Monitor–Merrimac Memorial Bridge–Tunnel
bridge in United States of America
The Monitor–Merrimac Memorial Bridge–Tunnel (MMMBT) is the 4.6-mile-long (7.4 km) Hampton Roads crossing for Interstate 664 (I-664) in the southeastern portion of Virginia in the United States. It is a four-lane bridge–tunnel composed of bridges, trestles, artificial islands, and tunnels under a portion of the Hampton Roads harbor where the mouths of the James, Nansemond, and Elizabeth rivers come together.
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, a circumferential Interstate Highway which links the seven largest cities of Hampton Roads.
The MMMBT, completed in 1992, provided a third major vehicle crossing of the Hampton Roads harbor area, supplementing the Hampton Roads Bridge–Tunnel which carries I-64 between the independent cities of Hampton and Norfolk (1957), and the James River Bridge connecting the independent city of Newport News and Isle of Wight County in the South Hampton Roads region (1928).
The MMMBT cost $400 million to build, and it includes a four-lane tunnel that is 4,800 feet (1,500 m) long, two artificial portal islands, and 3.2 miles (5.1 km) of twin trestle. It was the largest public project in Virginia history at the time in was built.
Battle of Hampton Roads
The MMMBT 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 USS Monitor and CSS Virginia. The latter ship had been rebuilt from the wreck of USS Merrimack. The site of the battle was within one mile (1.6 km) of the bridge–tunnel structure named by the Commonwealth of Virginia as a memorial.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Monitor–Merrimac Memorial Bridge–Tunnel” as bridge in United States of America. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as bridge in United States of America. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6900466. Authority coordinates are 36.941, -76.402. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1992, 1957, 1928 and 1862.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
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Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Monitor–Merrimac Memorial Bridge–Tunnel” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.