Columbia Island (Washington, D.C.)

History

Columbia Island is partly natural and partly man-made. It did not exist in 1818; at that time Analostan Island (now Theodore Roosevelt Island) was largely rock and close to the D.C. shoreline. Deforestation and increased agriculture upstream caused erosion and silt deposits, and by 1838 Analostan had nearly doubled in length southward. By 1884 the new southern part was defined and supported a well-established wetland, but the river later eroded the center of Analostan, severing Columbia Island.

Between 1911 and 1922 the Potomac was dredged to deepen the channel and widen the gap between the islands; dredged material was piled on Columbia Island, building it higher and giving it its current shape. Filling was complete in spring 1924. The island received its name around 1918 from an unnamed District of Columbia engineer; the first use in The Washington Post was April 1922, the same year it was transferred to the National Park Service. In 1922 Congress authorized the Arlington Memorial Bridge Commission to hold a design competition; the firm McKim, Mead and White won, with William Mitchell Kendall as lead designer.

Congress authorized construction on February 24, 1925, including approaches, improvement of B Street NW, and construction of Memorial Drive and the Hemicycle.

Description

The Boundary Channel separates Lady Bird Johnson Park from the Virginia shoreline, while the main Potomac stream surrounds the other three sides. As of 2007 the island comprised 121 acres of landscaped parkland, containing the Lyndon B. Johnson Memorial Grove, the Navy–Merchant Marine Memorial, and the Columbia Island Marina. The park is accessible via Arlington Memorial Bridge, Memorial Drive, and the George Washington Memorial Parkway; the Mount Vernon Trail runs along the side facing the District, and the Pentagon is visible from the western side near the marina.

In popular culture

Lady Bird Johnson Park, sometimes referred to by its former name Columbia Island, has been used as a setting in fiction. It appears in novels by Anthony S. Policastro, S.R. Larson, Allan Leverone, and Mary Eason. The Columbia Island Marina and Boundary Channel are mentioned in works by Sean Flannery and Kim Stanley Robinson. The marina also shows up in novels by Sheri Holman, Mike Lawson, and the team of Phil Little and Brad Whittington.