USA > Washington DC > The chronicles of Georgetown, D.C., from 1751-1878 > Part 5
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63
A BREEZE IN TOWN.
Never having gone east of Potomac Street, they in- fested the walls of buildings, and concealed themselves in the cracks and openings. The chronicler has many times struck with a stone a brick or stone wall, when thousands would come to the surface and run in every direction. Their bite or sting was painful; and such a nuisance had they become to the property of the citi- zens (depreciating it in value), that our corporation offered a reward for their destruction by paying one dollar per quart for all dead ants brought to the office. After paying out several hundred dollars, the cold winter of 1840-'41 set in, which completely destroyed them.
A BREEZE IN TOWN.
One Sunday morning, in April, 1848, quite a com- motion was raised in the town by a number of citi- zens, who had given out, on the Saturday evening pre- vious, a supply of provisions to be cooked next morn- ing for breakfast. One expected muffins; the second, warm rolls; and the third, buckwheat cakes and fried chicken. No breakfast being ready, the ladies of the house went to see what could the matter be, when, lo and behold, there was no " Polly to put the kettle on." The fires were out, and the kitchens were dark and cold. The servants had absconded, and where had they gone, was the inquiry. It was discovered that a schooner, named the Pearl, had a few days before un- loaded her cargo of wood, and sailed away in the night, and was supposed to have carried off all the runa- way.slaves. Immediately the steamer Salem was char-
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THE LONG BRIDGE.
tered, and many of our citizens volunteered their ser- vices, being armed and equipped according to law, and started in pursuit of the missing vessel. After steam- ing down the Potomac for a day and a night, they came upon the Pearl in Cornfield Harbor, near the mouth of the river. They immediately boarded the schooner, fastened down the hatches, and secured the captain and the few hands who sailed the vessel; they then lashed the schooner to the steamer and headed for Georgetown, where they arrived in the latter part of the week. Captain Edward Sayes and Daniel Dray- ton, of the schooner Pearl, were committed to jail, and at the June Term of the Criminal Court they were convicted and sentenced: Drayton to pay seventy- three times one hundred and forty dollars; and Cap- tain Sayes, seventy-three times one hundred dollars, and to stand committed until paid. They were after- wards pardoned, August 12th, 1852. The number of slaves carried off were seventy-seven; consisting of thirty-eight men, twenty-six women, and thirteen children.
LONG BRIDGE.
There has been, almost from time immemorial, a great opposition, by the citizens of Georgetown, to the construction of the Long Bridge. They regarded the bridge as injurious to the channel of the river, and a great detriment to the commerce of the town. When the bridge question was agitated in Congress, as far back as 1807, our corporate authorities, by an act of the Corporation, passed January 6th, 1807, employ-
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THE LONG BRIDGE.
ed Charles Evans, a celebrated stenographer (at ten dollars per day), to report the debates on the bridge question. Our corporate authorities did their best to prevent the passage of the bill chartering the Poto- mac Bridge Company, which was incorporated Feb- ruary 5th, 1808; the charter to last for sixty years. What the town could not do, the Potomac River did for us. The freshet of 1829 broke the bridge asunder in many places, and the company, being unable to re- pair the same, sold all their right and title to the United States for twenty thousand dollars, by act of Congress passed July 14, 1832; and by a subsequent act approved March 2d, 1833, the sum of two hund- red thousand dollars was appropriated by Congress to erect a new bridge. Our town desired that a new bridge should be erected above the town at the Three Sisters, but Washington opposed it, on the ground that the distance from the City Post Office, through Georgetown to Alexandria, crossing the river at the Three Sisters, is ten and one-half miles; while the distance between the same points, crossing the river by the Long Bridge, is only five and three-quarter miles.
It is to be presumed, that by the acts of Congress of July 14th 1832, and March 2d, 1833, the final settle- ment of the question, as to the permancy or removal of the Long Bridge was settled. After the passage of the above acts, the corporate authorities of George- town presented a memorial to Congress, praying an appropriation for removing obstructions in the river, and making free the road to the bridge over the Lit- 9
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THE LONG BRIDGE.
tle Falls. In this memorial document (No. 32, HI. R., 22d Congress, 2d Session) they say : "Without, at all, complaining that Congress has appropriated money to erect a new bridge and make it free of tolls -for since it is considered necessary that a bridge must be erected there, at the sight of the Long Bridge, no doubt, it ought to be free of tolls-your memorial- ists must, nevertheless, take leave, respectfully, to in- vite the attention of your honorable body to the fact, that a free bridge must unavoidably deprive them of the remaining trade with the neighboring counties of Virginia, unless corresponding facilities are afforded for reaching Georgetown; since none will choose to pay a toll to cross the river when it can be crossed free of toll. They ask for the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the objects set forth in the memorial, viz: To improve the navigation of the Potomac River between Georgetown and Alexan- dria, and making free the bridge over the Little Falls and the road leading to it." The appropriations, re- lating to the Long Bridge and Falls Bridge, were passed, and all controversy about the location of the bridges was considered settled.
