Washington in the 1970s was a city reinventing itself. Home rule arrived in 1973, giving DC its first elected mayor. Metro opened in 1976, remaking how the region moved. Watergate consumed the political establishment for two years. And neighborhoods that had been devastated by the 1968 riots slowly started to find their footing again.
Here are three other notable things that happened at the Watergate. The Reagans had to exit the building by candlelight because the power went out. There were bomb threats and a major protest of the Chicago Seven trial.
Meridian Hill Park is DC’s Italian Renaissance secret: Mary Foote Henderson’s vision, the 1922 Joan of Arc statue, and a drum circle going since 1965.
In 1968, WMATA spent $69,000 on a full-scale mockup of a Metro station to test the design before construction began. At just 17 feet long, it looked right but went nowhere.
What is the history of brunch in Washington? The word dates back to 1895 and started appearing the the local papers in the early 20th century. Are you hungry?
Washington’s Metro opened on March 27, 1976, with 4.6 miles of track between Rhode Island Avenue and Farragut North. All rides were free.
Remember the names of those involved in the Watergate scandal? In August 1974, Richard Nixon resigned before being impeached.
On June 4, 1970, a Phoenix bread truck driver hijacked a TWA jet to Dulles and demanded $100 million from the Supreme Court over a $471.78 IRS dispute.
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.
In 1967 the National Capital Planning Commission mapped out the freeway grid Washington was supposed to get: a K Street expressway, a Three Sisters Bridge, an I-95 extension up through northeast. Almost none of it got built.
