The Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge is a through arch bridge that carries South Capitol Street over the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C. It was completed in 2021 and replaced an older swing bridge that was completed in 1950 as the South Capitol Street Bridge. In 1965, the original bridge was renamed after abolitionist Frederick Douglass. In 2007, the original swing bridge was used by 77,000 daily commuters. Original bridge The original bridge opened on January 14, 1950, as the South Capitol Street Bridge, though it had previously been called the Victory Bridge by Captain H.C. Whitehurst, the District Director of Highways, because it was the first project started after the war ended. At the time it was the longest bridge in the District of Columbia and one of the longest swing bridges in the world. Work on the bridge began in 1945, being advertised 2 weeks after World War II ended, but was stalled in 1947 for four months while the District asked Congress for more money. What to name the bridge had been a question since before it opened, with people all over the world sending in suggestions. The leading ideas in 1950 were FDR, Theodore Roosevelt, George Washington and Herbert Hoover and Frederick Douglass. One idea suggested in 1950 was Walter Johnson, which would have been prescient since the baseball stadium would be built at the foot of the bridge more than 50 years later. But it was only Douglass who was the subject of an organized movement that submitted a petition with 250 names. It took 14 years, but in 1964 the D.C. Federation of Civic Associations requested that the bridge be named the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge and on October 18, 1965, the District's Commissioners voted to name it so, making it both one of the first major bridges named for an African-American or a former slave. The bridge connects at its southern terminus with Interstate 295 and the Suitland Parkway and thus provides access to downtown from those routes as well as from South Capitol Street and roads connecting to it. As a result, the bridge carries commuter traffic from Prince George's County, Maryland, and from Southern Maryland. The bridge is part of the National Highway System, as are South Capitol Street north of the bridge and the Suitland Parkway. The bridge provides a gateway to a former industrial part of the city that was