The future looks bleak for D.C.’s last standing streetcar bridge, which has been abandoned since streetcars stopped operating on the Glen Echo Trolley Line in 1960.
The 120-year-old Foundry Branch Trolley Trestle in Glover-Archbold Park in Northwest is in bad condition, and Metro, which owns it, wants to tear it down.
Others, including the D.C. Preservation League, have been working to save it.
The District Department of Transportation, or DDOT, offered to take ownership of the bridge and consider repurposing it into part of a new walking and biking trail.
But following the December completion of a feasibility study, DDOT decided this week not to take control of the bridge.
DDOT is moving ahead with plans to replace a 110-foot-long pedestrian bridge over Arizona Avenue NW, upgrade part of a trail in that area, and create a new connection to the Capitol Crescent Trail from Arizona Avenue NW.
DDOT’s decision about the trolley trestle means the Mayor’s Agent for Historic Preservation can now consider Metro’s application to raze it. No hearing date has been set yet.
