page_title: Kingman Island
section_title: 1920s–40s
hierarchical_section_title: Kingman Island / Early development efforts / 1920s–40s
caption_attribution_description: English: en:Dwight F. Davis and others break ground on en:Anacostia Park in Washington, D.C., in the United States on August 23, 1923. The park was land reclaimed from the en:Anacostia River between 1903 and 1922, and created used material dredged from the river's bottom.
context_page_description: Kingman Island and Heritage Island are islands in Northeast and Southeast Washington, D.C., in the Anacostia River. Both islands are man-made, built from material dredged from the Anacostia River and completed in 1916. Kingman Island is bordered on the east by the Anacostia River, and on the west by 110-acre Kingman Lake. Heritage Island is surrounded by Kingman Lake. Both islands were federally owned property managed by the National Park Service until 1995. They are currently owned by the District of Columbia government, and managed by Living Classrooms National Capital Region. Kingman Island is bisected by Benning Road and the Ethel Kennedy Bridge, with the southern half of the island bisected again by East Capitol Street and the Whitney Young Memorial Bridge. As of 2010, Langston Golf Course occupied the northern half of Kingman Island, while the southern half of Kingman Island and all of Heritage Island remained largely undeveloped. Kingman Island, Kingman Lake and nearby Kingman Park are named after Brigadier General Dan Christie Kingman, the former head of the United States Army Corps of Engineers.
context_section_description: In 1926, the National Aeronautic Association proposed filling in all or part of Kingman Lake to expand Kingman Island so that a new city airport could be built there. Two years later, the piers supporting the Benning Bridge were reconfigured to permit a dredge to pass between them. The existing piers (which were 26.5 feet (8.1 m) apart) were replaced with piers 30.5 feet (9.3 m) apart. The reconfiguration was exceptionally complex, as 92 percent of the city's electrical supply passed through cables carried by Benning Bridge. The new, large dredging ship Benning was used to dredge the upper part of the Anacostia River, and some of the fill from this operation was used to create two new islands in Kingman Lake, named Island No. 3 (3 acres (1.2 ha) in size) and Island No. 4 (4 acres (1.6 ha) in size).
  In 1934, Benning Bridge was rebuilt as a beam bridge on concrete piers. That same year, the Corps of Engineers transferred ownership of Anacostia Park, Kingman and Heritage islands, and Kingman Lake to the National Park Service. The Park Service also proposed extending East Capitol Street onto the reclaimed land and then over the Anacostia River, and building a complex of sports stadiums, an armory, an outdoor theater, a swimming pool, an ice skating rink, and athletic fields on the flats. Legislation proposing a bridge across Kingman Island and stadium complex in Anacostia Park was submitted to Congress, which did not act on the proposals. The first nine holes of Langston Golf Course were built on the north end of Kingman Island in 1939, and the back nine on the lake's western shore in 1955.
  Work on the islands stopped in 1941 due to budgetary and resource shortages associated with the advent of World War II. In August 1947, construction of an airport on Kingman Island was again proposed, but the NCPPC disapproved the proposal in December. The project was proposed again in August 1948, because dredged material was still being placed on Kingman Island to build it up and large portions of the island remained undeveloped.
  In 1946, the last pair of bald eagles on the Anacostia River abandoned their nest on Kingman Island. Although a bird watcher claimed to have seen a bald eagle nest on the Anacostia River in 1988, the bald eagle did not return until transplanted eaglets returned to the river as adults in 2004.
caption: Dwight F. Davis and others break ground for the dedication of Anacostia Park in August 1923.
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