The Georgetown Metropolitan

3200 block of P St.

GM was signing up for this year’s Bike to Work Day, when he saw that there was going to be a new pit stop for the event in Georgetown at the intersection of M and Pennsylvania (there’s another one down by the Waterfront Park). GM wasn’t surprised they added a new pitstop, but he was surprised at what that location was called: Meigs’ Park.

GM has never heard that little pocket park referred to as Meigs’ Park. He had no idea where the name would have even come from. But a little Googling led to this fantastic article by the superlative Streets of Washington.

In short, the name Meigs refers to Captain Montgomery C. Meigs. Meigs was given the responsibility to modernize the District’s water supply system in 1852. An important project for the system was the construction of an aqueduct bridge from Georgetown to Washington along Pennsylvania Ave. over Rock Creek.

Meigs devised a beautiful design to use arching pipes to both carry the water and provide structural support to the bridge. Here’s a photo (as reproduced on the Streets of Washington site):

What’s funny is that Meigs attempted to have this bridge named after himself, although it never quite took. As the Streets of Washington writes:

As early as 1861, it was being called the Meigs Bridge, but ironically that name never really caught on—ironically in that Meigs had been as vain as he was brilliant. He had his name engraved on the side of Cabin John Bridge and stamped into numerous metal fittings throughout the aqueduct system, yet few people called his bridge the Meigs Bridge. Also known as Bridge No. 6, the span was sometimes called the Tubular bridge or the Aqueduct bridge, but usually it was just the Pennsylvania Avenue bridge over Rock Creek.

And that’s still true. Continue reading →

Photo by Alexa S.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• GU students dies on Spring Break in the Dominican Republic.
• Old Georgetown Board rejects Exxon Condo design.

1300 block of 33rd St.

Photo from the Washington Post.

This week, the Washington Post published a fun feature identifying 40 dishes that it considers to be dishes that all Washingtonians must try. The editors selected from far and wide, all across the metro area. So perhaps Georgetown shouldn’t feel too bad that only two dishes made the cut.

They are the beautiful behemoth you see above–Stachowski’s 4 met grinder–and Moby’s Combo II, from Moby Dick House of Kebab. (Technically the second one isn’t exclusive to Georgetown, but in the description the Post specifically recommends the Georgetown location.)

But were there any other Georgetown dishes left out? Continue reading →

Photo by Jackdean085.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Georgetown Tobacco is 50 years old.
• A local institution that didn’t get to 50 years: Georgetown Bagelry in 1989. (Yes the store is still open in Bethesda, but that might as well be Siberia.)

3200 block of P St.

This week on Old Georgetown in color, GM thought he’d take the occasion of the dismantling of the Corcoran Gallery to bring a bit of color to a ghost that’s probably feeling pretty blue this week: the museum’s founder, William Wilson Corcoran.

Nope. Even in full color, he still looks pretty dour. Cheer up old boy, they’ll still keep your name around!

Photo by Jackdean085.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Sad story of a Georgetown resident who in 1890 killed himself on the White House gates.
• Longtime Georgetown Current photographer splits over pay dispute.

1500 block of 34th St.