Text Box: GLEN ECHO’S MYSTERIOUS “BRIDGE TO NOWHERE” By Carlotta Anderson “A Bridge to Nowhere” is what it is sometimes called, and it’s right here in Glen Echo. You drive under the overpass bridge every time you take the short access road from the Clara Barton Parkway to MacArthur Blvd. You probably have never thought about it. It’s almost impossible to reach, but if you walk along MacArthur Blvd. past the Irish Inn you can probably see the section of highway that goes nowhere through the overgrowth. A reader of “John Kelly’s Washington” in The Washington Post asked about it recently. “Answer Man,” as Kelly calls himself, investigated and learned that it was part of the original plans for the Clara Barton Parkway (or George Washington Parkway, as it was called at the time). As he wrote, in 1930 Congress approved the construction of a scenic parkway on both sides of the river. There would be two lanes in each direction and it would end at Mt. Vernon in Virginia and Fort Washington in Maryland. When the Park Service got around to actually building the Maryland parkway in the 1960s that was still the plan, according to Matthew Virta, cultural resource manager for the George Washington Memorial Parkway. The “bridge to nowhere” was constructed as a two-lane section of the divided parkway outgoing from D.C. and was intended to run parallel to the existing stretch. Prematurely, as it turned out. The Park Service rather belatedly determined that it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to acquire all the privately-owned parcels of land needed to create such a wide roadway. It had bought land piecemeal, expecting that all the pieces could eventually be linked, but faced opposition from landowners, enviromentalists and politicians. Lacking sufficient space in the portion below Glen Echo, engineers finally came up with a cantilevered design for the portion below Glen Echo. Elsewhere, the parkway had to be limited to only two lanes instead of four. Some strange remnants of the original plan still exist in the woods next to the parkway. Five-foot-high concrete columns topped by manholes stick up, marking the level at which the original road would have been built. Plans to continue the Maryland side of the parkway from D.C. to Ft. Washington were abandoned. Apparently it wasn’t considered worth the trouble to tear down the concrete Bridge to Nowhere. Text Box: RESIDENT’S SCULPTURES TO BE UNVEILED THIS MONTH The 11 animal sculptures created by Raya Bodnarchuk will be installed at the Forest Glen Pedestrian Bridge in November. Townspeople will be invited to be present after the date is known. The sculptures represent a commission to the artist from several county groups. They depict animals, reptiles, and birds from this area and are currently being cast in bronze at a foundry in Baltimore. The sculptures will be for sale as well. Text Box: ELECTRONICS DROP-OFF PROGRAM FOR RECYCLING The Bethesda-Chevy Chase free-cycle group has announced that no longer wanted electronics and computers can be recycled through a student-run recycling program which has collected over 2,300 items to date. All items may be delivered free except for a $6 charge for monitors to cover the proper disposal of the 5-10 lbs. of lead and leaded glass that is in each unit. Acceptable items are: Fax/Copier/Printer Ink Cartridges, Laser and Inkjet Cartridges, Used Cell Phones, Laptops (w/ power cord), PDAs (any type), Computers/CPUs, Monitors, Printers, Keyboards, Computer Speakers & Peripherals, Scanners, Small Fax & Copiers. All items collected will be shipped and refurbished/recycled for reuse by Access Computers. All toxics will be disposed of according to EPA guidelines. This is a ZERO LANDFILL program. Drop donations on the porch at 3630 Everett Street, NW (a small one-way street off the intersection of Nebraska Ave. & Reno Rd.) any time, day or night. Questions? Contact Nick Morgan at nmorgan@maret.org