BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Mall -- Lockkeepers House (Washington City Canal House)

DC -- Mall -- Lockkeepers House (Washington City Canal House):

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[1] WCANAL_131103_01.JPG	[2] WCANAL_131103_05.JPG	[3] WCANAL_131103_09.JPG
[4] WCANAL_131103_10.JPG	[5] WCANAL_131103_16.JPG	[6] WCANAL_131103_29.JPG
[7] WCANAL_131103_36.JPG	[8] WCANAL_131103_41.JPG	[9] WCANAL_131103_47.JPG
[10] WCANAL_131103_50.JPG	[11] WCANAL_131103_56.JPG	[12] WCANAL_131103_59.JPG
[13] WCANAL_131103_69.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. WCANAL_131103_05.JPG: Washington's Historic Waterfront: Improvements to the Potomac Park Levee: Construction is now underway for an improved flood protection system for Washington, DC. Much of the city's downtown area, including portions of the monumental core, is at risk from the major flood event. The current Potomac Park Levee extends from the vicinity of the Lincoln Memorial along the north side of the Reflecting Pool and ends on the Washington Monument Grounds east of 17th Street, NW. Improvements are now focused on the 17th Street area, where the current flood protection system requires a temporary closure consisting of a combination of sandbags, moveable concrete barriers, and soil to create a temporary embankment across the street to block the flow of water into the downtown area. In order to meet new standards for flood control, a new structure is being built that will use a removable post and panel closure system in conjunction with flanking walls that will extend from 17th Street onto the adjacent areas of Constitution Gardens and the Washington Monument Grounds. The Landscape Before Washington: Prior to the creation of West Potomac Park, this area was open water at the confluence of Tiber Creek and the Potomac River. The south bank of Tiber Creek cut across what is now the Washington Monument Grounds, while the north bank cut across what is now the Ellipse. Historically, Tiber Creek drained about half of the downtown area, emptying into a broad, shallow tidal estuary. Tiber Creek was flanked by marshes and teemed with wildlife. Indians who camped along the creek would have gathered shellfish, waterfowl, crabs, and fish. Indian artifacts were collected from the Washington Monument Grounds in the 1880s, while the monument was in its final phase of construction. From the style of these artifacts, archaeologists can tell that Indian groups periodically visited this area for at least 7,000 years before the present day.
2. WCANAL_131103_09.JPG: Washington's Early Waterfront: After the City of Washington was laid out from 1791 to 1792, Tiber Creek was transformed first into the Washington City Canal and later into the B Street Sewer. The canal would allow goods to easily reach the interior of the city, facilitating commerce and building construction. The canal connected the Potomac and Anacostia rivers by joining Tiber Creek and James Creek, providing easy passage between Georgetown and the deepwater ports on the Anacostia. Construction of the canal progressed slowly, hampered by a lack of funds, but it ultimately linked to the C&O Canal in Georgetown. In the downtown area the canal simply followed the existing channel of Tiber Creek. The Lockkeeper's House that now stands at the corner of Constitution Avenue and 17th Street, NW, was built in 1832 when the City Canal was extended to Georgetown. The 17th Street Wharf: The wharf at 17th Street was a prominent feature fo the nineteenth-century landscape, and archaeologists believe that remains of the wharf may be still preserved beneath 17th Street. Construction of the 17th Street Wharf was authorized by the City Commissioners in 1806, and it was completed in 1807, probably by slave labor. Slave labor was commonly used in the building trades, including wharf construction, and slaves were often used as dockworkers. The original structure was built with white oak timbers and filled with bluestone and earthen fill. The wharf quickly became an essential entry point for building materials for the growing capital city. The wharf eventually grew to a length of almost 1,200 feet. In its early years dockworkers unloaded building materials (planks, shingles, laths, stone, sand, bricks, and house frames), produce (grain and hay) and household necessities such as soap and candles. Coal and wood were the major commodities that arrived here in the 1840s and 1850s, and in the 1880s the wharf was used primarily as a landing for sand and gravel. During the Civil War, the 17th Street Wharf assumed a brief military function when the USS Pawnee occasionally stood at anchor, ready to evacuate government officials in case of an attack on the city. Among the warehouses on the wharf was a small lunch room operated by Henry Heill, an African American. Most, if not all, of the dockworkers were African American, a tradition that seems to have been established during the days of slavery.
