Portal:New Jersey/Selected article/25

Interstate 676 (abbreviated I-676) is an Interstate Highway that serves as a major thoroughfare through Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where it is known as the Vine Street Expressway, and Camden, New Jersey, where it is known as the northern segment of the North–South Freeway, as well as the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Highway. Its western terminus is at I-76 in Philadelphia near the Philadelphia Museum of Art. From there it heads east towards the Ben Franklin Bridge. On the New Jersey side of the bridge, the highway heads south to its southern terminus at I-76 in Gloucester City near the Walt Whitman Bridge. Between the western terminus and downtown Camden, I-676 is concurrent with U.S. Route 30 (US 30).

After World War II, freeway approaches were planned for both sides of the Ben Franklin Bridge, which was completed in 1926 and served as a part of US 30. In Pennsylvania, the Vine Street Expressway was planned to run along the northern edge of Center City Philadelphia to the Schuylkill River, while in New Jersey, the North-South Freeway was to head south along the Route 42 corridor. When the Interstate Highway System was created in the 1950s, this stretch of highway was a part of I-80S, with Interstate 680 continuing on the Schuylkill Expressway to the Walt Whitman Bridge. In 1964, the designations became I-76 and I-676, respectively, and in the 1970s the two routes were switched onto their current alignments. I-676 in New Jersey was completed between I-76 and Morgan Boulevard by 1960 and north of there to downtown Camden by the 1980s. The Vine Street Expressway was opened from the Schuylkill Expressway to 18th Street by 1960 and east of there to the Ben Franklin Bridge on January 10, 1991 after several obstacles to construction.