Highway Boom Corridor Restoration

Anacostia highway is conceived by the NCPPC in 1950. Ground is broken in 1958. Nearby neighborhoods including, Anacostia and Fairlawn, are separated from Anacostia Park. Neighborhoods including Kenilworth and Barry Farm are severed.

Meaningful efforts to restore the river and its surrounding communities begin. The Six Point River Restoration plan is adopted in 1991. The Anacostia River Clean Up and Protection Act is passed in 2009. But the highway remains omnipresent. Anacostia Freeway 11th Street Interchange under construction, 1964

Contaminated sites show history of the District’s treatment of eastern neighborhoods as disposable. The district openly burned trash in Kenilworth Park from 1942 -1968. In 1966-in one of the earliest environmental justice protests in US history-residents laid down in the street in an attempt to stop the trucks, but the city’s dumping and burning continued.