| The Francis Scott Key Memorial Bridge |
| Rosslyn section of Arlington County, Virginia, and the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C. Nathan C. Wyeth was the architect for Key Bridge. It was built by the United States Army Corps of Engineers between 1917 and 1923 and was named after Francis Scott Key, author of the Star Spangled Banner. The northern terminus of the bridge is just east of the site of Key's Georgetown home, which was later demolished, which is now Francis Scott Key Park. Due to the sometimes very bad traffic congestion on the bridge, some locals have jokingly referred to it as the "Car Strangled Spanner," a play on the title of Francis Scott Key's most famous song. The Key Bridge replaced the Aqueduct Bridge. The Aqueduct Bridge was originally built to carry the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal across the Potomac to connect with the Alexandria Canal. After the Alexandria Canal was abandoned, the bridge was converted into a roadway. The Washington abutment still survives and is located west of the Key Bridge. One pier remains and is located in the river near the Virginia shore. The Georgetown Historic District, roughly bounded by Reservoir Rd., NW, and Dumbarton Oaks Park on the north; Rock Creek Park on the east; the Potomac River on the south; and Glover-Archbold Parkway on the west, encompassses the area laid out as a prosperous port town in 1751 prior to the establishment of the Distrcict of Columbia, and later assimilated into the city of Washington in 1871. Today, the primary commercial corridors of Georgetown are M Street and Wisconsin Avenue, which contain high-end shops, bars, and restaurants. Georgetown is home to the main campus of Georgetown University, the Old Stone House, the oldest standing building in Washington, and the embassies of France, Mongalia, Sweden, Thailand, and Ukraine. |
| Free Websites to Look Up Addesses on the Internet www.switchboard.com www.whitepages.com www.zabasearch.com Paid Sites that Include Past Addresses, Phone Numbers, and Related People www.privateeye.com www.veromi.com www.intellius.com |
| This one was interesting. I get a higher quality of search hits if I can better describe the target; after a bit of reading, this turns out to be an open-spandrel deck arch bridge. An image search with those terms didn't work, but I did by chance bump into a database of sorts--www.bridgehunter.com. I applied the open-spandrel filter and the Taft bridge showed on the first page of results. I need to be careful with this because there were listings/hits for more than one "herschel browne" in the D.C. area. Different people, or just one person who moved? Anyway, Mr. Browne would apparently like to see more bike traffic (and less cars) below the bridge on Beach Dr. |
| Bridge has a slightly different design. The Key Bridge has four smaller arches on each side of each main supporting arch. The Taft bridge has only three. this week's quiz, "There are obvious superficial similarities between the Key and Taft bridges, but also pronounced differences. As you point out, the arches of the Taft Bridge have three open spandrels on each side of the arch, while the Key Bridge arches have four. More importantly, the Taft Bridge's arches are semi-circular, while those of the Key Bridge are catenary or parabolic. Probably the most obvious difference, although it might not be apparent in every photograph one could find, is that the Key Bridge crosses a major body of water, and the Taft Bridge crosses a large gorge with only a little stream at its bottom, which much of the time you could wade across. That's why, in my winter photograph, you can see a building and some vehicles more or less under the bridge. (The building is the stables of the U.S. Park Police.) "Also, while Key Bridge is one of only two Washington bridges over the Potomac that are remotely pleasing to the eye (the other is Arlington Memorial Bridge), it doesn't come anywhere close to being as beautiful as the Taft Bridge." |
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| If you have a picture you'd like us to feature a picture in a future quiz, please email it to us at CFitzp@aol.com. If we use it, you will receive a free analysis of your picture. You will also receive a free Forensic Genealogy CD or a 10% discount towards the purchase of the Forensic Genealogy book. |
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| The Magnificent Taft Bridge |
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| If you enjoy our quizzes, don't forget to order our books! Click here. |
| Quiz #290 Results |
| Answer to Quiz #290 January 30, 2011 |
Answers: 1. It is the Taft Bridge also known as the Connecticut Avenue Bridge, across Rock Creek valley in Washington DC. 2. It is the largest unreinforced concrete structure in the world. 3. Herschel Browne lives next to the bridge, two doors east of Connecticut in the Kalorama triangle. The photo was taken from the end of his street. It is his favorite bridge. |
| 1. Where is this bridge located? 2. What makes the design so special? 3. What does it have to do with the contest submitter? Click here if you want a hint. |
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| The idea for this quiz was submitted by Herschel Browne. |
Note from Herschel Browne:
I'm glad you like my bridge! Washington
has many beautiful structures (although I
dislike some of the most famous ones,
like especially the Lincoln Memorial), but
I think none is as beautiful as the Taft
Bridge. I must say, I wish it were named
something else, though. It was originally
called simply the Connecticut Avenue
Bridge. William Howard Taft wasn't good
I'm glad you like my bridge! Washington
has many beautiful structures (although I
dislike some of the most famous ones,
like especially the Lincoln Memorial), but
I think none is as beautiful as the Taft
Bridge. I must say, I wish it were named
something else, though. It was originally
called simply the Connecticut Avenue
Bridge. William Howard Taft wasn't good
enough for the brdige to be named for him. The bridge just to the north, which was
called the Calvert Street Bridge for several decades, was renamed the Duke Ellington
Bridge in honor of one of the great sons of Washington DC not long after he died,
which is more like it.
