East Potomac Park is a park located on a man-made island in the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., United States. The island is between the Washington Channel and the Potomac River, and on it the park lies southeast of the Jefferson Memorial and the 14th Street Bridge. Amenities in East Potomac Park include the East Potomac Park Golf Course, a miniature golf course, a public swimming pool (the East Potomac Park Aquatic Center), tennis courts, and several athletic fields (some configured for baseball and softball, others for soccer, rugby, or football). The park is a popular spot for fishing, and cyclists, walkers, inline skaters, and runners heavily use the park's roads and paths. A portion of Ohio Drive SW runs along the perimeter of the park. The southern tip is called Hains Point.
East Potomac Park is accessible primarily by road via Ohio Drive SW. Metrobus does not serve the park, and there is no Washington Metro stop close to the park. The nearest Metro stop is the Smithsonian station at Independence Avenue SW and 12th Street SW, about six blocks away. (Walking from Metro requires accessing the park via Raoul Wallenberg Place SW, Maine Avenue SW, and Ohio Drive SW.)
Geography
The island lies between the Washington Channel and the Potomac River, and its southern end, Hains Point, is at the confluence of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers.Appendixes, Draft, National Mall Plan, Environmental Impact Statement, The National Mall, Appendix A: "The National Mall and Memorial Parks: Foundation Statement," page 557, "Other Important Resources and Values," National Park Service, November 2009. The point faces Fort Lesley McNair and the National War College, both of which are on the eastern shore of the Washington Channel, and Bolling Air Force Base, across the Anacostia River. The Jefferson Memorial is on the northern end.National Mall & Memorial Parks, "Tour Bus Access: National Mall and Vicinity," Map, page 2. To the southwest, across the Potomac in Virginia, is Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
East Potomac Park is within the jurisdiction of the National Mall and Memorial Parks unit of the National Park Service (NPS).Press Release, National Park Service, "John Piltzecker Selected As National Mall Superintendent," posted August 20, 2009.National Mall & Memorial Parks Superintendent's Compendium, November 1, 2006. The parkAppendixes, Draft, National Mall Plan, Environmental Impact Statement, The National Mall, Glossary, page 2, "East Potomac Park." contains the East Potomac Golf Club and East Potomac Swimming Pool, along with a number of Washington's famous cherry trees; these trees extend to Hains Point.Map, "Japanese Flowering Cherry Trees of Downtown Washington, DC," National Park Service, February 2005.
The perimeter of East Potomac Park is lined with a concrete walking/bike path. The Potomac and Anacostia Rivers often overflow their banks during high tide, covering the path with water.Appendixes, Draft, National Mall Plan, Environmental Impact Statement, The National Mall, Appendix E: "Draft Statement of Findings for Floodplains," page 578, Figure SOF-1, Floodplains Map, National Park Service, November 2009.
A straight and generally flat stretch of Ohio Drive extends in a loop along the perimeter of East Potomac Park, including Hains Point. This road is one way within the park; traffic must travel clockwise, going generally northwest on the Potomac River side of the peninsula, and generally southeast on the Washington Channel side. Various cultivars of cherry tree line both sides of the road. Another road, Buckeye Drive, bisects the peninsula and connects the north and south portions of Ohio Drive within the park. Ohio Drive extends beyond the park and follows the Potomac as far as the Lincoln Memorial.
As of June 2010, East Potomac Park contains 320 parking spaces, which are accessible from both Ohio Drive and Buckeye Drive. Traffic is prohibited on weekends and some holidays on the sections of Ohio Drive between Buckeye Drive and Hains Point. This stretch of road, estimated by some as 3.2 miles (5.2 km) long (including Buckeye Drive), is a favorite of the local bicycling and inline skating community.
The terrain of East Potomac Park is flat, rising to only about .WorldIslandInfo.com page on East Potomac Park
Construction
Although the shoreline of the Potomac River in the District of Columbia was likely to have been littered with shoals, sandbars, and marsh flats, no documentation of these was undertaken until 1834. At that time, the United States Army Corps of Topographical Engineers identified extensive tidal flats below Long Bridge (the predecessor structure to the 14th Street Bridge). These varied in size, but the largest was in size at low tide. By 1881, these extended from about the Old Naval Observatory down to Buzzard Point. Near the modern intersection of 17th Street NW and Constitution Avenue NW, the city's sewer system discharged into an extensive tidal flat, known as Kidwell's Meadows. Exposed to the air about half the time, the sewage began decomposing, creating a powerful, rank smell.
