Green Meadows

Wasn’t Greenway once marshland? Greenway in Southeast Washington DC. That’s right. Before becoming the neighborhood we see today this area was marshland and riverbank. Imagine the Anacostia River a fast-flowing waterway. Then white settlers arrived. They cleared forests for farmland. Soil erosion increased. Silt and effluent poured into the Anacostia. Bridges slowed the current. Mudflats formed. Untreated sewage flowed into the river. Marsh grass trapped the sewage. Public health experts declared the flats unsanitary. They feared disease-carrying mosquitoes. The Army Corps of Engineers stepped in. They proposed dredging the Anacostia. This would create a commercially viable channel. The dredged material would be used to create dry land. The original plan called for a channel 15 feet wide. A dam was even proposed to form a lake. The McMillan Commission however had other ideas. They proposed turning the reclaimed flats into parkland. This became Anacostia Park. The dredging work began in 1903. The survey to determine land ownership was completed by 1905. The US government claimed ownership. The area that’s now Green Meadows has a more recent history. In 1940 a low-income housing project was built. It was called Greenway. This massive project provided housing for defense workers. The project comprised 75 to 80 apartment buildings. Each building had 11 units. This 1940 development gave the neighborhood its name. Today Greenway is characterized by multi-family homes and public housing projects. The residents are largely poor. Anacostia Park is nearby but inaccessible. A freeway and railway tracks separate Greenway from the park and waterfront. Yet the spirit of Greenway remains. It stands as a testament to adaptation resilience and community. It’s a neighborhood with a complex history a history etched into the very land itself. Greenway. A neighborhood shaped by the river the land and its people.