Here's another picture of the Taft Bridge. (See above.) The one in your quiz is a winter
view from the southeast. This is a summer view from the northwest.
called the Calvert Street Bridge for several decades, was renamed the Duke Ellington
Bridge in honor of one of the great sons of Washington DC not long after he died,
which is more like it.
Here's another picture of the Taft Bridge. (See above.) The one in your quiz is a winter
view from the southeast. This is a summer view from the northwest.
The Taft Bridge, also known as the
Connecticut Avenue Bridge or William
Howard Taft Bridge, is a historic bridge
located in the Northwest quadrant of
Washington, D.C. It carries Connecticut
Avenue over Rock Creek and the Rock
Creek and Potomac Parkway, connecting
the neighborhoods of Woodley Park and
Kalorama. It is situated south of the Duke
Ellington Bridge. It was designed by
George S. Morison and constructed by
Edward Casey.
The William Howard Taft Bridge took ten
years and $846,000 to build. It was
completed in 1907 and at that time, the
cost was considered outrageous. Looking
back, and considering the price tag for the
current day Wilson Bridge rebuild, it was
about 5% in today’s dollars as the Wilson
replacement at $2.4 billion. The Taft
Bridge is the largest unreinforced concrete
structure in the world, built solely out of
concrete, with no internal steel
reinforcement. In 2000, the bridge was
rehabilitated in 1993-1994 when the
bridge’s concrete lions were removed.
They were finally replaced in 2000.
Connecticut Avenue Bridge or William
Howard Taft Bridge, is a historic bridge
located in the Northwest quadrant of
Washington, D.C. It carries Connecticut
Avenue over Rock Creek and the Rock
Creek and Potomac Parkway, connecting
the neighborhoods of Woodley Park and
Kalorama. It is situated south of the Duke
Ellington Bridge. It was designed by
George S. Morison and constructed by
Edward Casey.
The William Howard Taft Bridge took ten
years and $846,000 to build. It was
completed in 1907 and at that time, the
cost was considered outrageous. Looking
back, and considering the price tag for the
current day Wilson Bridge rebuild, it was
about 5% in today’s dollars as the Wilson
replacement at $2.4 billion. The Taft
Bridge is the largest unreinforced concrete
structure in the world, built solely out of
concrete, with no internal steel
reinforcement. In 2000, the bridge was
rehabilitated in 1993-1994 when the
bridge’s concrete lions were removed.
They were finally replaced in 2000.
| Richard Wakeham guessed the London Bridge, now in Havasu, AZ. There are some noticeable differences between the two bridges, but it was an interesting answer, as both bridges are arch bridges. The major difference between the two bridges, however, is invisible. The London Bridge is a reinforced concrete structure, while the Taft bridge is not reinforced. London Bridge is a bridge in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, United States, that is based on the 1831 London Bridge that spanned the River Thames in London, England until it was dismantled in |
| Some of our long time Quizmasters confused the Taft Bridge featured in the quiz, with the Francis Scott Key Memorial Bridge. More familiarly known simply as Key Bridge, it was named for the author of the American national anthem. The bridge was built between 1917 and 1923 and takes traffic over the Potomac River between the District of Columbia and Rosslyn, Virginia. According to Herschel Browne, the submitter of this |
| Top: London Bridge, Lake Havasu, AZ; Bottom: Taft Bridge, Washington DC. |
1967. The Arizona bridge is a reinforced concrete structure
clad in the original masonry of the 1830s bridge, that was
bought by Robert P. McCulloch from the City of London.
McCulloch had exterior granite blocks from the original
bridge numbered and transported to America, in order to
construct the present bridge in Lake Havasu City, a planned
community he established in 1964 on the shore of Lake
Havasu. The bridge was completed in 1971 along with a
canal, and links an island in the lake with the main part of
Lake Havasu City.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Bridge_(Lake_Havasu_City)
clad in the original masonry of the 1830s bridge, that was
bought by Robert P. McCulloch from the City of London.
