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6. Initial cost of land acquisition

7. Land development and construction costs required to activate a National Armed Forces Museum

In 1964 the Advisory Board recommended to the Board of Regents that--of all the sites considered--Fort Washington, in Prince George's County, Maryland, was, in its judgment, most appropriate to fulfill the provisions of Section 3(b), Public Law 87-186.  The Advisory Board recommended further that provisions be made in a reorganization plan by the President or by legislation to transfer this site from the jurisdiction of the National Park Service, Department of the Interior, to that of the Smithsonian.

The Board of Regents approving these recommendations, the Smithsonian pursued lengthy negotiations with the National Park Service looking to acquisition of Fort Washington by transfer but to no avail, the latter agency evincing strong opposition to the idea of relinguishing the site.

During 1964-1965, seeking a solution of the Fort Washington impasse, the Smithsonian, the National Park Service and the National Capital Planning Commission devised jointly an alternate plan whereby the major elements of the proposed National Armed Forces Museum Park might be located on a 500-acre site in the Fort Foote-Smoot Bay area, on the Potomac River just below the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, in Prince George's County, Maryland.

Under this plan the National Park Service would transfer to the Smithsonian a portion of the site already under its jurisdiction, namely Fort Foote Park, consisting of 77 acres.  The remainder, in private ownership, would have had to be acquired out of appropriated funds.  Through the site would pass a right-of-way for a parkway which the National Park Service planned to construct along the east bank of the Potomac from Interstate Route 495 southward to Fort Washington.  The National Park Service indicated also a willingness to share with the Smithsonian use of certain of the historic structures at Fort Washington as a means of rounding out the facilities contemplated in Section 3,