The District of Columbia began laying track in 2009, for two lines[4][5] whose locations in Anacostia and Benning were chosen to revitalize blighted commercial corridors.

Between 1862 and 1962, streetcars in Washington, D.C., were a common mode of transportation, but the system was dismantled in the early 1960s as part of a switch to bus service.

[11] In January 2002, District of Columbia officials began studying the economic feasibility and costs of constructing a 33-mile (53.1 km) long system of streetcars throughout the city.

D.C. Council Member David Catania specifically requested that DDOT study adding streetcars in the Anacostia neighborhood.

[15] The goal of the project was to bring light rail to Anacostia first (rather than last, as had happened with Metrorail), and to provide a speedier, more cost-effective way to link the neighborhood with the rest of the city.

[16] Layton Lyndsey, reporting in The Washington Post, asserted the cars would be the first of their kind to be built in the United States and approved by the Federal Railroad Administration.

[19]) The District of Columbia subsequently decided to build the initial components of the DC Streetcar system on its own.

[20] In September 2004, Metro agreed to move ahead with the project (whose $45 million cost was now being funded completely by the District of Columbia), with construction to start in November 2004 and end in 2006.

[23] The goal of the trip was to investigate whether streetcars had the intended positive economic consequences and whether the return on investment seemed worthwhile.

[24] With a decision on the fare structure still months off, Council Member Marion Barry threatened to cancel all funding for all planned DC Streetcar lines.

[36] In 2003, then-Mayor Anthony A. Williams unveiled a draft Strategic Development Plan which proposed redeveloping and revitalizing six blighted areas of the city, including H Street NE and Benning Road.

[37] On January 20, 2006, the District of Columbia Department of Transportation announced that it would build a $13 million streetcar line on H Street NE, from Union Station to Benning Road and the Minnesota Avenue Metro station as part of its Great Streets initiative,[38][39] on much of the same route established by the Columbia Railway Company in 1870.

[8] As of December 2021[update], DDOT intends to extend the line by two miles (3.2 km) to the Benning Road Metro stop.

[56][57] DDOT and Metro announced in April 2006 that work on the revised streetcar line in Anacostia would start again in a few months.

[59] DDOT opened bids for the now-$45 million contract to construct the Anacostia Line's tracks and infrastructure in August 2008.

[60] The delays had caused the warranty on the mothballed Czech-produced streetcars to expire, and storage costs were running $860,000 a year.

DDOT applied for a $20 million National Infrastructure Investments — Consolidated Appropriations Act grant to assist it in building the extension.

The city began holding public hearings on construction of the line ahead of schedule, due to the imminent 2011 closing of Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

[64] The streetcar line was part of a proposed $500 million, 62-acre (25 ha) mixed-use housing, office, and retail development that would begin construction in 2013.

[64] D.C. officials moved up hearings on (and potential construction of) the Georgia Avenue Line because the redevelopment of the Walter Reed site would be heavily dependent on the streetcar reaching the area by the time the new homes and businesses opened.

[64] In March 2011, the Washington Business Journal said that the city's reuse plan for its portion of the Walter Reed Campus included a retail hub serviced by a streetcar line.