McCulloch had exterior granite blocks from the original
bridge numbered and transported to America, in order to
construct the present bridge in Lake Havasu City, a planned
community he established in 1964 on the shore of Lake
Havasu. The bridge was completed in 1971 along with a
canal, and links an island in the lake with the main part of
Lake Havasu City.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Bridge_(Lake_Havasu_City)
| Congratulations to Our Winners! Nicole Blank Daniel E. Jolley Mary Fraser Margaret Paxton Peter Norton Robert J. Steinmann, Jr Nelsen Spickard Alex Sissoev Marilyn Hamill Margaret Waterman Stan Read Harold Atchinson Jim Bullock Diane Burkett Jennifer Ruffner |
| Comments from Our Readers |
I am obsessed with bridges (which is why I already knew about the bridgehunter site)
and two of my faves are the Duluth Aerial Lift bridge and the Mackinac bridge, though
they're too familiar to ever be used as a mystery quiz. Bridges are like works of art to
me. Nicole Blank
*****
It seems like Herschel Browne is very passionate about the bike lanes in Washington,
DC, and the Taft Bridge in particular. Is it fair to assume that he lives around there? I
know he's taken his bike across the bridge a couple of times. (I'm assuming this
question is about the bridge and not the design. If it is about the design, maybe it could
accommodate a few bicycle lanes...) Alex Sissoev
*****
I am not surprised Herschel is obsessed. I suppose if I didn't have the Olympic
Mountains and the Puget Sound to look at that I would focus on a bridge and a river.
Nelsen Spickard
*****
and two of my faves are the Duluth Aerial Lift bridge and the Mackinac bridge, though
they're too familiar to ever be used as a mystery quiz. Bridges are like works of art to
me. Nicole Blank
*****
It seems like Herschel Browne is very passionate about the bike lanes in Washington,
DC, and the Taft Bridge in particular. Is it fair to assume that he lives around there? I
know he's taken his bike across the bridge a couple of times. (I'm assuming this
question is about the bridge and not the design. If it is about the design, maybe it could
accommodate a few bicycle lanes...) Alex Sissoev
*****
I am not surprised Herschel is obsessed. I suppose if I didn't have the Olympic
Mountains and the Puget Sound to look at that I would focus on a bridge and a river.
Nelsen Spickard
*****
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| The Francis Scott Key Bridge, or, more commonly, the Key Bridge, is a reinforced concrete arch bridge conveying U.S. Highway 29 traffic across the Potomac River between the |
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| Top: Taft Bridge Bottom: Key Bridge |
| How Harold Solved the Puzzle |
On July 3, 2003, the Taft Bridge added to the National Register of Historic Places.
magazine.istopover.com/2009/05/27/enjoy-a-washington-dc-bridge-on-national-bridge-day/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft_Bridge
magazine.istopover.com/2009/05/27/enjoy-a-washington-dc-bridge-on-national-bridge-day/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft_Bridge
Residential Parking
Herschel Browne, Kalorama Triangle
www.dcwatch.com/themail/2003/03-01-15.htm
Jack McKay writes in the last themail of the residential parking permit system's four
severe flaws. While I agree that all the things he lists are indeed severe flaws, there are
even worse problems with this stupendously ill-conceived system. The biggest flaw is
that the system shuts down at night, which is when it's hardest to find a place to park
in residential neighborhoods. On any given evening, approximately 15 percent of the
vehicles on the streets near my home have non-DC tags. These may very well be
owned by residents, but if they live in Washington they should register their cars here.
The second huge problem is the utterly ridiculous size of the zones, and the fact that
they are coextensive with the DC council wards, which means that they change every
ten years. I live two doors east of Connecticut in Kalorama triangle. The super-rich
neighborhood to the west of the avenue was moved from Ward 1 to Ward 2 as a result
of the 2000 census, so now someone who lives in Georgetown or Shaw or downtown
can park over there all day, but I, who live a block away, can't. What kind of sense
does that make? Especially given the fact that nearly everyone who lives in Kalorama
Heights has off street parking for multiple cars. Some of those mansions over there
have room for six or eight cars off street. Finally, there's the matter of enforcement.
The RPP restriction has gone almost totally unenforced in my neighborhood for nearly
three years. Every day, commuters from Maryland and Virginia park their cars on my
block and walk to Woodley Park Metro or to work, and they are never ticketed. But let
one of us poor slobs who live in the triangle — unable to park because of all the
commuters — give up and park on the other side of the avenue, though . . . the rich
folk over there actually get some enforcement.
