Potomac Aqueduct Bridge
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The Aqueduct Bridge (also called Alexandria Aqueduct) was a bridge between Georgetown, Washington, D.C., and Rosslyn, Virginia, in Arlington County. It was built to transport cargo-carrying boats on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in Georgetown across the Potomac River to the Alexandria Canal. During its life, the same eight piers supported three different bridges: a wooden canal bridge, a wooden double-deck canal and roadway bridge, and an iron-truss roadway-only bridge.
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[edit] History
In 1830, merchants from Alexandria, Virginia, proposed linking their city to Georgetown to capitalize on the new Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. Congress granted a charter to the Alexandria Canal Company in 1830, and construction began soon on the Aqueduct Bridge that would carry canal boats across the Potomac River and downriver on the Virginia side without unloading in Georgetown. The Aqueduct Bridge was designed by Major William Turnbull. Construction of the bridge and Alexandria Canal began in 1833; both were completed a decade later. To withstand Potomac ice floes, the piers were made of gneiss boated down from quarries upstream. The water-filled bridge was a weatherproofed timber queen-post truss construction. The Civil War interrupted plans to make an upper level for a railroad crossing above the lower canal level, and instead the canal was drained to make a roadway for military troops.
In 1866, the boat channel was restored to private ownership, and, in 1868, arching Howe trusses were installed to support a toll highway and footpath on top of the lower canal level intersecting to M Street. The going rate for a foot passenger was two cents; a horse or cattle, five cents; a vehicle drawn by one animal cost fifteen cents, twenty-five cents if drawn by two; and a penny for any pig, sheep or other live animal. The only exemptions from the tolls were the military troops and munitions.
In the 1880s, the old bridge was sold to the federal government and replaced in 1886 by a light iron truss bridge for wheeled traffic. In 1889, the northern arch in the Washington abutment was enlarged so that the Georgetown Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad could pass underneath. When that line was abandoned, Water Street (K Street), NW, was extended west through the passageway to the Washington Canoe Club. The empty lot before the canoe club was previously occupied by Dempsey's Canoe Livery. The rest of the Georgetown Branch right-of-way is now occupied by the Capital Crescent Trail.
In 1923, the bridge was closed when the Key Bridge was built downstream about a hundred feet east. Its superstructure and most of the above-water portion of the piers were removed in 1933. In 1962, seven of the eight remaining pilings from the Aqueduct Bridge were blasted out to a depth of twelve feet below the waterline.[1]
The Aqueduct Bridge Washington abutment still survives and is located west of the Key Bridge. The southern arch underneath the abutment is used to shelter rowing shells belonging to members of the Potomac Boat Club.[2] One piling remains and is located in the river near the Virginia shore.
[edit] Images
[edit] Plans
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[edit] First bridge
 Canal bridge |
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[edit] Second Bridge
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[edit] Third Bridge
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 Roadway bridge |
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[edit] Remnants
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 Piers before demolition |
 Washington abutment and Potomac Boat Club |
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 Satellite image with remnants circled |
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Turnbull, William (2005). Reports on the construction of the piers of the aqueduct of the Alexandria canal across the Potomac River at Georgetown, District of Columbia. Scholarly Publishing Office, University of Michigan Library. ISBN 1-4181-9959-1.
