2006 OAH Convention Supplement

Nature and the City: Explorations of Washington’s Natural and Built Environment

Jeffrey K. Stine

Spending the better part of a week in a downtown Washington conference hotel can easily divert one's attention from the environmental dimensions of the city's past and present. As happens with all metropolises, nature shaped the District of Columbia, just as the building of the nation's capital transformed the natural landscape. Washington is renowned for many things, of course, but it is notable for its rich system of open spaces and parks, including one of the country's largest and wildest urban preserves, the 1,754-acre Rock Creek Park. The Potomac and Anacostia rivers also provide miles of shoreline, much of it publicly owned.

If you are interested in getting outside for a little exercise and a different view of Washington, then consider joining one of the special tours that will examine the area's environmental history. All are headed by seasoned outdoor experts and historians who will emphasize the interplay of topography, natural history, transportation, and industry which contributed to the formation of the national capital region. Dates, times, cost, and logistical information associated with the following tours may be found elsewhere in this newsletter supplement.

Fort Circle Parks Bus Tour

During the Civil War, Washington became one of the most heavily fortified cities in the world. Because the nation's capital is located in a topographic bowl, over sixty forts were built on the encircling strategic heights to protect it from attack. This tour, led by National Park Service historians, will visit the sites of several forts in Rock Creek Park and southeast Washington, including Fort Stevens (the only one of the Fort Circle Parks that came under attack, and the site of the only battle in which a President was present and under enemy fire while in office) and Fort Stanton (built to protect the Washington Navy Yard across the Anacostia River, and offering a breathtaking view of the city). After the Civil War, the redistribution of land and facilities associated with the fort system affected the pattern of urban development. The 1902 McMillan Commission plan for Washington called for protection of the forts, which today serve as important urban green spaces. Tour leaders will provide interpretative commentary on the military, urban, and environmental links among these sites.

Bicycle along the Potomac River

What better way to experience Washington's parks and adjoining neighborhoods than via a weekend bicycle ride? John Fleckner, a cyclist and the National Museum of American History's head archivist, will lead a trip along the Potomac River on portions of the C&O Canal towpath and a former railway line converted to the Capital Crescent Trail. The twenty-five-mile tour will pass by historic Key Bridge, over the distinctive 1880 Arizona Avenue Bridge, through the Air Rights Building beneath Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda, and over the dramatic Rock Creek Trestle some seventy feet above the water, before returning to downtown through the Rock Creek Park gorge and past the National Zoo. Only a small portion of the ride will be on city streets; the remainder will follow bicycle trails or park roads that are closed on weekends to automobiles. The tour will start and stop at the conference hotel, and bicycle rentals will be available.

Anacostia River Tour

One of the more exotic tours, with limited admission, is a pontoon boat cruise on the Anacostia River north of the District of Columbia. Jack Wennersten--a noted historian of the Chesapeake Bay region who is completing a book on the social and environmental history of the Anacostia--will provide commentary and answer questions. Buses will transport participants to the Bladensburg marina, where the tour begins. During the colonial period, before agricultural development reduced the tidal river's depth through heavy silting, the Anacostia served as an important commercial artery to the then bustling tobacco port and boat-building center of Bladensburg. The boat will cruise into the infamous "Dueling Grounds," where numerous grudges among Washington's politicos, including Stephen Decatur, were settled during the early nineteenth century. The downstream trip to Washington offers moments of solitude and beauty rarely imagined by Washingtonians, as long stretches of the river are lined with wooded parkland and riparian marshes. The National Arboretum and the Kenilworth Marsh and Aquatic Garden both abut the Anacostia. Bird watching is often exceptional, with osprey, eagles, blue heron, and a wide variety of migrating songbirds commonly sighted. This is an opportunity to experience nature in the city as few see it. Wennersten will also discuss the long-term effects of river channelization, pollution problems, and the ongoing attempts at remediation. Tide permitting, the boat will cross under the low-laying railroad bridge and cruise to the confluence of the Anacostia and Potomac rivers for a discussion of how Pierre L'Enfant's vision of the capital initially conceived the role of the two riverfronts.

Lower Georgetown Walking Tour

The interplay of technology and the environment was especially evident in Washington's industrial development. David Shayt, Curator of Industry at the National Museum of American History, leads a walking tour of lower Georgetown that focuses on the city's industrial archeology. Beginning at Fletcher's Boat House near the terminus of the C&O Canal, the tour will pass by worker housing, factory structures, historic transportation facilities, and a variety of adaptive reuses of buildings constructed between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. Highlights include the Foundry, the Incinerator, Hollerith's Punch Card and Tabulating Machine Factory, the Cotton Mill, the Paper Mill, and a variety of historic bridges, alleyways, and early transit sites. The tour will conclude on M Street at Dean & Delucca's (formerly Georgetown Market), with the afternoon free for shopping and/or self-guided walks through the residential streets of upper Georgetown north of M Street.

Transportation History Tour

Transportation choices have profoundly shaped Washington's urban environment. Zachary Schrag, author of a forthcoming history of the city's acclaimed Metro system (the second-busiest rail transit system in the United States), leads this historical exploration of the District of Columbia's major transportation facilities: railroad, streetcar, highway, and subway. The tour will combine walking and some Metro riding, and will begin at Daniel Burnham's masterful 1907 Union Station, before passing by major streetcar corridors and the uncompleted Interstate 395 (halted, as were several other urban expressways in the United States, by the "freeway revolts" of the 1960s and 1970s). The tour will also examine transportation- and city-related exhibitions at the National Building Museum.

Sustainable Architecture Tour

In architecture, form often follows function, but it can also follow philosophy. This daylong excursion offers behind-the-scenes tours of three outstanding examples of "green" buildings. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Philip Merrill Environmental Center in Annapolis, Maryland, is a prime example of sustainable architecture and the first to receive the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum rating. The Langston-Brown School and Community Center in Arlington, Virginia, is among the first schools in the country to be certified "green" by the U.S. Green Building Council. Eastern Village Cohousing, an award-winning, "urban garden" cohousing community located in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland, has earned the LEED Silver rating for environmental performance, making it one of the few residential buildings in the U.S. to attain this rating. Experts at each site will explain the innovations in sustainable architecture used in their buildings and offer ideas about how society can "green" its houses, schools, and workplaces across the country. 

Jeffrey K. Stine is Chair and Curator of the Division of Medicine and Science at the National Museum of American History.