Existing comment:
Why is a Lockhouse Here?
For hundreds of years the site where you are standing was the confluence of the Potomac River and Tiber Creek.
The planner of the new capital city of Washington, Pierre L'Enfant, wanted to repurpose part of Tiber Creek as a canal to connect the Potomac River and Eastern Branch, a river now known as the Anacostia. In those days people saw canals as a necessary part of a capital city, right along with streets and government buildings.
This house was built here to serve the lock that seperated [sic] the Washington City and Chesapeake and Ohio canals. Ever since, water control projects have been undertaken here that eventually left this canal building landlocked.
This idealized drawing of Washington, DC named Elements of National Thrift and Empire by J. Goldsborough Bruff, was printed in 1847. U places transportation infrastructure like the Washington City Canal (lower left) on an equal plane with patriotism, science and the arts, agriculture and manufacturing, and public lands as pillars of a successful society.
The Washington City Canal runs through the city, connecting the White House (President's House) and the Capitol in a 1792 drawing of the capital city
Drawing of Tide lock B, the lock that the lockkeeper's House served. |