Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-08-08

lington reservation itself, by cooper
alton with the state of Virginia,
should be extended to the south to
take in that lowland west of the
Pennsylvania railway clear to -Four
Mile run, and north to all that land
west of the Washington, Alexandria
and Mount Vernon line of railway as
| far as the new Georgetown bridge, ex-
| cept Analostan Island. Analostan Island
should never be used for manufacturing
or commercial purposes. 1t should be,
| by public or private endeavor, ac-
| Quired and turned into park
1t should be beautifully bridged to
the mainland of both the District of
Columbia and the state of Virginia.
The finests stadium in the country
should there be erected, with every
field. track and game facility, and.
indeed, every artificial advantage that
would lend TO stimulate and encour-
age clean and healthy athletic pur-
suit. On the edge of the island boat
house privileges should be leased for
long terms of years, provided the
boat clubs, colleges and schools would
erect and equip their own respective
houses and keep them attractive at
all times. Above the Aqueduct bridge
the Three Sisters should be removed
and a two-mile course thereby estab-
lished, second to none All possible
regattas should be attracted here.
should Park District Side.
North of the new bridge, yet to be
finished, the District side should be
parked in comparatively narrow
strip adjacent to the river and canal,
which park space, widening wherever
a sweet tidbit of scenery allowed on
the way to Great Falls, should there
broaden out to join with the Virginia
side and form a park reservation of
not less than a thousand acres sur
rounding the falls. The falls should
be bridged, as well as harneSsed to
power. On the Virginia side the ma
tional park line should be extended
through Rosslyn. Ivanwold. North
Arlington Heights, etc, north to
Great Falls.
Now, then, going back for moment
and beginning with the south end of
Alexander Island opposite Potomac
Park, we find there should be begun
the erection of the different state ex-
hibits which ought to be attracted
here. The swamp land fronting the
Arlington reservation should all be
walled and reclaimed as park land.
AS the northern end of Analostan
Island would be bridged on the Dis
trict side, so, too, should the lower
end of Alexander Island be connected
by bridge with the Potomac Park. The
line of park from the Virginia end
of the yet unfinished bridge to Great
Falls should not be less than a quar-
ter of a mile in width and running in
line parallel with the river. The state
exhibits should occupy houses of a
permanent character, of course, each
designed by it's own architect or arch
fleets, built with its own material and
by it's own workmen, in the main, SO
as to be the individual production Of
that state as far as possible.
ITO Be or Not to Be-"
So, ITO be or not to be ?" is the ques-
ton for the people of Washington to
answer. Whether We shall set our
faces toward the ideal, winning to it
day by day, bit by bit, or whether we
shall stand supinely by and let our
selves drift as we have been drifting
in the past? Whether we shall have
city of a million people or more,
with arteries of busy, throbbing life
within us, all our own; or whether we
shall stay about as we are, always
second-rate city, is for us to answer
understand the edict has gone forth
that Analostan Island is to be made
industrial, as are both banks of the
river from the Aqueduct bridge up to
Chain bridge. Oh, the crying pity
of it!
One might well weep tears of an
guish at the shortsightedness of it
| all. If the comparatively trif1ing adj
vantages to be reaped from coming the
District of Columbia are to be over
borne by mistakes such as these then
far, far better there be no coming, for
[ it would mean a setback of at least
fifty years, even if such a false step
could ever be fully recovered from.
LEONARD ]. MATHER.