3. WCANAL_131103_10.JPG: The Creation of West Potomac Park: West Potomac Park was created by reclamation of the Potomac River flats in the late nineteenth century. Hundreds of thousands of cubic yards were dredged and redeposited into what had been the broad tidal estuary at the mouth of Tiber Creek. As reclamation of the Potomac Flats neared completion in the 1890s, there was pressure to turn it over to private developers, but an 1898 Supreme Court decision known as the "Potomac Flats Case" established public ownership of this new land. Under the McMillan Commission Plan of 1902, the reclaimed land was converted into parkland. A History of Catastrophic Floods: Major floods have occurred throughout Washington's history, and efforts to provide flood protection also have a long history. Major floods occurred in 1831, 1840, 1856, 1860, 1867, and 1936. One of the worst floods of all time occurred in 1877, when flood waters rose nearly 16 feet above normal. The 1877 flood was soon followed by a more calamitous event: on February 12, 1881 an ice dam formed below Greenleaf Point (near Fort McNair), inundating more than 250 acres of the city. So much ice and debris accumulated in the Potomac River that a section of Long Bridge (later replaced by the 14th Street Bridge or Rochambeau Bridge) was destroyed. The area that is now the Federal Triangle was under water, and floodwaters lapped at the foot of Capitol Hill. The Potomac River flooded again in 1889, shattering previous records, severely damaging the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal and dumping more than a million cubic years of silt into the recently dredged navigation channels. With the C&O disrupted, coal from Maryland's Cumberland fields could not reach Washington, cutting off the city's primary source of fuel. Archeological Evacuations: Archaeologists will be searching for remains of the 17th Street Wharf during the construction phase of the Potomac Park Levee. Guided tours will begin behind the Lockkeeper's House at the corner of 17th Street and Constitution Avenue at 10:00am on Wednesdays. National Mall visitors can use their cell phones to list to updates on the excavations and other messages (call 202-747-3465).
4. WCANAL_131103_36.JPG: The Canal Connection President George Washington commissioned Pierre L'Enfant to design the Capital City in 1790. The L'Enfant Plan included a system of canals to transport heavy goods at a time when roads and streets were few and muddy. The Washington City Canal (green) was opened in 1815. Construction began in 1828 on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (yellow) to connect Washington, DC, to the fertile Ohio Valley. The Washington Branch of the C&O Canal (red), built by 1833, joined the two waterways and opened the city to commerce. The Canal ventures proved to be an expensive investment. The Washington Branch of the C&O Canal and the Washington City Canal carried so little commerce that they were abandoned 30 years after construction. Railroads, not canals, dominated transportation in the nineteenth century. In the 1870s the long process of filling these canals began.
5. WCANAL_131103_41.JPG: This Canal house built at Lock B by 1833, sheltered the lockkeeper who also collected tolls and kept records of commerce on the waterway. It remains today as the only remnant of the Washington Branch of the C&O Canal. (Photograph ca. 1910.)
6. WCANAL_131103_59.JPG: The Washington City Canal completed in 1815, the canal extended east of this point along the line of Constitution Avenue and south around the capitol with branches leading into the Anacostia River. National Capital Sesquicentennial Commission, 1950
Wikipedia Description: Washington City Canal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Washington City Canal operated from 1815 until the mid-1850s in Washington, D.C. The canal connected the Anacostia River, called the "Eastern Branch" at that time, to Tiber Creek, the Potomac River, and later the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (C&O). The canal fell into disuse in the late 19th century and the city government covered over or filled in various sections.