The southern part of the Pennsylvania Avenue district was flooded many times in the last three decades of the 19th century. Major floods occurred in October 1870 (during which Chain Bridge was destroyed), February 1881, November 1887, and June 1889 (the same storm which caused the Johnstown Flood). Floodwaters were high enough that rowboats were used on the avenue, and horse-drawn streetcars saw water reach the bottom of the trams. After a disastrous flood in 1881, the United States Army Corps of Engineers dredged a deep channel in the Potomac and used the material to fill in the Potomac (creating the current banks of the river) and raise much of the land near the White House and along Pennsylvania Avenue NW by nearly . Much of the dredged material was used to build up the existing tidal flats in the Potomac River as well as sandbars which had been created by silting around Long Bridge. Reclamation occurred in three phases: Section 1 became West Potomac Park, section 2 became the area around the Tidal Basin, and section 3 became the East Potomac Park. Congress formally designated these areas "Potomac Park and to be forever held and used as a park for the recreation and pleasure of the people." on March 3, 1897.[https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-29/pdf/STATUTE-29-Pg624-2.pdf#page=1 U.S. Congress, Statutes of the Fifty-Fourth Congress Session II Volume 29, p. 624, chapter 375.
To ensure that the island was not eroded by the river, poplars and willows were planted along edge of the island to stabilize the shoreline. Over the next two decades, most of East Potomac Park lay untouched, and dense thickets of trees and brush grew up on the island. Dredging of the Potomac River continued even after East Potomac Park was considered finished, and additional dredged material was placed on the island in late 1900, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, and 1907.
Beginning in late 1907, a bridge was built across the Tidal Basin Outlet Channel, carrying the Washington, Alexandria, and Mount Vernon Electric Railway (a streetcar line) over the Washington Channel and the Long Bridge into Virginia. This was completed in June 1908. More dredge material was deposited on the island in 1909, 1911, and 1912.
In 1900, the United States Senate established the Senate Park Commission to reconcile competing visions for the development of Washington, D.C., and the parks within it. Better known as the McMillan Commission, because of its influential chairman, Senator James McMillan, the commission released a document known as McMillan Plan in 1902. The McMillan Plan called for turning the undeveloped land into a formal park with extensive recreation facilities.
History Infilling of the East Potomac Park island continued long after the island was considered complete. In 1906, a large elliptical depression covering about existed in the center of the island. Due to the distance to shore, the Corps of Engineers felt it was not feasible to fill in the area. But a contractor, eager to be rid of dredged material, filled it in for free in 1908. A portion of the park then served in 1910 as a nursery for providing trees, shrubs, and flowers for Congress, the White House, and other governmental agencies.
Congress gave permission for the Corps to open East Potomac Park to the public in August 1912. In September 1912, the Corps began construction of a road on the Potomac River shoreline of East Potomac Park. Work continued on the Potomac River shoreline in 1914, and continued up the Washington Channel side. The road on the Channel side was completed in spring 1915, leaving a temporary road around the southern tip of the island. This portion of the road was finished in late June 1915.
Congress transferred jurisdiction of East Potomac Park to the District of Columbia from the federal government in legislation enacted on August 1, 1914. At the time, public works in the District of Columbia were overseen by the Army Corps of Engineers, so this legislation effectively placed the park under the Corps' jurisdiction.
Spring 1915 saw the Corps extensively landscape East Potomac Park for the first time, planting 46,650 shrubs and flowering plants and 203 Japanese cherry trees (or sakura) along the roadway. Another 133 Japanese cherry trees were planted in spring 1916.
One of the first structures added to East Potomac Park was the National Park Service (NPS) lodge. The Corps of Engineers had originally proposed constructing a small lodge in East Potomac Park in 1908 to serve as a tool shed and public toilet and to serve as a shelter for police patrolling the park. But Congress did not approve this plan. Instead, a lodge originally built in Franklin Square in downtown Washington, D.C., about 1867 was moved to the north end of East Potomac Park, near the Washington Channel shoreline, between 1913 and June 1915. The National Park Service used the structure for various purposes until 1965, when Congress established the National Mall and Memorial Parks administrative unit of the National Park Service's National Capital Parks. The unit has used the lodge for its headquarters ever since.
Bridle paths for horseback riding were also constructed in the park in 1913, and significantly expanded in summer 1915 and spring 1916. The first three of the park's many baseball diamonds were established in early 1915, and extensive cinder-lined walking paths constructed in summer 1915 and spring 1916. The Corps proceeded to clear grade, plow, and seed of land in the center of the park for use as athletic fields in the summer of 1916 and again in the spring of 1917. But this land was turned over to the Boy Scouts of America for use as a victory garden.
Hains Point is named in memory of Peter Conover Hains (1840–1921), Major General, United States Army, who is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He designed the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C., which solved drainage problems and foul smell in much of the Washington area marshlands.
Golf course and fieldhouses