Jahi Chikwendiu/WASHINGTON POST - Pedestrians pass the 11th Street Bridge just east of the Anacostia River. Within a few years, a group of city planners and community leaders say the bridge could be beautiful, a destination park spanning the river and connecting two of the city’s most iconic neighborhoods.
The old 11th Street Bridge isn’t much to look at: It’s being dismantled and replaced, so chunks of rubble lie piled up over the dirty water of the Anacostia River.
But within a few years, a group of city planners and community leaders say, it could be beautiful, a destination park spanning the river and connecting two of the city’s most iconic neighborhoods.
On Friday, a group of local teenagers pitched their ideas for how the city could create a public space on the bridge that would draw people from the two deeply divided sides of the river. The park could include playgrounds, shady benches overlooking the water, shops, fountains and a stage where audiences could watch plays or listen to gospel or go-go music.
The river has always been a stark dividing line between Anacostia, a predominantly black neighborhood with a rich history and high unemployment, and Capitol Hill, a place bustling with congressmen, lobbyists and more white residents.
“People stay in their zone,” said Darius McKnight, a 19-year-old who is working in the city’s summer jobs program.
“It’s always been, ‘You’re over there, and we’re over here,’ ” a co-worker, William Omorogieva, said.
Or worse: “One side is messed up and one side is doing okay,” said Michael Washington, 17, who lives in Anacostia.
But Terence Nicholson, an artist who is helping the teenagers come up with plans and who has lived in Anacostia most of his life, said, “This area and Capitol Hill are what I would call the essence of Washington.”
With so many people in the city from other places, living here a short time then moving away, “and so many neighborhoods remixed and remodeled, a lot of the city is trying to define itself,” he said.
“This area to me is a more concentrated flavor of Washington, D.C.,” with families going back generations in the same neighborhood, said Nicholson, who loves Anacostia’s arts scene and go-go culture. Still, as long as he can remember, “People leave here to work across the bridge and come home to live.”
When the D.C. Planning Office, working with THEARC arts center in Southeast Washington, asked a small group of teenagers from the city’s Summer Youth Employment Program who had been working in related city agencies to help architects, engineers, historians and community leaders come up with ideas for a bridge park that could help unite the city, most of them were skeptical.
“At first, I wasn’t so sold on the idea,” Omorogieva said. “I didn’t know if people would really use it.”
But they started coming up with ideas. They heard the comments that came out of neighborhood meetings. And people walking by the empty gallery space they have been using for the two-week project, on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue in the heart of Anacostia, started knocking on the glass and offering suggestions, too.
“These are things people would want to do,” Omorogieva said. “The bridge could really help an area like this, with stuff to do, bring people in.” His idea was to have food trucks “to give the taste of D.C., with Caribbean, Asian, African, other types of food.” He designed a seating area nearby, shaded by trees and looking over the water. Especially in Anacostia, there aren’t many places to eat out. “That gets people to go on the bridge” and spread the word, he said. “Everyone likes a place to sit and eat.”
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