of possible highway routings through cities were drawn and

built, cutting through neighborhoods across the country. Now, despite a change in opinion towards urban interstates, cities have massive networks of these

concrete connectors going from downtowns outwards to the suburbs and onwards, with one major form of these freeways being a

beltway. A beltway is a route that forms a loop around a city or urban area and

is fully connected in a ring form. This was normalized as a way to connect around the densest urban areas, but the

idea has upgraded itself to a much larger scale as the outer barrier of a metropolitan area, forming an outer loop

that stretches to be very long. So today, I wanted to go over the longest instances of this that we see in the US

and a bit of their histories. Before this video starts, though, make sure you do subscribe! I make geography and city

related videos like this every week, so if you enjoy the content and want to see more, subscribing is the best way to do

that. It's super easy for you, and it helps me out a ton. Thank you! So, for the

sake of today's list, we are only counting divided highways that have one singular designation. Some cities, like

Philadelphia, for example, could have long loops around their metropolitan area made up of several different routes and highways, but I don't want to count this

because it makes the definition a lot less exact, which would make the video a lot more difficult to make. But without

further ado, let's get into it with the seven longest full beltways around cities, starting with the perimeter in

Atlanta. So this is Interstate 285, which stretches around the Atlanta metropolitan area from the airport in

the southwest to around the Tim Morland Interchange or Spaghetti Junction in the Northeast, at 62.9 miles long. The perimeter

is an extremely important route for the city and honestly the entire country. Over 2 million people use the highway

every day, making it one of the heaviest traveled roads in the US, if you go by a

per-mile basis. Because of this, it's known for its extremely bad traffic—something we'll find on a lot of these

highways. It's an old highway, being proposed in 1952 with the creation of the interstate system, and construction

started in 1958, again lining up with the start of the interstate system and being created at the same time as other

urban freeways in the 1950s and 60s. It was finished in 1969 with four total

lanes between the two directions. This didn't last long, though, as the areas surrounding this highway continued to

see heavy development, with more and more people needing to use the Beltway. This resulted in much of its stretch being

extended to eight total lanes under 10 years after it was initially completed. Since then, it's stayed mostly the same

in terms of total length, but as I stated before, this wasn't anywhere near enough to stop the increase in now

overwhelming traffic. One interesting quirk is that the state had plans for an over 200-mile outer loop around the

entire North Georgia megaregion, but the plans were dropped in favor of simply upgrading the rural roadways

around the region. This 230-mile loop would have more than doubled any other in the country. Moving on to our sixth-place

Beltway, we have the Capital Beltway in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. This is another iconic ring road around a

major metropolitan area with many similarities to the perimeter in Atlanta, so I-495 is a 64-mile loop around the

Metro, traveling through Virginia, Maryland, and D.C. For a very short, 0.1-mile stretch, it's another route with a very

high travel volume, usually placing near the top of lists for highways with the worst traffic. It runs current with I-95

for around half the route, a change that had to be made after a freeway revolt stopped the original design through the

downtown. The Capital Beltway was designed into the original interstate system as well in 1951, though it had

been an idea since 1944. It was built in the 50s and 60s, being opened in 1961

and finished in '64. Originally, this design was meant to serve as an easy bypass around the Metro for people

traveling up the Eastern Seaboard towards Baltimore, but the population exploded in the D.C. Metro, resulting in the

highway being used more for local traffic, which is part of why the traffic volume is now so high. Moving on to our

next Beltway, we have the Charlotte Outer Loop in the Charlotte, North Carolina, Metropolitan Area. This is a 66.7-mile

Interstate that encircles the city entirely, signed as Interstate 485. This is a newer Beltway in a smaller

metropolitan area than the first two, but it still has very high traffic volumes and successfully serves the city's

suburbs. The first portion was completed in the northeast corner in 1967, but the full outer belt wasn't even planned

until 1975, with it being slowly completed in the following years with many different phases with their own price tags in the

upper millions. The entire loop wasn't actually completed until 2010, with it being a slow project with different

segments, as I said, funnily enough, by this time there had already been several widening projects on the already

completed portions of the highway. Any portion completed after 2003 was designed with a minimum of six travel

lanes because of the extreme growth that was taking place within the metropolitan area. This seems to happen in every

instance of these projects; you'd think they'd learn. Next up is I-435 in Kansas City, a highway encircling the metro in

the states of Missouri and Kansas. This one requires a slightly looser meaning since, even though it's one route that

creates a full circle around the metro at 83 total miles, this interchange in the northwest corner complicates things.