Someone mentioned the system in the South End of Boston, and I agree: that's a much
better way of doing things. By neighborhood, not council ward. Twenty-four hours a
day. A few spaces set aside for visitors.
*****
Don’t Cry for New Lanes, Calvert Street
Herschel Browne
www.dcwatch.com/themail/1997/97-04-18.htm
It’s curious that another segment of Calvert Street is going to have on-street bike lanes.
The current bike lanes on Calvert Street from the Ellington Bridge up to Adams Mill
Road are the only lanes I know of in the city. Why does Calvert Street so cry out for
bike lanes?
Actually, I find it hard to believe that any serious bicycle advocate would spend time
lobbying for these particular lanes. Calvert Street is very wide and is not a particularly
important commuter route. Putting in bike lanes is a low-cost, low-pain sop to the
cycling community instead of doing anything effective to make Washington bicycle-
friendly.
Calvert Street was already so wide that it was easy for cyclists to share the road. The
Taft Bridge is where accommodation for bicycles is badly needed, but it’s not wide. It
is also an important commuter route (mostly for people who live in Maryland, of
course), so bicycles were not accommodated when the bridge underwent its massively
expensive rehabilitation. To suggest, as Greg Jones does, that no accommodation for
bicycles should be made because cyclists, as a class, routinely violate traffic regulations
is absurd. Drivers routinely violate traffic regulations. Would Greg also like a
moratorium on accommodations for drivers? At least when bicyclists break traffic
regulations they’re not operating a lethal machine weighing thousands of pounds.
Herschel Browne, Kalorama Triangle
www.dcwatch.com/themail/2003/03-01-15.htm
Jack McKay writes in the last themail of the residential parking permit system's four
severe flaws. While I agree that all the things he lists are indeed severe flaws, there are
even worse problems with this stupendously ill-conceived system. The biggest flaw is
that the system shuts down at night, which is when it's hardest to find a place to park
in residential neighborhoods. On any given evening, approximately 15 percent of the
vehicles on the streets near my home have non-DC tags. These may very well be
owned by residents, but if they live in Washington they should register their cars here.
The second huge problem is the utterly ridiculous size of the zones, and the fact that
they are coextensive with the DC council wards, which means that they change every
ten years. I live two doors east of Connecticut in Kalorama triangle. The super-rich
neighborhood to the west of the avenue was moved from Ward 1 to Ward 2 as a result
of the 2000 census, so now someone who lives in Georgetown or Shaw or downtown
can park over there all day, but I, who live a block away, can't. What kind of sense
does that make? Especially given the fact that nearly everyone who lives in Kalorama
Heights has off street parking for multiple cars. Some of those mansions over there
have room for six or eight cars off street. Finally, there's the matter of enforcement.
The RPP restriction has gone almost totally unenforced in my neighborhood for nearly
three years. Every day, commuters from Maryland and Virginia park their cars on my
block and walk to Woodley Park Metro or to work, and they are never ticketed. But let
one of us poor slobs who live in the triangle — unable to park because of all the
commuters — give up and park on the other side of the avenue, though . . . the rich
folk over there actually get some enforcement.
Someone mentioned the system in the South End of Boston, and I agree: that's a much
better way of doing things. By neighborhood, not council ward. Twenty-four hours a
day. A few spaces set aside for visitors.
*****
Don’t Cry for New Lanes, Calvert Street
Herschel Browne
www.dcwatch.com/themail/1997/97-04-18.htm
It’s curious that another segment of Calvert Street is going to have on-street bike lanes.
The current bike lanes on Calvert Street from the Ellington Bridge up to Adams Mill
Road are the only lanes I know of in the city. Why does Calvert Street so cry out for
bike lanes?
Actually, I find it hard to believe that any serious bicycle advocate would spend time
lobbying for these particular lanes. Calvert Street is very wide and is not a particularly
important commuter route. Putting in bike lanes is a low-cost, low-pain sop to the
cycling community instead of doing anything effective to make Washington bicycle-
friendly.
Calvert Street was already so wide that it was easy for cyclists to share the road. The
Taft Bridge is where accommodation for bicycles is badly needed, but it’s not wide. It
is also an important commuter route (mostly for people who live in Maryland, of
course), so bicycles were not accommodated when the bridge underwent its massively
expensive rehabilitation. To suggest, as Greg Jones does, that no accommodation for
bicycles should be made because cyclists, as a class, routinely violate traffic regulations
is absurd. Drivers routinely violate traffic regulations. Would Greg also like a
moratorium on accommodations for drivers? At least when bicyclists break traffic
regulations they’re not operating a lethal machine weighing thousands of pounds.
| ********** |
Bridge research seems to be taking a lot of
my time recently. I just finished locating
this bridge with my maternal grandparents
on their honeymoon. It is the Lincoln
Bridge, part of Platt National Park and the
Chickasaw National Recreation Area near
Sulphur, OK. http://tinyurl.com/4u4fejq
I narrowed my search for the Taft Bridge
by using the terms "open spandrel arch
bridge". I still had to go through quite a
few to find the picture. It was number 81
on the list of pictures I looked at.
