Mercury Boulevard in the cities of

Hampton Hampton may refer to: Places Australia *Hampton bioregion, an IBRA biogeographic region in Western Australia *Hampton, New South Wales *Hampton, Queensland, a town in the Toowoomba Region * Hampton, Victoria Canada * Hampton, New Brunswick *Ha ...

and

Newport News Newport News () is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the 5th most populous city in Virginia and 140th most populous city in the Uni ...

in the Peninsula region of southeastern

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

carries U.S. Route 258 (US 258) approximately south from

Fort Monroe Fort Monroe, managed by partnership between the Fort Monroe Authority for the Commonwealth of Virginia, the National Park Service as the Fort Monroe National Monument, and the City of Hampton, is a former military installation in Hampton, Virgi ...

Old Point Comfort Old Point Comfort is a point of land located in the independent city of Hampton, Virginia. Previously known as Point Comfort, it lies at the extreme tip of the Virginia Peninsula at the mouth of Hampton Roads in the United States. It was renamed ...

on Hampton Roads to the north end of the

James River Bridge The James River Bridge (JRB) is a four-lane divided highway lift bridge across the James River in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Owned and operated by the Virginia Department of Transportation, it carries U.S. Route 17 (US 17), US 258, ...

. Mercury Boulevard is a major north-south commercial corridor in the region, and has an interchange with Interstate 64 (I-64) in an elaborate interchange with flyovers in Hampton near the

Hampton Coliseum Hampton Coliseum is a multi-purpose arena in Hampton, Virginia. Construction began on May 24, 1968. The venue held its first event on December 1, 1969, with the nearby College of William & Mary playing North Carolina State University in a colle ...

History: two "military highways"

As originally built, the road was earlier known as "Military Highway", a name it shared with another roadway in

South Hampton Roads South Hampton Roads is a region located in the extreme southeastern portion of Virginia's Tidewater region in the United States with a total population of 1,191,937. It is part of the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC MSA (Metropolitan S ...

which was built beginning in 1943. Both roads, which utilized limited access designs, initially featured adjacent service roads. Each also featured several major

traffic circle A roundabout is a type of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.''The New Shorter Oxford Eng ...

s in the second half of the 20th century. These were later replaced with more modern designs with additional lanes and electronic traffic signaling. The roadway near Norfolk also featured one of Virginia's first cloverleaf interchanges and overpass designs, near the future site of JANAF Shopping Center, the largest on the east coast when it opened. The roadway in Hampton and Newport News (which has never connected directly with the "other" Military Highway) was later renamed to honor the

Project Mercury Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Un ...

space program of

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

's Langley Research Center which is located adjacent to, and shares a runway with Langley Air Force Base. It also was the location of several major shopping centers, including the Newmarket South Shopping Center (1956), the Mercury Plaza Mall (1967), the Newmarket North Mall (1975), and the Coliseum Mall (1973), which was rebuilt and reopened in 2010 as Peninsula Town Center. Substantial sections of the other road, which continues to be known as

Military Highway Military Highway is a four-to-eight-lane roadway built in the South Hampton Roads region of eastern Virginia, USA during World War II. Carrying US 13 for most of its length, it also carries US 58, and US 460 while in Chesapeake. It is a major al ...

, and which circumvented the independent cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth, are still in use.

References

External links

Virginia Highways Project website
(non-government)
Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT)
Mercury Boulevard Mercury Boulevard Mercury Boulevard {{Virginia-road-stub