History

Early planning and development

In the early years of the United States there was great interest among political leaders in building canals to support and stimulate economic development. Construction of a canal to run across the city of Washington was supported by local leaders, both in business and government. The plan was to connect the Eastern Branch, which was navigable into Maryland, with the Potomac, which was seen as a gateway to the West. President George Washington had founded the Potowmack Company in 1785 to improve navigation on the Potomac.

Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant, in designing a master plan for the development of the capital city, supported construction of a canal between Eastern Branch and Tiber Creek. To raise funds for canal construction, lotteries were conducted in 1796, but these efforts were unsuccessful. There was little additional work done until 1802, when Congress granted a charter for the Washington Canal Company. A small amount of construction was started, but obtaining major financing for the canal continued to be difficult.

Congress created a new canal company in 1809 and authorized capitalization of $100,000. A groundbreaking ceremony in southeast Washington, attended by President James Madison and other officials, took place on May 2, 1810. Construction was delayed by the War of 1812 and resumed in 1815.

Canal opening and operation

The canal formally opened in late 1815. The canal route began at the Eastern Branch, near the Washington Navy Yard and proceeded north and northwest. Another branch proceeded north and northeast from the estuary of James Creek, which divided Greenleaf Point from Buzzard Point. Past the point at which these two branches converged, a single canal channel travelled north towards the Capitol, veered northwestward at the base of Jenkins Hill (Capitol Hill), and then turned again to the north to cross the area in which the National Mall is now located. The canal then turned sharply to the west, joining a straightened and channelized Tiber Creek, which had earlier flowed westward. After traveling westward along the route of Tiber Creek, the canal entered the Potomac River at the mouth of the creek, which was south of the White House.

As originally built, the Washington City Canal was shallow and only accommodated boats drawing 3 feet of water or less. The canal's design did not adequately handle tidal variations on the Eastern Branch. As a result, the canal sometimes overran its banks at high tide, and/or experienced insufficient water levels at low tide. Traffic through the canal continued but financial problems persisted, and in 1831 the city purchased the canal corporation. The city effected some repairs during the 1830s and Congress appropriated some additional funds in 1833.

Also in 1833, an extension of the C&O Canal was completed. That extension, designated as the Washington Branch of the C&O Canal, enabled the C&O Canal to connect at a new eastern terminus with the western terminus of the Washington City canal at the mouth of Tiber Creek. Around 1835, a lock keeper's house was built at the eastern terminus of the C&O Canal, where the C&O Canal emptied into Tiber Creek and the Potomac River. The lock keeper's house now stands at the southwest corner of Constitution Avenue, Northwest (N.W.), and 17th Street, N.W., near the National Mall.

In 1849, Congress appropriated some additional funds to clean out and deepen portions of the canal, on the condition that the city provide matching funds. The city made some improvements to the canal, but it experienced problems with contractors and staff, and the planned work was not completed in the 1850s. During this period, with the increasing development of railroads, interest in canals waned among both business and government leaders.

Decline

By the late 1850s, the Washington City Canal had fallen into disuse, as had the Washington branch of the C&O Canal. During the Civil War years the canal deteriorated further and was serving as both a sewer and storm drain system for the central part of the city. Various proposals were circulated to either rehabilitate the city canal or fill it in. Congress appropriated some funds in 1866, but no work was done at that time. In 1871, Alexander "Boss" Shepherd, the city's head of Public Works, directed that the Tiber Creek portion of the canal be covered over. This work was accomplished over many years, along with other drainage alterations in the central city. A new street that was constructed over this portion of the canal was initially designated as B Street, N.W. The street was later renamed to Constitution Avenue, N.W.

The southern portion of the Washington City Canal remained open for years afterwards, but eventually was also paved over. A street constructed south of the Capitol over that section of the canal now connects Independence Avenue, Southwest, and E Street, Southeast. Formerly designated as Canal Street, the northernmost section of the street was later renamed to Washington Avenue in commemoration of the state of Washington.
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