Chain Bridge (Potomac River)

The Chain Bridge is a viaduct that crosses the Potomac River at Little Falls in Washington, D.C., and Arlington County, Virginia, United States. The steel girder bridge carries close to 22,000 cars a day. It connects Washington, D.C. with affluent sections of Arlington and Fairfax counties in Virginia. On the Washington, D.C. side, the bridge connects with Canal Road. Left turns onto the Clara Barton Parkway from the Chain Bridge are prohibited, but the reverse is permitted. On the Northern Virginia side, the bridge connects with State Route 123 (Chain Bridge Road), which provides access to George Washington Memorial Parkway.

The Chain Bridge has three lanes (of which the center is reversible) and can be safely accessed by pedestrians and cyclists. The pedestrian sidewalk provides access to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal towpath via a ramp. The bridge also carries water mains which provide Arlington County, Falls Church, Virginia and a portion of Fairfax County with water from the Washington Aqueduct.

The bridge is the eighth at the site, with the first opening in 1797. The third and fourth versions were chain suspension bridges, and the name was retained for subsequent bridges even though they were of different types. The current bridge's deck was constructed in 1932, atop piers constructed in 1850 for the sixth bridge.