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October 22, 2011
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NIKON
COOLPIX P5000
10/1750 second
F/4.8
8 mm
64
Jun 11, 2011, 1:34:10 PM
Microsoft Windows Photo Viewer 6.1.7600.16385
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:iconletohatchee:
Washington DC is building a levee on the Washington Mall at Potomac Park. Archaeologists are looking for the old 17th Street Wharf that was completed in 1807. During a part of the summer, I was one of those Archaeologists.

This photo is taken towards Constitution Ave. You can see the traffic on the side of 17th St that is still open, as well as on Constitution Ave.

Constitution Avenue in DC used to be a canal. It was filled in after the Civil War and made into the street we know today. Perpendicular to this canal was the 17th Street Wharf (which is now 17th St) where ships would come in and drop off building supplies for the growing city and every day supplies for the residents. There is a lock-keeper's house at this intersection that still stands today. All of this is now what is part of the Washington Mall. The Washington Monument and The White House are nearby.

A section of 17th St was cut away and what you are seeing in this picture is the evolution of this street from the beginning of Washington DC all the way up to the present. The cross-section is 6.4 feet deep.

The very top layer is the concrete road that is there today. It was funny because the street is still open (since it's a major street in downtown DC) and tour buses were constantly going by. There's a wooden wall they built so no one falls in the hole (along with a concrete barrier just in case someone gets into an accident), but it's not that much of a barrier at all and we could hear the tours as they went by. Depending on which tour was going by, each one had a different number of children they said the lock-keeper had. Some said 11, some said 12, some said 13. When I asked another Archaeologist if he knew if anyone knew exactly how many children the guy had for sure, he told me he had no idea. It was also funny too, because some of the tourists on those buses looked bored. I think if they knew there was Archaeology going on, that maybe they might have been more interested, LOL!

Anyway, as you go down from the concrete road top layer there, you can see that the road was once asphalt (probably not that long ago). Before that it was brick, before that it was coble stone, before that it was dirt, and before that it was the warf. There is a lot of fill between all those layers too (in an effort to make each evolution level as the road was modified). That thing sticking out at the very bottom of the pit is a wooden plank from the warf.

I was absolutely fascinated and excited to have the opportunity to see this history of downtown DC, so I thought I'd share it with you.

Enjoy!

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:iconmgmags:
*MGMags Jan 1, 2012
I would love to see something like this from Rome or London... so cool...

Must be a bitch for the construction companies in those places though... can't do a thing until the archeologists give the go ahead... and if you hit something really rare, your project is doomed... lol
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:iconletohatchee:
*Letohatchee Jan 28, 2012
Oh my gosh, that would be amazing to see.

Oh yes, we are the bane of construction company existence. LOL!
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:iconmgmags:
*MGMags May 2, 2012
:D I can only imagine the cuss words that go flying when they run into something...
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:iconletohatchee:
*Letohatchee May 3, 2012
LOL! Yea, no kidding. The construction crew on the latest project I was on in DC were not happy at all! ...especially when we started finding all that stuff.
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:iconmaddog78:
~maddog78 Oct 23, 2011
It sounds weird, but I love this photo of all the layers. I had to look at the photo for each layer you described so I could see it. Thank you again for sharing these digs, I got excited when I saw them pop up!
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:iconletohatchee:
*Letohatchee Nov 9, 2011
Thank you! That's cool that you looked at each layer. I'm glad you got excited. :)
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:iconmaddog78:
~maddog78 Nov 9, 2011
I love to see photos of layers like that, I remember a fave from a geological class I took that showed different layers of ash from Mt. St. Helens and it was so interesting to look at.
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:iconletohatchee:
*Letohatchee Nov 11, 2011
Me too! Oh man, ash layers from Mt. St. Helens would be so cool to see!
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:iconmaddog78:
~maddog78 Nov 11, 2011
It is :)
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:iconladyleyn:
~ladyleyn Oct 23, 2011
It's always neat to see what is right under our feet and interesting to know how humans have changed our landscape to suit our needs!
I can only imagine what the layers would look like in a city that was several thousand years old rather than just a couple of hundred!
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