Existing comment:
Open Sewer to City Street
Post-Civil War Washington, DC was little more than a hamlet of dirt roads, wooden sidewalks, and open sewers. To match the aspirations of the maturing nation the capital city's infrastructure and facilities needed to be modernized.
Alexander Robey "Boss" Shepherd, vice-chair of the city's Board of Public Works, took action in the 1870s. He filled in the Washington City Canal and built hundreds of miles of paved roads, sidewalks, and sewers. Shepherd went on to become the governor of Washington, DC. However, his enthusiasm for public works projects and accusations of corruption drove the city to bankruptcy and Shepherd from office.
Shepherd's legacy endures. Washington, DC started to become a city that reflected the nation's new role as a world leader. Today, the Washington City Canal lives on under Constitution Avenue as a sewer.
Alexander "Boss" Shepherd as he appeared in 1874 when he was governor of Washington, DC.
What's in a Name?
Over the years the waterway-turned-road north of the Lockkeeper's House has been named many things, reflecting the changing priorities and values of the national capital What do these names say about how we see ourselves?
Goose Creek -- Pre-1790
Tiber Creek -- 1790-1815
Washington City Canal -- 1815-1873
B Street -- 1873-1930s
Constitution Avenue -- 1930s-present
Washington Canal and the extension of the C&O Canal were filled in and paved over in 1874 creating B Street (now Constitution Avenue) and leaving the lockkeeper's House landlocked.
This 1879 map shows the what was the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (to the left to the Lockkeeper's House) as filled in yet unfinished land, and what was Tiber Creek and the Washington City Canal (to the right of the Lockkeeper's House) as the new "B' Street made of granite and trap rock, a rock used in compacted roads.
Tiber Creek/Washington Canal as it looks today. The canal went from open sewer to closed sewer during the city improvements made under Alexander "Boss" Shepherd's leadership. |