October 2018 - Parks & Recreation - 50

11TH STREET BRIDGE

PHOTO COURTESY OF OMA+OLIN

The Bridge Park will connect neighborhoods that have been historically divided,
by creating a vibrant place of exchange
on the Anacostia River.

Today, these neighborhoods still
lack access to the critical amenities
of healthy food sources, sufficient
social and medical services, and
safe places for recreation. These
Wards have some of the highest
unemployment, obesity and illness
rates in the city. Neighborhoods
like Congress Heights, Historic
Anacostia, Fairlawn and others are
also feeling the pressures of gentrification.
It is within this social, environ-

The OMA+OLIN team experimented with an array of
bridge forms before arriving at the iconic " X " - each
arm of the bridge reaching out from its own side
of the river before converging and creating a place
of exchange at the midpoint of the river. The form
grew out of the need for accessible paths from both
sides of the river and the desire to integrate the
distinct landscape characters found on both sides
of the river: the densely built Capitol Riverfront to
the west and the more open landscape of the Anacostia Park to the east.

Parks & Recreation

mental and economic context that
the 11th Street Bridge Park project
has been conceived by Building
Bridges Across the River (BBAR),
a visionary nonprofit based east of
the river in Ward 8. Co-founded by
Skip McMahon and led by Rahsaan
Bernard, BBAR runs the Townhall
Education Arts and Recreation
Center (THEARC), a consortium
of organizations that provides access to high-quality educational,
health, cultural, recreational and
social services to improve the quality of life for children and adults
living east of the Anacostia. Scott
Kratz, vice president of BBAR and
director of the Bridge Park project,
has been a tireless champion since
its inception and is joined by a talented team that is working toward
opening the Bridge Park in 2023.
During the 17th century, the
Anacostia River was 40 feet deep
and teeming with fish; its shores
were lush woodlands. For much
of the 20th century, as with most

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American cities, industrial sites and
landfills dominated the waterfront,
leeching contaminants into the
water and soil. Today, the Anacostia, often referred to as " DC's Forgotten River, " flows from Prince
George's
County,
Maryland,
into our nation's capital, where it
joins with the Potomac River. Its
176-square-mile watershed largely
sits within the state of Maryland
in the Chesapeake Bay drainage
basin, which, according to the Fish
and Wildlife Service, is considered
one of the most degraded waterways in the United States.
The city's combined sewer system, increasingly taxed by population growth and the effects of
climate change, still dumps raw
sewage directly into the river daily. At the behest of grassroots organizations, like the Anacostia
Watershed Society, the District of
Columbia has been working over
the past 30 years to address this
issue. Recent efforts by DC Water
in 2018 to build new storage capacity will redirect 80 percent of this
polluted water through wastewater
treatment facilities before releasing
it back into the Potomac River. Another ongoing water-quality issue,
however, is the flow of trash and
debris flowing into the Anacostia
via tributaries from throughout its
massive watershed.

Early Community
Engagement
In 2011, work on the project began
with a monumental community engagement process. More than 200
neighborhood meetings were held
with residents and other stakeholders

October 2018 - Parks & Recreation

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