Clara Barton Parkway
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The Clara Barton Parkway is a highway in Washington, D.C. and neighboring Montgomery County, Maryland. It is administratively part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway. It was signed as the George Washington Memorial Parkway until 1989, when it was renamed to avoid motorist confusion[1]. It is named in honor of Clara Barton who founded the American Red Cross.
The Clara Barton Parkway has its eastern terminus in the District of Columbia, where the parkway connects with Canal Road and Chain Bridge. It has its western terminus at MacArthur Boulevard in the Potomac area of Montgomery County, Maryland, just outside the Capital Beltway. The parkway provides access to Glen Echo Park and the Clara Barton National Historic Site in Glen Echo, Maryland. The Clara Barton Parkway connects to the Capital Beltway via a partial interchange and also via the Cabin John Parkway (administered by the Maryland State Highway Administration). Clara Barton Parkway includes an overhanging bridge near Glen Echo.
[edit] Previously proposed connection
The parkways on the two sides of the river were originally supposed to be joined by a bridge at the Great Falls of the Potomac River. However, opposition from preservationists led to the cancellation of that bridge. Instead, traffic between the two parkways uses the American Legion Bridge. The Virginia side of the Potomac river at Great Falls is managed by the superintendent of the parkway as a national park site, known as Great Falls Park. Some elements of the proposed final parkway configuration were built but have never been used, such as the concrete bridge that would have carried northbound traffic at the Glen Echo turn-around.
[edit] References
- ^ Shaffer, Ron. "After 20 Years of Columns, Checking the Rearview Mirror One Last Time", The Washington Post, June 25, 2006, p. C01.
