Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel

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Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel

Carries	4 lanes of I-664
Crosses	Hampton Roads
Locale	Suffolk, Virginia to Newport News, Virginia
Maintained by	Virginia Department of Transportation
Design	Composite--Low-level Trestle, Double-tube Tunnel, Manmade islands
Total length	4.6 miles (7.4 km)
Vertical clearance	14'6"/4.42m
Opening date	April 30, 1992

Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel (MMMBT) is the 4.6 mile-long (7.4 km) Hampton Roads crossing for Interstate 664. It is a four-lane bridge-tunnel comprised of bridges, trestles, man-made islands, and tunnels under a portion of the Hampton Roads harbor where the James, Nansemond, and Elizabeth Rivers come together in South Hampton Roads, in the southeastern portion of Virginia in the United States.

It connects the independent cities of Newport News on the Virginia Peninsula and Suffolk in South Hampton Roads and is part of the Hampton Roads Beltway.

The MMMBT was completed in 1992, provided a third crossing of the Hampton Roads harbor, supplementing the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel which carries Interstate 64 between the independent cities of Hampton and Norfolk and the James River Bridge connecting the independent cities Newport News and the Isle of Wight County in the South Hampton Roads region. All three facilities are toll-free.

The MMMBT cost $400 million to build, and it includes a four-lane tunnel that is 4,800 feet (1,463 m) long, two man-made portal islands, and 3.2 miles (5.1 km) of twin trestle.

1 Battle of Hampton Roads
2 Historical names: Merrimack, Virginia, Merrimac
3 See also
4 Reference
5 External links

It is named for the two ironclad warships which engaged in the famous Battle of Hampton Roads on March 8–9, 1862 during the US Civil War. The battle took place between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia. The latter ship had been rebuilt from the wreck of the USS Merrimack. The site of the battle was within approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) of the bridge-tunnel structure named by the State of Virginia as a memorial.

The name of the warship which served the Confederacy in the famous Battle of Hampton Roads eventually became a continuing source of confusion, to the present day.

Of course, she was commissioned by the Confederacy as CSS Virginia. However, even after she was rebuilt, the Union preferred to call the Confederate ironclad warship by its earlier name, Merrimack. Perhaps because the Union won the US Civil War, the history of the United States generally records the Union version wherever there is a discrepancy with Confederate naming. However, in an apparent quirk in history, at some later time, the name commonly used was shortened to drop the final "-k", hence "the Battle of the Monitor and the Merrimac".

The small community in Montgomery County near the location where the iron for the Confederate ironclad was forged is now known as Merrimac, Virginia. The name of the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel, built with both Virginia and federal funds, reflects this more recent version.

Should the periodic modern efforts to recover more of the Confederate vessel from the depths of Hampton Roads prove successful, it is unclear what name will be applied to the remains.