The MonitorâÂÂMerrimac Memorial BridgeâÂÂTunnel (MMMBT) is the Hampton Roads crossing for Interstate 664 (I-664) in the southeastern portion of Virginia in the United States. It is a four-lane bridgeâÂÂtunnel 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 BridgeâÂÂTunnel 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 long, two artificial portal islands, and of twin trestle. It was the largest public project in Virginia history at the time in was built.
The MMMBT is named for the two ironclad warships which engaged in the famous Battle of Hampton Roads on March 8âÂÂ9, 1862, during the US Civil War. The battle took place between and . The latter ship had been rebuilt from the wreck of . The site of the battle was within of the bridgeâÂÂtunnel structure named by the Commonwealth of Virginia as a memorial.