Existing comment:
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). |