"[3] As early as 1910, however, the Maryland State Roads Commission began planning for a wide, concrete highway to replace Route 1.

[4] A bridge carrying New York Avenue over the Anacostia River was first proposed by the District of Columbia Highway Department in 1941.

[5] In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt directed that $2 million of National Industrial Recovery Act public works funding be used to obtain a wider right of way along Route 1 from the District line to Fort Meade, Maryland.

[6] That highway should enter the District of Columbia and connect with New York Avenue NE appears to have been a noncontroversial and almost unanimously accepted design element.

[8] But resource demands caused by World War II postponed work on the extension,[9] and by 1946 the city had still not extended New York Avenue past Bladensburg Road.

[16] By February 1952, delays had caused estimated costs to rise to $2.51 million for the entire project, with work now expected to begin on the overpasses in the summer 1952.

[15] The New York Avenue Bridge itself did not win design approval until August 1952, when the United States Army Corps of Engineers gave its consent.

[20][21] The BPR said at that time that contracts would be awarded in October 1952, and work on the bridge was expected to begin in November and last 18 months.

[20] To accommodate construction of the bridge, the United States Department of Justice gave a 10-acre (40,000 m2) strip of land belonging to the National Training School for Boys to the District of Columbia in December 1952.

[23] In February 1954, construction on the bridge had advanced to the point where officials believed it would open on time in the fall of 1954.

[26] The New York Avenue Bridge was dedicated and opened along with the rest of the federally-built portion of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway on October 22, 1954.