Early on, it was decided that Greenbelt should not be a flat grid of rectangular blocks, but "adapted to the topography". 49 The resulting roadplan, seen below in the second and third maps, cut the paved road mileage from the sixty-six miles the original plan called for to just six miles.50
51
| Northern Prince George's County. To the best of my estimation, Greenbelt on this map would fall somewhere in the lower-right corner. Most of the place names still exist today in one form or another, but the area was very much still rural up until some time after the addition of Greenbelt. |
52
| The basic layout of the center of Greenbelt as it was in the process of being constructed, showing labor unit divisions designated by letters. |
53
| The finalized Greenbelt project map. While development over the years has added somewhat to this layout, the center of the original Greenbelt remains more or less intact to this day. |
54
| The front page of the Greenbelt Cooperator, Friday, May 31st, 1946. Postwar booms spurred the development of lots of major roads projects, and the proposed routing of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway straight through the town was none-too-well received by its residents. |
55
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Construction of the B-W Parkway goes through and gets underway.
"I remember standing in the middle of that big dirt road during construction, wondering how any road could be so big." 56 "I remember when I was 21 when I got out of school and spent a couple of years in California. When I got back there was so much building that had taken place, like the Parkway. I just didn't recognize where I was." 57
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