Benjamin Banneker Park
Introduction
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This memorial park celebrates the life of African American surveyor, writer, and inventor Benjamin Banneker. In 1791, Banneker worked as a surveyor, helping to establish the boundaries of the federal District of Columbia. He published a series of almanacs and corresponded with a number of influential Americans such as Thomas Jefferson on topics related to science, as well as the gulf between America's professed love of liberty and its maintenance of chattel slavery. The park was designed and built in 1967 and serves as a corridor between the Southwest Waterfront and the southern portion of the National Mall.