The portion of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House officially reopened Tuesday in a ceremony attended by first lady Laura Bush and Mayor Anthony Williams.
Part of the street had been closed for the past 10 months as construction crews renovated the street, partially obscuring the White House from outside viewers. Now it is a calm pedestrian plaza, lined with benches and more than 40 streetlights, a major change from when it was a busy thoroughfare.
"I've watched from those windows for the past year as this has happened," Bush said during the opening ceremony. "It's been a really wonderful process to watch, and it's thrilling to have the fences down now and have it back open again." The first lady played an active role in the Pennsylvania Avenue redesign process, according to the White House Web site.
Barriers first appeared in front of the White House after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. After Sept. 11, more barriers appeared, and plans to redesign the avenue to make it safer and still tourist-friendly were introduced in 2002.
"In many ways our challenges with Pennsylvania Avenue have come to symbolize our ongoing struggle that we all face in our efforts ... to better balance our national security needs in a dangerous world with our desire to maintain not only the image and symbol of freedom but real freedom for our citizens," Williams said in his ceremonial remarks.
The mayor hinted at the eventual reopening of the street to traffic, something the White House Web site says is possible in the future "should the security environment change."
The National Capital Planning Commission and the Federal Highway Commission were in charge of the construction project, which began in January 2004.
The landscape artist in charge of the design, Michael Van Valkenburgh, said special disease-resistant American Elms are being grown in Georgia for the street. In the spring he will select 88 of the trees to line the plaza.
The plaza has been built to be accessible by downtown circulator buses, which provide service to monuments downtown.
