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 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, the 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 Mr. 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.”