FROM "PARK" TO "WAY"

The long delay between the parkway's conception and completion coincided with America's transition from horse and buggy to automobile. The changing proposals for Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway reflected the nationwide transformation from the nineteenth-century view of parkways as elegant boulevards linking parks and civic centers to the modern idea of parkways as pleasantly landscaped motor roads dominated by commuter traffic.

Early plans for the parkway called for an elaborate network of carriage drives, pedestrian promenades, and bridle paths surrounded by an open, park-like setting. The wide bend south of P Street was to be developed into a public garden with benches, foot bridges, and picturesque overlooks, Designers believed this area was destined to become "the most beautiful park in the world." Stately formal avenues would parallel the parkway on both sides of the valley.

Parkway South of Massachusetts Avenue, ca. 1937 (DCL)

Surrounding development, together with the wider, straighter roads required by automobiles, resulted in the elimination of the border roads and a general simplification of the parkway landscape. The number of entrances from Georgetown and Washington was also reduced. Proposed bridges at N and S streets were eliminated. These changes helped preserve scenery and minimize disruptions from entering and turning traffic, but they made the parkway function less like a local park and more like a thoroughfare between northwest Washington and the downtown. Still, when the parkway was completed, it contained numerous picnic areas and a well-used bridle path. The bridle path was converted into a multi-use trail in the 1970s.

Newspaper coverage of the parkway's opening reflected the changing function of urban parkways in general and Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway in particular. The Washington Post's report characterized the parkway in its original role as a link between Potomac Park and Rock Creek Park. The Post rejoiced that motorists would be able to "drive through two famous parks without once leaving their natural grandeur." The Evening Star, however, emphasized the parkway's new function as a commuter route declaring:

Motorists from the Chevy Chase-Bethesda area will have the privilege of riding downtown through a veritable fairyland, a natural setting for nature's own worship, and not so much as a traffic light to impede progress. There is, perhaps, no city in the world offering so much beauty for those going to work.

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