Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 9
Inventing nature along George Washington Memorial Parkway. (Library of
Congress)
Newspaper coverage of the parkway's completion reflected these
changes. Referring to the largely man-made landscape as a “great natural
garden,” the
Washington Post
underscored its original role as a component
of Washington's park system. The
Evening Star,
however, emphasized its
role as a traffic artery:“The special value of the parkway is that it will afford
an uninterrupted passage to the downtown area, or to Virginia, by avoiding
the many intersections and traffic congestion that plague motorists on the
regular street routes.” Conflating nineteenth-century nature worship with
the concerns of modern-day commuters, the paper rejoiced that, with the
project's completion in 1936, “motorists from the Chevy Chase-Bethesda
area will have the privilege of riding downtown through a veritable fairy-
land, a natural setting for nature's own worship, and not so much as a traffic
