At a ceremony Tuesday at the First and Potomac Street Pump House, Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.), Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) along with Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta and D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams (D) signed a memorandum of understand to commit to fulfilling the proposed South Capitol Gateway Project.

The memorandum formally states that a new South Capitol Street bridge is essential to revitalizing South Capitol Street and the Anacostia Waterfront and marks the first time the executive branch, through the Transportation Department, has provided such recognition to the South Capitol Street project.

“I have been a longtime supporter of the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative and I see the restoration of the South Capitol Gateway as a critical component of this initiative,” Hoyer said Tuesday. “ This new and worthy gateway to the nation’s Capitol will attract thoughtfully planned private investment and development while showcasing the Capitol in all its grandeur. The residents of the District and the people of the United States deserve no less.”

Hoyer helped secure $500,000 in federal funds to conduct a study of the South Capitol Gateway, as well as $7 million in fiscal 2004 and $20 million in the House-passed highway bill this year, for the rehabilitation of South Capitol Street and the Frederick Douglass Bridge.

— John McArdle