Evening star., 1936-09-05
COLUMBIA ISLAND
HIGHWAY BRIDGE
PLANS ARE PUSHED
Bids for Span, Major Park.
way Project, to Be Asked
Soon.
PARKING AREA NOW
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Development Eventually to Link
Lee Boulevard With George
Washington Memorial Drive.

Improvements are being pushed in
the George Washington Memorial
Parkway area, in the vicinity of CO.
lumbia Island, with construction Of
q new three-arch stone bridge across
Boundary Channel in the forefront,
Federal officials said today.
Cooperating in the program are
the Bureau OF Public Roads, the Ma
tional Park Service and its subor-
ganization, the National Capital
Parks. along with the National Capi-
tai Park and Planning Commission
and the Fine Arts Commission.
Ofhcials of the Public Roads Bu-
reau said working plans for the new
bridge, to be built at the northwest
corner of Columbia Island, are
about 90 per cent complete. They
expect to advertise for bids this Fall,
probably in six to eight weeks.
Parking Area Under Way.
A parking area is now under con-
struction at the north end of Colum-
bia Island, so future visitors to Theo-
dore Roosevelt Island may leave their
automobiles there. Present plans of
the National Park Service provide
that there will be no motor trafic
on Theodore Roosevelt Island, and
no bridge will connect Columbia
Island with the former.
One span of the new bridge will
rest on Columbia, providing an under
pass for motorists desiring to use the
parking area. The central span will
cross Boundary Channel proper, while
the third arch will provide horseback
riders and mixers in the George
Washington Memorial Parkway with
an underpass of their own.
West of the new three-arch stone
bridge, in the future line of the Lee
Boulevard, another structure will be
built across the Pennsylvania Rail-
road branch to Rosslyn, Va. This
structure will be constructed with
three openings, the central one for
the railroad, the westerly one for a
heavy duty truck road, to be built
west Of the George Washington Me-
mortal Parkway drive. and the east
erly one for other vehicular traffic.
Provision will be made for hooking
up George Washington Memorial
Parkway traffic with Lee Boulevard.
The money is now in hand, park
officials said, for the railroad over
pass. but final plans have not as yet
been completed.
A ferry is projected between Co.
lumbia and Roosevelt Islands. The
bridge connecting Roosevelt with the
Virginia mainland, near Columbia,
was washed away in the food last
March.
A causeway at the upstream end Of
Roosevelt will be reconditioned un-
der plans of the National Park Serv-
ice, so that visitors may walk across
near Rosslyn. There are no funds
yet available for this job.
In the George Washington Me-
mortal Parkway between Arlington
Memorial and Key Bridges a road
bed constructed of fill is now beitg
allowed to settle preparatory to sur
facing. The Roads Bureau is work.
ing on plans for an adequate ap-
proach to that section of the park
way south of Key Bridge. The plan
contemplates a connection with Lee
highway upstream of Key Bridge.
The tentative program calls for a
new span to be built on the Virginia
side Of Key Bridge as an underpass,
carrying motor traf1c up the Potomac
Valley.