These are some great prints of Washington as it looked in the mid-1790s. They were done by George Isham Parkyns and they show a slightly different and more pastoral landscape. Here is the print of the Potomac and I’m guessing that island is Roosevelt Island. Read More »
This is another shameful loss for Washington. The waterfront in SW used to be teeming with activity. (The fish market is really cool if you haven’t been.) The District is trying to reinvest and bring it back to life, taking better advantage of the Potomac. Below is a great series of photographs of Herzog’s Famous Sea Food Restaurant, formerly located ... Read More »
It’s probably obvious to GoDCers where Chain Bridge Road gets its name. There is a bridge that connects the eponymous road on the D.C. side to the one on the Virginia side. But, this bridge has no chains. What’s the deal? The bridge plays a significant part in Washington’s history, and as we were digging through the archives for some ... Read More »
It’s often hard to believe how rural much of Washington appeared in the 19th century. This is one of those photographs that you marvel at for a while. The image shows a view of Washington, down the Potomac River from the top of Georgetown in 1865. You can also see Aqueduct Bridge from Virginia into Georgetown and Mason’s Island (i.e., ... Read More »
Here’s a great “beach babes” photo from 1923. A little background on this group of women. This is an article published in the Washington Post on March 4th, 1923. Whatever else you may remember or forget after seeing that phantasmagoria known as “Good Morning, Dearie,” it is dollars to little green apples that you will still have a vivid impression ... Read More »
Hard to believe it, but back in the 1920s, Arlington had a beach. Here’s a shot of the amusement park on the Potomac River (near where the Pentagon is today) around 1925. And here is another photo of the area from 1923. Look at the faces of the kids close up … another great moment, frozen in time. Read More »
A beauty queen hero emerged on the banks of the Potomac, one summer day in 1924. Below is an article from the Washington Post, published on June 2nd, 1924. Miss Leoma Davis, winner of several Washington beauty contests, yesterday afternoon dived into the Chesapeake canal and saved G. W. Cave, local insurance man, from drowning. Cave had gone down the ... Read More »
This is a guest post by Aaron. He also wrote a really popular post on red metro trains. It must have made a splash. But nobody saw anything. An overturned taxi lay atop the rocky shore of the Potomac. There it was. No driver and perhaps no obvious clues within. But it didn’t take long for police to grab a suspect. It ... Read More »
Before “Watergate” became synonymous with a group of buildings and a scandal, it was the name applied to something else. And it’s something that most of us are very familiar with, especially if you’re an avid runner who heads down to the Lincoln Memorial, on the Potomac side. There are a series of steps between the Lincoln Memorial and the ... Read More »
This is not a joke. A long time ago, there was a perceived oncoming epidemic of invading sharks, hell-bent on destroying humans and their boats. I found this article in the Washington Post from July 26th, 1911 — by the way, two days earlier, Hiram Bingham had announced the discovery of Machu Pichu. This shark story is fantastic. Alexandria, Va., ... Read More »
We’ve posted a few of the Potomac bathing beach shots over a while back, and it’s high time we post a few more (given how damn hot it is these days). Any week that includes 1920s beach babes is a good week. Related articles Potomac Bathing Beach Beauties (ghostsofdc.org) Cooling Off in Rock Creek (ghostsofdc.org) The Annual Washington Bathing Beach ... Read More »
This might shocking to some of you, but had the outcome of some debates and votes been different, people might have taken their eighth-grade field trips to a different United States capital city. The War of 1812 was disastrous for Washington as the British rampaged through and razed the city. After the British defeated Napoleon in April of 1814, they ... Read More »
A horrific air disaster occurred on November 1st, 1949 near National Airport. An inbound passenger flight from Boston collided with a small military plane, killing everyone on board. This was the front page article of the Washington Post the following morning, reporting on the worst airliner disaster in U.S. history. Among the victims were Congressman George Bates of Massachusetts, Helen ... Read More »
Captain John Smith sailed up the Eastern Branch of the Potomac and was well received by the Nacotchtank, the Native Algonquin people in present-day Anacostia. The Captain’s oldest map, published in 1612, marks the area as Natcotchtank. In 1621 the small sailing vessel, Tiger, headed up the Potomac from Jamestown, Virginia, with 26 men aboard. The goal of the trip was to ... Read More »
Ghosts of DC The lost and untold history of Washington