You'd have to make a turn to stay on the Beltway, meaning you can't just go in

circles continuously in the left lane without taking an exit. I still define it as a Beltway, but people in the city

don't really see it this way, and it doesn't even have a cool, interesting name like the others. The highway was

built in segments between 1965 and 1987, where the disconnected bits of freeway were finally connected to form the

entire loop. Work took place on the highway between 2014 and 2017 at the Kansas 10 and I-35 interchange, which

became a much larger, extended interchange when it was completed. Other than this, the highway has stayed strong

as a vital connector for the city. Moving to the third longest Beltway in the country, we have Interstate 275 in the

Cincinnati Metropolitan Area. This is known as the Cincinnati Bypass, but I wouldn't think that that's like the main

name or anything, which would instead be Staff Sergeant Matt Mpin Veterans Memorial Highway. Just kidding; that's

only the portion in Clark County, but anyways, this is the longest Beltway in the interstate system, traveling 83.7 miles

through three different states, with Ohio having the longest segment. This Beltway brings us back to an older project, being

approved in 1958 and being completed in Ohio in 1961. But things were complicated in Kentucky, mostly because of Indiana's

very small portion that they weren't really on top of getting built. It was completed in Kentucky in 1979 and

Indiana thereafter. Present day, the large circle encloses 250,000 acres and serves Cincinnati very well. Moving to

the second longest Beltway in the country, we move away from the interstate system instead to the Sam Houston

Tollway and Parkway in Houston, Texas. This is an 88-mile Beltway around the city of Houston. This is a very simple route;

it makes an almost square shape around the urban areas of the city. Being the third Beltway for the city, this being

the third Beltway is important because of the two inner loops: Highway 610 and the downtown Loop. The concept for this third

Beltway wasn't created until after those. It was built around 1983 in different segments that were slowly built, having a

quite complicated history when you think about the tolls and other construction costs. It uses the frontage road concept

seen throughout Texas, having a fairly simple design that allowed it to be easily constructed. The route is four

lanes in each direction for most of its length, going as far down as two on the Sam Houston Ship Channel Bridge, a

complicated roadblock, or I guess water block, for the project's construction. Moving to our final Beltway, the longest

in the country, we have the Charles W. Anderson Loop, or State Highway Loop 1604, around San Antonio, Texas. This 95.6-mile

Route forms a full loop around the metro. Now I'll stop right here; this one gets complicated. My definition was a divided

highway that's signed as one route that makes a full loop, but this highway sadly does not achieve that. It's limited

access for a lot of its route as it goes through the northern suburbs of San Antonio, but in the rural south it has no

requirement to be divided and it goes down to two lanes. This means, under my personal definition, it can't be on our

list, despite its 95.6-mile length. Now I have it here because I feel like the future could be bright. I'm not saying

it'll ever be limited access, but San Antonio continues to grow, and eventually that'll seep into the south end of the

metro and affect these segments traffic-wise. One day it could absolutely be at least a divided highway, and it

would then take the title for first place on this list. So there you have it: these highways create important

connections around metropolitan areas and play major roles in how cities' traffic patterns work. I still think as suburbs expand, we could see more being

completed like the Grand Parkway in Houston, which could one day form an uninterrupted loop and take the title,

but until then, thanks for watching. Thank you to the members this week: Brock Sanders, Steve Priestman, ESPB Wilder,

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Guys, if you're watching this channel, you've really helped me out over the past couple of years, so thank you very much.

America's Longest Beltways (Ring Roads)

Beaver Geography

Introduction to Beltways and their Significance

Development of urban freeways and their impact on city landscapes.

Existing extensive networks of urban interstates connecting downtowns to suburbs.

Definition of a beltway as a loop around a city or urban area.

Beltways' evolution from connecting dense urban areas to forming outer loops of metropolitan areas.

Objective: to discuss the longest beltways in the US and their histories.

Inclusion criteria: only divided highways with one singular designation are considered.

Exclusion of beltways composed of multiple routes to maintain definition consistency.

Overview of the Longest Beltways in the US

Discussion of Interstate 285 (Atlanta) – its length, importance, traffic issues, and history.

Discussion of I-495 (Washington, D.C.) – similarities to Atlanta's perimeter, high traffic volume, and history.

Discussion of Interstate 485 (Charlotte) – its relatively recent completion, high traffic, and expansion projects.

Discussion of I-435 (Kansas City) – its slightly looser definition as a beltway due to an interchange.

Discussion of Interstate 275 (Cincinnati) – its length, spanning three states, and construction history.

Discussion of Sam Houston Tollway (Houston) – its length, design, and history as the city's third beltway.

Discussion of State Highway Loop 1604 (San Antonio) – its length but exclusion due to not meeting the defined criteria.

Summary of the importance of beltways in connecting metropolitan areas and influencing traffic patterns.

Potential for future beltway projects and expansion of existing ones.