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legislation to approve it and to authorize appropriations for planning it.

In the spring of 1972, as the time neared for a joint hearing on S.2153 and H.R.10311 by the Subcommittee on Smithsonian Institution of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and by the Subcommittee on Library and Memorials of the Committee on House Administration, associations of citizens residing in the near vicinity of Fort Foote Park came forth to protest establishment of Bicentennial Outdoor Museum. Their objections centered upon the intended use of county roads which led through residential areas for public access into Fort Foote Park. Use of these roads was, indeed, a necessity if the public were to reach the Bicentennial Outdoor Museum site at Fort Foote Park. The Prince George's County Planning Board and the Prince George's County Executive also announced their opposition to the pending legislation. 

In the face of such opposition the Smithsonian obtained a postponement of the joint hearing on S.2153 and H.R.10311 and turned to consideration of a proposal which seemed to offer a possibility of satisfactory public access into Fort Foote Park. A private firm owning some of the shoreline between Fort Foote Park and the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge, proposed to fill Smoot Bay and to give to the Smithsonian much of the newly-created shoreline for Bicentennial Outdoor Museum and other uses. The Smithsonian, however, found public sentiment against any effort to fill Smoot Bay. Accordingly, in the fall of 1972, the Smithsonian decided not to become involved in the proposal and abandoned efforts to locate the proposed museum park at Fort Foote Park and Jones Point.

In October 1972, at the request of Mr. John Nicholas Brown, Chairman of the National Armed Forces Museum Advisory Board, the Smithsonian undertook new discussions with the National Park Service, seeking to join with the Park Service on a cooperative basis in pursuing at Fort Washington outdoor museum programs consonant with the purposes expressed in Section 3, Public Law 87-186.

Such programs, as outlined by the Smithsonian, were two-- (1) a short-term living-history presentation directed specifically at the Bicentennial, to take place