Volume 17, Numbers 1-2 • January-April 1999

Anacostia: River of Contrasts

Flowing down through the suburban neighborhoods of Montgomery and Prince George's counties, two large stream systems join at Bladensburg to form the Anacostia. The Northwest Branch gathers the waters from creeks such as Sligo Creek, while the Northeast Branch receives the flow from several creeks, including Paint Branch, Little Paint Branch and Beaverdam. These tributaries are both the branches and the roots of the Anacostia watershed - the trunk of which is the tidal river itself.

Once deep enough to carry ocean-going sailing ships with cargos of tobacco as far as the port of Bladensburg, the river began silting in by the beginning of the nineteenth century as the richly-forested lands were cleared for agriculture. For the last 150 years, the Anacostia has been on the receiving end of sediments and heavy loads of pollutants from its urban and suburban watershed. Now the river boasts tidal flats and marshes, limited though they are, including Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, as it flows past Fort Dupont Park, Anacostia Park and the National Arboretum.

Although it flows through parks, the Anacostia becomes an urban river before it reaches the Potomac, and carries with it the burdens of heavy development - from the sediments that first came from cleared farm fields to the metals and waste that have come from industry and population. The Anacostia is also a cradle of culture and, as some have pointed out, of racism (see, for example, "Crossing the River: Race, Geography and the Federal Government" on the web at http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/ANACOSTIA/cover.html).

From the freshwater streams that flow through the northern suburbs to the tidal reaches of the urbanized river, the Anacostia is, after all, one river. Though small in size, in some way it connects the suburban with the urban, expensive neighborhoods with industrial and military sites, wealthy with disenfranchised. Like all rivers, it offers a powerful symbol of connection.

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