Project Description
FROM THE ARCHITECTS:
CROSSING n.
the act of a person or thing that crosses | a place where lines, streets, tracks, etc., cross each other | a place at which a road, railroad track, river, etc., may be crossed | hybridization; crossbreeding | the act of opposing or thwarting, as if deliberately thwarting straight passage
Historically in Washington, small boats and rafts, then ferries, provided vital links across the city’s rivers, including at places along the Anacostia River. In the not so recent past, ferries shuttled workers living in the Anacostia neighborhood across the river to their jobs in the Navy Yard. These ferry crossings became as much places of congregation and assembly, places of social exchange, as they were places of passage.
Our proposal for the 11th Street Bridge Park puts in place a new crossing, one that establishes new connections across and to the Anacostia River and to the burgeoning and socially / culturally rich neighborhoods along its banks.
The Crossing is a new place of convergence, of congregation, of crossbreeding. It is an incubator for social and community and civic life, and a model for building healthy bodies, healthy neighborhoods, and a healthy river environment.