WASHINGTON » On the edge of the historic Anacostia neighborhood here there is a very ugly bridge.

It once linked Capitol Hill to a freeway that headed to southern Maryland over the Anacostia River, but it had little inherent value to the neglected, largely African-American region through which it passed.

But city officials, community activists and private donors have plans to transform the 11th Street Bridge – a previous version was once traversed daily by Frederick Douglass – into a park that would link some of the district’s tourist-oriented neighborhoods with one of its final frontiers in the march toward gentrification.

As with park projects in other cities, the Anacostia park project is seeded with hope and some trepidation as schematic drawings inch toward reality. For many impoverished areas that have been bolstered by green spaces and the ensuing development around them, the rewards of recreation can be a mixed blessing. The $45 million project – which will rely on private donations on top of a $14.5 million commitment from the city – is coming together at a time of political upheaval in the Ward 8 section of the city, which includes Anacostia. It follows closely on the death of the ward’s controversial but locally beloved councilman, former mayor Marion S. Barry Jr., which along with economic uncertainty has left residents anxious about what comes next.

"Gentrification has already rolled into Ward 8," said Brenda Richardson, a community activist and a former aide to Barry. "It isn’t always an easy thing to do to talk to this community because we are always in battle mode to fight for what we want."

The park would become a recreation area of both national significance and of rare benefit to Ward 8, just southeast of Capitol Hill and the Nationals’ ballpark, and aid in restoring the Anacostia River, a fetid, often forgotten tributary to its elegant sister, the Potomac.

In its previous form, the 11th Street Bridge was one of two freeway bridges built at the site in the 1960s. Those bridges were replaced recently with three new structures, two freeway bridges and one for local traffic: the park will be built on the piers of the old freeway bridge. The park is similar in its aim to the Atlanta BeltLine, which turned an old railroad line into a bike path, and Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park, in which a polluted parcel in an industrial neighborhood was transformed into a natural space run by the Seattle Art Museum. It could be developmentally parallel to the razing of the Cabrini-Green public housing project, economically boosting an area of Chicago long ignored by commerce.

In San Francisco, the Giants’ picturesque new ballpark transformed an industrial waterfront. And in this city, where peep shows and prostitutes once shared a street with FBI headquarters, the development of a sports arena helped transform Washington’s downtown.

But the area east of the river here has been largely left out.

"The Anacostia River has been the dividing line of this city," said Scott Kratz, the director of the 11th Street Bridge Park organization, which is overseeing the project slated to open in 2018. His group had hundreds of meetings in the community to build support for the project, including soliciting ideas, down to artwork from area high school students, which were included in the final design.

Barry and others pushed back against the project at first, arguing that city money was better spent on health and education in the area.

"There is a trust deficit," Kratz said, "because people have long come east of the river and made promises that didn’t work out."

The park – designed by the firm OMA and Olin which won the bid in a large scale contest – will feature a platform above the water, an interactive water feature that includes a mural of Douglass, boat launches, a cafe, and the incorporation of an open plaza for markets, festivals and performances.

The park would take advantage of the river views that have been largely neglected for years.

"Anacostia as a landform has among the greatest views of the city," said Harry Robinson, the dean emeritus of the Howard University School of Architecture and Design, who was a juror on the design competition.

Officials are also thrilled at the prospect of the park being integrated into the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, which preserves the Cedar Hill estate in Anacostia where Douglass lived.

"Anacostia is a focal point for us right now," said Gopaul Noojibail, the superintendent of the 16 national park units on the eastern side of the capital. "The bridge is ahead of us in terms of some of the goals that we have; it’s going to be a galvanizing force for the rivers."

Park experts say that the potential for the project is huge, largely because of its water component, but that risks remain on the shores, beyond the developers’ control.

"It is a really an innovative park," said Richard Dolesh, vice president for Conservation and Parks at the National Recreation and Park Association. "But you have two historically disconnected communities, and a lot of times in these mega-park developments there is a lot of concern about gentrification."

Kratz said he is working carefully to avoid that, by pushing for city policies that would manage development and growth and sustain housing that existing residents can afford.

"If we end up building a bridge park and people who were part of the process can no longer afford to live here, we have failed," he said.

© 2014 The New York Times Company