The Georgetown Metropolitan

Potomac River

Photo by Brett Young.

There is a meeting tonight being held by DDOT on the future of the Foundry Branch trolley trestle, just west of Georgetown University. The meeting is at St. John’s church on O St. at 6:30 pm.

The Foundry Branch trolley trestle is the spindly bridge you can see from Canal Rd. near the split with Foxhall:

It once carried streetcars from Georgetown out to Glen Echo. The 20 line, to be precise, used to travel all the way from Cabin John through Georgetown down to Union Station. The right-of-way that the street car used is still owned by the District. It winds its way from the western edge of the trestle bridge, through the Palisades and into Maryland. At some points it feels like a trail already; at other spots, residents have expanded their backyards to gobble up the public right-of-way.

(The trestle bridge itself is actually owned by WMATA. This ownership is the result of a complicated history, and WMATA wants nothing to do with it but to tear it down.)

The city is current studying whether it would make sense to restore that right-of-way into a proper pedestrian path. The great thing about these rail-to-trails conversions is that railroads (or trollies) need flat land. So the trails end up fairly level and perfect for non-motorized travel.

Part of the general idea that DDOT is studying would be to carry the trail across the trestle bridge and onto Prospect St. in Georgetown. This would be a boon to walkers and cyclists looking for a level way to get from the Palisades to the heart of Georgetown. As it is now, you need to either travel all the way up to Reservoir Rd., or down through some fairly awful sidewalks to M St. Continue reading →

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The heat is breaking just in time for another movie in the park tonight.
• Farmers markets in Georgetown, and beyond.

3200 block of P St.

Let’s first get this out of the way: The reason there is no Metro stop in Georgetown is two-fold: technical difficulties from the hardness of the bedrock and the proximity of the river meant a station would be infeasible; and at the time the Metro planners were laying out the system, Georgetown was not enough of a population or job center to justify working out a solution to the feasibility problem.

This explanation is the one settled upon by Zachary Schrag, the unofficial historian of Metro. As you will see below, this is a conclusion shared by those who were actually involved with the planning. You will note that it does not include any reference to Georgetown residents thwarting the station in order to keep out minorities. Yet, this is an incredibly common belief, enough so to qualify as one of the great urban legends of the District. (Alongside such chestnuts as the reason there’s no J St. is that Pierre L’Enfant hated John Jay.)

An obvious explanation for where this urban legend came from and why it persists is that it so conforms with what many people think of Georgetown residents. “Of course Georgetowners stopped Metro to keep out minorities, that’s just the sort of thing Georgetowners would do”, goes the reasoning. This probably explains why the legend persists, but there’s a bit more to the story of where the legend came from in the first place.

No Contemporaneous Mentions

GM researched the archives of the Washington Post and the Washington Star, looking for contemporaneous mentions of local opposition to a Metro stop in Georgetown. Throughout the period of the planning of Metro (i.e. the 1960’s through to the systems opening in 1976) GM could not find one example.

Early mentions of the absence of a Metro stop in Georgetown reflect the truth, namely that it just was either too difficult or not a high enough priority. In an August 23, 1977 article, the Washington Star answered some frequently asked questions about the still relatively new system. One was about Georgetown:

Later in 1978, the absence of a Georgetown station is described more as a quirk than a conspiracy. The article in the Washington Star, describes a theater troupe from New York traveling around Metro to promote the new night service:

(It’s possible that there is discussion of resident opposition in the archives of the Northwest Current or the Georgetowner, both of which were published at the time, but GM did not have an opportunity to search those archives.) Continue reading →

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The story of how a man who tried to kill Napoleon lived out his days in Georgetown.
• Lots of Georgetowners have weekend homes out in the countryside, but do any have them in the suburbs?

Rock Creek

The new Trader Joe’s is opening this Friday. The grocery store, located just north of Georgetown at Wisconsin and Whitehaven, will provide a new option for shoppers in the area.

Trader Joe’s certainly has its hardcore fans, but it is a bit of a quirky place. It’s not really a direct competitor to a general grocery store like the Safeway, just a block south. It doesn’t pretend to be a place where you can stock up on all the food you’ll need for a week (unless you only eat frozen food). But what it does have is always a bit of a grab-bag of stuff, mostly under its own brand.

It will be interesting to see what impact its opening has on the Safeway. Trader Joe’s aims for a younger audience, so we may see fewer GU students stocking up around the Safeway. But, again, it can’t really fully replace Safeway in offerings. So any changes will probably be at the margins.

Regardless, it’s great to have another option. And once the apartment building that the Trader Joe’s is in finally opens, hopefully the increase in residents will help support the shops and restaurants of upper Georgetown.

Photo by Marc Andre.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Hyde-Addison construction really coming along ahead of its Fall return to Georgetown.
• How the canal plan would improve trail cycling.

Georgetown University