 The Corps also planned to create several large islands in the lake and planned to replace Benning Bridge with a drawbridge to accommodate the cargo traffic through the lake.The firm of Sanford and Brooks began the dredging in January 1903, at which time the Army Corps of Engineers began surveying the surrounding land to determine whether the federal government or private landowners had title to the marshes themselves.By 1920, the Corps of Engineers had dropped the dam idea and proposed creating a deep lake on one side of the Anacostia River by linking several of the mid-river islands it had built with dikes.