Two hundred years after the birth of the abolitionist and statesman Frederick Douglass, construction has begun on a $441-million replacement for a 68-year-old bridge that carries his name. The replacement—which retains the honorific—is rising 100 ft south of the existing bridge. The design strives to honor the black civil rights hero’s legacy by creating a “grand urban boulevard” to link a formerly gritty industrial area on the east side of the Anacostia River with Washington, D.C.’s core. The unusual design features a series of above-deck arches with no external bolted connections.
The District of Columbia Dept. of Transportation (DDOT) began looking in the 1990s for a replacement of the existing swing bridge, which opened in 1950, says Delmar D. Lytle, DDOT program manager. “It’s structurally deficient and functionally obsolete,” Lytle says. “Ever since then, we’ve been engaging stakeholders, looking at the aesthetics of the corridor. This is the gateway to the capital.”