Browsing Topic

1970s

What was Washington, D.C. like in the 1970s? Take a look at our great posts with stories, people, photos, and history about the District from the seventies.

Dulles Airport Hijacking

  • September 3, 2019
Arthur G. Barkley was an unemployed bread truck driver from Phoenix hijacked a Washington-bound TWA jet, demanding $100 million in ransom. He was distraught from losing his job, became embroiled in lawsuits against his...

It’s 4:20 Somewhere

  • April 20, 2019
Hazy blue smoke surrounds the origins of the annual Fourth of July Smoke-In. Though it now takes place in Lafayette Square, across the barricaded street from the White House, it began on the Mall.
Congressman Wilbur Mills and exotic dancer Fanne Foxe speak with reporters outside Foxe’s dressing room in 1974. (Bettmann Archive via Getty Images)

Arkansas Congressman and the Argentine Stripper

  • February 20, 2019
I watched The Front Runner this weekend, the story about Gary Hart’s implosion of a presidential campaign in 1988. What a fascinating movie and slightly prescient of the tabloid times we live in today....
Marijuana

Marijuana and Alcohol Consumed by Kids in Silver Spring

  • October 12, 2016
This is a bizarre and disappointing article that we dug up in The Washington Post. It was printed on April 2nd, 1977. Montgomery County school officials have learned that a small group of children–six sixth-graders...

1980s Friendship Heights Metro Construction

  • June 22, 2016
Do you remember living in Washington during the 1970s? How about when the Metro was being built up along Wisconsin Avenue? We dug up this great old article in the Washington Post from January...
Photo of Metro Center in 1973

What Did Metro Center Look Like Under Construction in 1973?

  • January 5, 2016
Check out this great set of photos from 1973, showing construction of Metro Center underground. Also, don’t miss these other great old Metro photos showing Dupont Circle we posted a while ago. Source: Library of Congress...
Aerial view of the Washington Navy Yard, looking east (top). This shot shows the Navy Yard’s borders: M Street on the north (left); the waterfront on the south; 11th street on the east, and 2nd street on the west (foreground). On the right bank of the river is Anacostia, September 1963. NHHC Photograph Collection, Navy Subject Files, Washington Navy Yard. (214).

Aerial Views of the Navy Yard in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s

  • September 9, 2015
This photo is an aerial view of the Navy Yard just a couple of months before President Kennedy was assassinated. Source: National Museum of the U.S. Navy Here’s another one from the 1970s. Source:...

Never Built Three Sisters Bridge Across the Potomac

  • April 13, 2015
This is a story that is most likely unknown to the great majority of GoDCers. Long-time DC residents may remember the controversy over the bridge that was to be built, connecting Virginia and the...
Notice the decked/tunneled section south of Fort Totten, then the over 90-degree turn to the east, then the decked/tunneled section between Galloway Street and Gallatin Street, with the Metrorail Glenmont Route (Red Line trains) following the North Central Freeway (I-95 south of Fort Totten and I-70S north of Fort Totten), and with the Metrorail Greenbelt Route (Green Line trains) following the Northeast Freeway (I-95 east of Fort Totten). The area between Galloway Street and Gallatin Street where the Northeast Freeway was proposed was mostly open fields then and still is now.

Drawings of Proposed I-95 Through D.C.

  • November 28, 2014
Here are some terrific old maps from 1971 showing the remainder of what would have been I-95 cutting through D.C. Today, what is now 395, ends at New York Ave. NW. Source: Roads to...
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