"Spandrel" is a term I came across in
earlier research on bridges. Bridgehunter
my time recently. I just finished locating
this bridge with my maternal grandparents
on their honeymoon. It is the Lincoln
Bridge, part of Platt National Park and the
Chickasaw National Recreation Area near
Sulphur, OK. http://tinyurl.com/4u4fejq
I narrowed my search for the Taft Bridge
by using the terms "open spandrel arch
bridge". I still had to go through quite a
few to find the picture. It was number 81
on the list of pictures I looked at.
"Spandrel" is a term I came across in
earlier research on bridges. Bridgehunter
is a useful site for searching bridges.
I also found a lot about Herschel besides where he lives in DC such as his place of
employment, where he went to school, and his political contributions. We have several
things in common including one of my former employers. Jim Bullock
*****
Living in the neighborhood, Herschel Browne may have taken the photograph, which
shows some horse trailers and (probably) Edgewater Stable in the foreground, and
(definitely) the Omni Shoreham in the background. Herschel Browne also mentioned the
Taft Bridge in a letter to DCWatch in 1997. Leslie Shapard
*****
I should be kicking my own butt because I drove across [the Francis Scott Key] bridge
almost every day after I graduated from High School in 1957. I got a job selling schools
in VA just over the "Key" bridge and had to commute from Wheaton MD through DC
and over to VA.
To solve the puzzle, I had first to solve the misspelling of Herschel Brownes name so I
could find where he might have lived. By re-reading almost all of the quizzes I
determined it was not Bowne but Browne and I did a 123 People search to find where
Herschel lived. Jim Kiser
N.B. Jim maybe you should kick your butt a little harder. It's not the Key Bridge.
- Q. Gen.
I also found a lot about Herschel besides where he lives in DC such as his place of
employment, where he went to school, and his political contributions. We have several
things in common including one of my former employers. Jim Bullock
*****
Living in the neighborhood, Herschel Browne may have taken the photograph, which
shows some horse trailers and (probably) Edgewater Stable in the foreground, and
(definitely) the Omni Shoreham in the background. Herschel Browne also mentioned the
Taft Bridge in a letter to DCWatch in 1997. Leslie Shapard
*****
I should be kicking my own butt because I drove across [the Francis Scott Key] bridge
almost every day after I graduated from High School in 1957. I got a job selling schools
in VA just over the "Key" bridge and had to commute from Wheaton MD through DC
and over to VA.
To solve the puzzle, I had first to solve the misspelling of Herschel Brownes name so I
could find where he might have lived. By re-reading almost all of the quizzes I
determined it was not Bowne but Browne and I did a 123 People search to find where
Herschel lived. Jim Kiser
N.B. Jim maybe you should kick your butt a little harder. It's not the Key Bridge.
- Q. Gen.
Georgetown Historic District National Register #67000025 (1967). www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/149615694/ |
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| The Kalorama Triangle en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalorama,_Washington,_D.C. |
The Kalorama Triangle is a residential enclave in Northwest
Washington bounded by three major thoroughfares:
Connecticut Avenue, Calvert Street, NW and Columbia
Road. Bordering on Rock Creek Park this area enjoys a
reputation for its natural attributes—its hilly terrain, cool
breezes and fine views over the city of Washington, as well
as the close-knit village-within-a-city character of the
community. Developed largely between 1897–1931, the
Washington bounded by three major thoroughfares:
Connecticut Avenue, Calvert Street, NW and Columbia
Road. Bordering on Rock Creek Park this area enjoys a
reputation for its natural attributes—its hilly terrain, cool
breezes and fine views over the city of Washington, as well
as the close-knit village-within-a-city character of the
community. Developed largely between 1897–1931, the
neighborhood is filled with architecturally significant free-standing and attached houses,
commercial buildings, and a variety of modest and grand apartment buildings sited
along curvilinear tree-lined streets. Kalorama Park is located in the Kalorama Triangle.
commercial buildings, and a variety of modest and grand apartment buildings sited
along curvilinear tree-lined streets. Kalorama Park is located in the Kalorama Triangle.
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| For a great collection of stories and images about the Taft Bridge, including a commentary from The Hersch himself, see The Streets of Washington Blog |