Downtown Parking
Parking downtown, or as older reports call it, "the central business district" has always been a point of debate in the city when it comes to space. According to "A Report on the Parking and Garage Problem of the Central Business District of Washington, D.C." written in July 1930, there were some who wanted to prevent any parking near the National Mall. As seen in the photos above from years later, that did not come to pass. Today, however, there is much less parking in the National Mall area than in years past.
Concern about space to park downtown remained a point of concern into the 1960s. In June 1961, there were 43,567 off-street parking spots (surface lots/garages) in the central business district, as well as 6,146 curb spaces. Today, most downtown surface parking lots are a thing of the past, though garages and on-street parking remain.