Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-01-18
3O,175 CARS PASS
OVER NEW BRIDGE
More Than 5000 Use Key to
Mount Vernon Highway in
One Hour of Afternoon.

A total of BOLTS automobiles passed
over the Arlington Memorial Bridge and
on down the Mount Vernon Memorial
Highway yesterday, Capt r. c. Mont
gomery, superintendent of the United
States park police, announced today.
Despite the heavy traffic there were no
accidents or arrests for traffic violations,
the captain said.
The heaviest traffic came between
and 5 o'clock in the afternoon, when
3,165 cars were clicked moving south,
and an estimate was made that 1000
machines passed into washington over
that route.
The bridge and boulevard were closed
to public travel today except between
Alexandria, Va, and Mount Vernon.
They will not be open again to the pub
lie until the next week end.
Permanent Opening February /.
Lieut.. Col. U. S. Grant, Sd, executive
officer Of the Arlington Memorial Bridge
Commission, has set February l as the
tentative date for the permanent open
ing Of the bridge.
Construction work on Columbia
Island, on the road linking the main
bridge with the short bridge across
Boundary Channel, has yet to be done
and there are still landscaping and
grading, as we'll as some repair work, to
be accomplished on the Mount Vernon
Memorial Highway. Both the bridge
and highway remain to be lighted and
the District government will furnish
temporary lights until the Arlington
Memorial Bridge Commission and the
Fine Arts Commission decide upon the
ornamental type of lights that will be
permanently affixed to the magnificent
structure.
officials of the Bureau of Public
Roads said today the lighting of the
Mount Vernon Memorial Highway is
expected to be completed by April l .
Motorists using the highway yesterday
had to drive around the big drums that
hold the cable lines for the lights, now
being put into place.
Dome Refraetors Used.
The type of light to be used on the
highway is the hanging variety, with
dome refractors that concentrate and
distribute the light on the road and not
upward. This is necessary because OF
the planes using the Washington Air
port and flying directly over the high
way.
For the present, this arrangement will
be carried out, without the proposed red
dot on top, as an obstruction marker
for air navigation. Bureau officials said
they conferred with the aeronauticS
branch of the Department of Commerce
on this type OF illumination, and the
aerial expert pronounced it satisfactory.
Some consideration was given the pro-
posal to have "bulls-eye" on top of
the lights, particularly in the Columbia
Island region. but this has now been
abandoned. If found necessary later,
the officials said, separate red globe
can be placed on top of the poles.
From Columbia Island to Alexandria
the metal light standards will be used
for the illumination, as the most con-
centrated travel is anticipated between
those points Southwark of Alexandria
the rustic type cedar poles will be
utilized.
Capt. Montgomery said he was
pleased with the working out of the
four-leaf clover arrangement at the
Highway Bridge, as well as with the
way motorists kept to the right-hand
side of the road. He explained, how
ever, the Mount Vernon Memorial
Highway Is the latest construction In
high-speed boulevard, as motorists
need not fear cross-traffic Eight mem
bers of the United States Park Police
patroled the highway yesterday and
members Of the Alexandria Police Force
assisted in handling traffic through
that city.