I’m still playing catch up for the Blogging A to Z Challenge. Last week’s My Hometown letter was “Q”. I already knew that I was going to do the Dumbarton Bridge. You may be asking how does that relate to the letter Q, well it’s on Q Street and it’s quite often referred to as the Q Street Bridge. Haha pretty slick, huh?
I drive across this bridge quite regularly and have never really taken the time to soak it in, but then again it’s pretty difficult to do when driving in rush hour traffic.
The bridge was designed by Glenn Brown and constructed between the years of 1914 and 1915. It was built to connect Georgetown and the quickly growing Kalorama neighborhood (Dupont Circle). However, there were a couple of problems that had to be dealt with: (1) Q Street hit a dead end at Dumbarton House and (2) Q Street in Georgetown is 185 feet south of Q Street across Rock Creek Park. So, the answer was to design and build a a bridge with a gentle curve as well as moving the historic Dumbarton House 100 feet.
Perhaps a bridge with a gentle curve is not all that exciting to you, or me, or even most people in the DC area. All we want to do is get from point A to point B. And really if I’m being honest I really don’t care about the curve. The thing or things I gawk at most are the four bronze buffalo that adorn the entrances, which were designed by Phimister Proctor.
If you’d like to read more about the bridge and it’s history click HERE.
Buffalo statue at the entrance to the Dumbarton Bridge in Washington, D.C. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
20/20 Hines Sight 