If you have ever been to the Georgetown movie theater, then you have had the privilege of experiencing what is arguably the most ominous area the Georgetown neighborhood has to offer: the Waterfront.
This is not to say that the Waterfront is devoid of anything. There are many fine restaurants and stores that cater to the well-heeled Georgetown resident or college student.
However, any charms these riverbank roads may offer are quite literally overshadowed by the massive (from the sidewalk, at least) bridge of the Whitehurst Freeway.
The Whitehurst is a key artery for the many commuters entering the District each day. It is also a visual blight that gives the zone the feel of a gritty, abandoned industrial area, which in a way it is.
The bridge is a relic of the post-war, factory-filled Georgetown, before anyone imagined it would become the trendy, overpriced hotspot of today.
Tearing down the freeway would be a boon to Georgetown students and residents alike. More trendy, overpriced stores would crowd the newly-scenic area, property values would boom, and Hoyas would trade an imposing facade for open air.
Bowing to the wishes of many Georgetowners, the District Department of Transportation is currently studying demolition proposals. This will be a great boon for students in the Class of 2016.
A “feasibility study” began in the spring of 2005, and the hopes of the few dozen students paying attention to D.C. news were raised. Nearly two years later, we await the completion of the study, and the beginning of a “detailed environmental analysis.”
“This probably won’t happen within the next five years, maybe 10 years,” Mark Niles, a project consultant for the DDOT, said at last week’s recent public information session over possible designs.
There is a lot of opposition to knocking down the bridge. Commuters, naturally, fear bottlenecks and traffic jams. Many local residents worry freeway traffic would flow into their neighborhoods.
“Whitehurst has 15 years of life left which causes the taxpayers of the District to resist spending unnecessary funds to have the Whitehurst removed at this time,” local Advisory Neighborhood Committee chairperson Alma Gates wrote last year in a letter to the National Park Service.
There are many groups that would love to see Whitehurst stay up for many years to come, and likely have the clout to slow dismantlement progress to a crawl. So plan on your trip to the movies remaining creepy for years to come.
