Fort Washington Way is an approximately 0.9-mile-long (1.4 km) section of freeway in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, United States.

The eight-lane divided highway is a concurrent section of Interstate 71 (I-71) and U.S. Route 50 (US 50) that runs from west to east from an interchange with I-75 at the Brent Spence Bridge to the Lytle Tunnel and Columbia Parkway.

[4] Fort Washington Way's complex system of ramps made it the most crash-prone mile of urban freeway in Ohio.

During the late 1990s, it was rebuilt with a simpler, more compact configuration, improving traffic safety and facilitating the riverfront's redevelopment as The Banks.

I-71 curves eight degrees to the north before entering the Lytle Tunnel, while US 50 continues east on Columbia Parkway via the Third Street Viaduct.

[7] The Fort Washington Way corridor also includes a combined sewer overflow mitigation system and fiber optic backbone.

In 1946 and 1947, the commission issued reports proposing a "Third Street Expressway Distributor" linking the city's various entry points:[3][10][11] The junction of the Millcreek, Northeast and Dixie Expressways north of the Ohio River and immediately south of the Cincinnati Central Business District demands a design treatment of heroic nature.

Instead, the Mill Creek and Northeast expressways would both connect to the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge via elevated ramps.

[10][14] (In the 1960s, a significant increase in interstate traffic would necessitate the construction of the Brent Spence Bridge as a direct connection to the freeways.)

Pioneering urban planner Ladislas Segoe, who served as a general consultant for the city's Master Planning Division, had urged the city to connect the Mill Creek and Northeast freeways with a Liberty Street distributor in Over-the-Rhine, instead of building a "great wall" between the riverfront and the central business district.

However, downtown department store owners successfully pushed for the riverfront highway, threatening to leave for the suburbs otherwise.

[15][16][17] The Citizens' Development Committee, headed by Cincinnati Gas & Electric executive Reed Hartman, championed a $16 million bond drive to fund the riverfront redevelopment project, which included the Third Street Distributor.

[18] On August 8, 1955, construction began on the first of many "piers" in the distributor system, a one-quarter-mile (0.40 km) connector between the Louisville & Nashville Bridge and the Third Street Viaduct.

[12] At approximately $10 million per mile, Fort Washington Way, along with the Third Street Viaduct that connected it to Columbia Parkway, was one of the most expensive road construction projects in the United States.

[29][30] The highway was the most crash-prone mile of urban freeway in Ohio,[1] due to high traffic volumes and the system of 14 interwoven entrance and exit ramps, many of them on the left.

[31][32] From July 6, 1998,[33] to August 18, 2000, the Fort Washington Way 2000 project completely rebuilt the highway with a more compact configuration, eliminating most ramps.

The Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments initiated the project's design phase, while the City of Cincinnati led construction efforts.

[41] Pilings driven into the central median of Fort Washington Way would support a four-block-long highway deck, with buildings up to four stories tall on three of the blocks.