Author Archive

Corcoran in 1921 and Today

Historic photoblog Shorpy recently showed this view of the Corcoran as it was in 1921:
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National Cathedral Earthquake Damage

The National Cathedral suffered some significant structural damage in the earthquake, with the tops of three of its tower pinnacles falling over, and cracked walls in buttresses and on upper floors. More info from their earthquake press release:
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Virginia Earthquake Rocks DC

Hey, Washington, DC was just rocked by an earthquake! The tremor hit at 1:51 PM today, and the earthquake detail page on USGS shows an initial magnitude of 5.8, epicenter near Mineral, VA, somewhere between Richmond and Charlottesville. Twitter is alight with reports of shaking felt from down the Carolinas all the way up to [...]

Art Attack Redux: Matisse Edition

Susan Burns of Alexandria, most notable for an earlier assault on a Gauguin painting at the National Gallery, struck again last week, this time attacking Henri Matisse’s “The Plumed Hat.”
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Flood Alert

That’s Washington Harbour right now, currently underwater due to massive flooding along the Potomac after last Saturday’s heavy rains.
The coastal flood warning continues till midnight tonight. More photos after the jump, courtesy Byron Peebles:
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Road Work, Oh Joy

Spotted along Rock Creek Parkway at Virginia Ave NW in Foggy Bottom, this electronic sign warns of impending Constitution Ave. road work, adding “OH JOY” to the projected start date of April 11th. Is this a hacker at work, or just a sarcastic DDOT/NPS electronic road sign copywriter? Either way, it was funny.
Update: No [...]

National Christmas Tree felled by high winds

Photo by Brownpau
The National Christmas Tree, a 48-foot Colorado blue spruce from York, PA planted during the Carter Administration in 1978, was a casualty to the very high winds in the District today.  The tree was split near its base, and felled without injury or structural damage, according to DC Fire EMS and the National [...]

Hawk in the LoC

The Library of Congress Main Reading Room has been invaded by a Cooper’s Hawk! First noticed Wednesday afternoon, the bird has been flapping about the dome of the Reading Room, and seems to be unable to locate an exit. LoC staff tried getting its attention with a hawk call from a bird-identifying app, to no [...]

Vietnam Memorial Booth Fire

We’re hearing of a fire incident near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial from DC Fire/EMS Twitter and WUSA9. The memorial wall itself is safe, but a POW/MIA information kiosk (the one that stands along the path between the Vietnam Wall and Lincoln Memorial) was “totally destroyed,” and one occupant possibly injured. The fire seems to have [...]

Foggy Bottom Metro Escalators Closed Due to Police Situation

Update: Foggy Bottom Metro Escalators are open again. Police presence remains. Post reports the “unruly subject” was an aggressive panhandler.
Update from the GW Hatchet: Police activity following an altercation led to the escalator shutdown. An “unruly subject” being escorted from GW Hospital tried to grab someone outside, and the recipient of the grab proceeded to [...]

River Visual

This is my favorite thing about flying back into DC from a trip: the famous River Visual Approach to DCA, the path planes must take to avoid no-fly zones when landing from the North in clear weather. Sit on the left side of the plane during a river visual landing, and you get great views, [...]

Blue Bus is now Circulator

Hey Rosslyn, Georgetown, Dupont: notice anything different transit-wise? As of today, the Georgetown Metro Connection (AKA the “Blue Bus”) has switched over to the DC Circulator (AKA the “Red Bus”). The route and stops are the same, but the buses are different, and now you can use Smartrip. And the really good news is that [...]

Thomas Jefferson St Bridge Now Closed

Good morning, Georgetown! As promised, construction work is to begin on the Thomas Jefferson Street bridge over the C&O Canal, and the bridge is now closed to vehicular traffic (though pedestrians may still cross as of 9:00 AM).
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Smoke at Dupont Circle Metro

DC Fire/EMS on Twitter reports smoke at the Q Street NW entrance to Dupont Circle Metro on the Red Line — also site of this morning’s Escalator Fail. That entrance to the station is now closed and emergency responders are on the scene.
Update: Update from DC Fire/EMS: Dupont Circle Metro – Metro Mechanics on scene [...]

Metro’s got the Mondays

It’s been a fun (i.e. not fun) morning on Metro, with backups from multiple sick customers on Orange/Blue and Green/Yellow Lines at Rosslyn and L’Enfant Plaza, broken escalators at Dupont Circle, and the standard parade of nonworking air conditioners. Update: Oh, and a switch malfunction at Rosslyn. And a family stuck in the Cleveland Park [...]

Think Cool at 100F

Hard to believe this was five months ago:

As of noon, DC has officially hit 100ºF, according to NBC4. The record to beat is 103ºF. We’re getting close!
To help you stay in a cool state of mind, here are more photos of the White House and Lafayette Park area from right after the February Snowpocalypse:
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Foggy Bottom Escalator Backup

(Thanks to peroty for the mobile photo and heads-up)
If you’re aiming to get into or out of Foggy Bottom Metro station on the Orange Line this morning, be warned that at the moment two escalators are closed, and the only open escalator is going up. This, and one broken platform escalator, make getting out difficult, [...]

The “White House” in Kiev

Is that the White House… by a river? Nope, look again — it’s the Senator’s Park Hotel in Kiev, Ukraine!
Built to closely resemble DC’s own White House, Senator’s Park is “committed to providing visitors with an authentic and luxurious American experience without ever having to leave Ukraine!” There’s even a Barack Obama cutout by the [...]

Explosion at Farragut West

(DC DDOT webcam capture from nearby 18th and I Streets NW)
Getting some buzz about a possible explosion at Farragut West. Latest from DC Fire EMS Twitter:
manhole fire – heavy smoke – 18th & I St NW -PEPCO needed – expect some traffic issues

Manhole explosions are not an unknown phenomenon for summer time in DC.
Latest update [...]

Truck Crashes into Hirshhorn

We’ve gotten word that a delivery truck has crashed into the Hirshhorn. Driver sustained serious injuries, but not life-threatening. Minor damage to the building; the truck broke through flower pot barriers and hit a window at the entrance, shattering it.
Update from DC Fire/EMS Twitter: update – loaded UPS truck crashed into front entrance of Hirshorn [...]