Under the improvement program “Water Street” is to be made a 160-foot boulevard, with separate lanes for traffic, street cars, and trucks, and marginal and central landscaping. The old 4-line street-car lanes on a portion of the street have been removed. To permit of direct connection with East Potomac Park and the Highway Bridge, a bridge is to be built just below the railroad crossing at the head of the Washington Channel. Water Street is now Maine Avenue. [Illustration: GEORGE WASHINGTON MEMORIAL PARKWAY] The cost of the entire project is estimated at $3,691,600. The report was submitted by the Secretary of War to the Speaker of the House of Representatives on November 26, 1929, and then was referred to the Committee on Rivers and Harbors. The project is now under development. [Illustration: FISH MARKET ALONG THE WATER FRONT] GEORGE WASHINGTON MEMORIAL PARKWAY The George Washington Memorial Parkway, designed by the National Capital Park and Planning Commission, was authorized by the Capper-Cramton Act, approved May 29, 1930, and carrying with it an authorization of $33,500,000 for the development of a comprehensive park, parkway, and playground area in the District of Columbia and the surrounding regions of Maryland and Virginia. This parkway is designed “to include the public control of both banks of the river between Mount Vernon and Great Falls on the Virginia side and between Fort Washington and Great Falls on the Maryland side, with the exception of areas at Alexandria and in Washington which are reserved for commercial development.” This is a project in which both residents of the District of Columbia and of the States of Maryland and Virginia may take equal pride--namely, to preserve Great Falls and the banks of the Potomac, so that the Potomac River, as it flows through the National Capital, may flow through a continuous park from Great Falls to Mount Vernon. Washington is to be envied in having so near to it such beautiful scenery as the Palisades of the Potomac and Great Falls, which are said to be “the finest specimens of nature in this part of the country.” Already, along the Palisades of the Potomac, quarries have been established and beautiful timber is being converted into lumber and firewood. These invasions will in time destroy natural beauties that can not be restored. [Illustration: GREAT FALLS OF THE POTOMAC] THE MOUNT VERNON HIGHWAY ROUTE THE MOUNT VERNON HIGHWAY TRAVERSES HISTORIC TERRITORY