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At 14.45 miles (23.26 km), the West Virginia segment of Interstate 70 (I-70) is the shortest in any state through which I-70 passes on its way from near Cove Fort, Utah, to near Baltimore, Maryland. Part of the U.S. Interstate Highway System, it crosses the Northern Panhandle region of West Virginia through Ohio County and the city of Wheeling. The Fort Henry Bridge carries I-70 from Wheeling Island across the Ohio River and into downtown Wheeling before the freeway enters the Wheeling Tunnel. I-470, the lone auxiliary Interstate Highway in West Virginia, is intersected near Elm Grove. Before crossing into Pennsylvania, I-70 passes The Highlands, a major shopping center, and the Bear Rock Lakes Wildlife Management Area. Between 27,000 and 53,000 vehicles use the freeway daily. The I-70 designation was brought to the Northern Panhandle with the passage of the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, and a controlled-access highway was built across the panhandle, bypassing portions of the old National Road constructed in 1818 to connect Wheeling and Cumberland, Maryland. The first portions of I-70 were opened in 1963, and construction was completed across the panhandle by 1971. (Full article...)