This memorial, presented by the citizens of George- town, to Congress, was backed by an argument upon the facts and questions of law in the case, and signed by the late John Cox, Mayor of Georgetown. It is presumed that this able paper was written by the late Clement Cox, who was at that time, one of the most distinguished members of the Washington Bar.
The bridge, as erected by the United States, was
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THE LONG BRIDGE.
thrown open for travel in the month of October, 1835, when the President of the United States with his Cab- inet crossed it on foot, and returned in carriages. The bridge, as then constructed, had a drawer over the Virginia Channel, sixty-six feet wide, and over the Washington Channel, thirty-five feet; and was sub- stantially the same as that which now exists-that is, the solid causeway occupies about one third of the bridge; the rest of the bridge being built of wood resting on piles. For some years the bridge escaped without any damage, but, in 1840, a portion of it was destroyed by an ice freshet. Without exact date, it is impossible to enumerate the different occasions in which it has been injured. It was injured by the freshets in 1856, 1860, 1863, and 1867; in several in- stances, spans of the bridge were carried away and travel suspended for several months at a time; but Congress has always been liberal in making appropria- tions to repair damages. The bridge is something that Georgetown has always thrown a " brick " at, and at every session of Congress a committee was generally appointed to attend to the interests of the town before Congress, and represent their grievances-the bridge always receiving due consideration ; but, as we are now under one form of government, and almost one town, one city, and one people, we may harmonize better in the future, when liberal appropriations shall be made by Congress for all parts of the District.
القاعة
68
POPULATION.
The population of Georgetown was-
in 1800, two thousand nine hundred and ninety-three ; in 1810, four thousand nine hundred and forty-eight ; in 1820, seven thousand three hundred and sixty; in 1830, eight thousand four hundred and forty-one; in 1840, seven thousand three hundred and twelve; in 1850, eight thousand three hundred and sixty-six; in 1860, eight thousand seven hundred and thirty- three; in 1870, eleven thousand three hundred and eighty-four; in 1878, eleven thousand five hundred and seventy-one.
This last census was taken by the officials of the District of Columbia.
SEFİ
CHAPTER II.
POTOMAC RIVER-ICE-FLOES-THE CAUSEWAY-FRESHETS-COLD WINTERS-SEVENTEEN-YEAR LOCUSTS.
The Potomac River, which has its rise in two branches, north and south, in the Alleghany Moun- tains, is a noble river. In its course towards the ocean, it is joined by several minor streams, the long- est of which is the Shenandoah, which rises in Au- gusta County, Virginia, and flows two hundred and fifty miles before it unites with the Potomac at Har- per's Ferry, where the latter bursts through the Blue Ridge Mountains, affording a sublime and interesting spectacle to the admirers of nature. In its descent to the Chesapeake Bay, it forms the greater part of the boundary line between Maryland and Virginia, and waters the District of Columbia two hundred and fifty miles from the Atlantic Ocean. The termination of its tide-water is three miles above Georgetown, where the tide rises about four feet. Mr. Jefferson, in his "Notes on Virginia," gives a graphic description of the scenery at Harper's Ferry. He says :
" The passage of the Potomac River through the Blue Ridge, is, perhaps, one of the most stupendous scenes in nature. You stand on a very high point of land. On your right, comes up the Shenandoah, hav- ing ranged along the foot of the mountain a hundred miles to seek a vent. On your left, approaches the
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POTOMAC RIVER.
Potomac in inquest of a passage, also. In the mo- ment of their junction, they rush together against the mountain, rend it asunder, and pass off to the sea. The first glance of this scene hurries our senses into the opinion, that this earth has been created in time; that the mountains were formed first; that the river be- gan to flow afterwards; that in this place, particularly, they have been damed up by the Blue Ridge Moun- tains, and have formed an ocean which filled the whole valley; that continuing to rise, they have at length broken over at this spot, and have torn the mountain down from its summit to its base. The piles of rocks on each hand, but, particularly on the Shenandoah- the evident marks of their disrupture and avulsion from their beds by the most powerful agents of na- ture-corroborates the impression; but the distant finishing which nature has given to the picture is of a very different character. It is a true contrast to the foreground. It is as placid and delightful, as that is wild and tremendous. For the mountain, being cloven asunder, she presents to your eye through the cleff, a small catch of smooth blue horizon at an infi- nite distance in the plain country, inviting you, as it were, from the riot and tumult roaring around, to pass through the breach and participate in the calm below. Here the eye ultimately composes itself, and that way to the road happens actually to lead.
" You can cross the Potomac above the junction, pass along its side through the base of the mountain. For three miles its terrible precipices are hanging in fragments over you, and, within about twenty miles
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ICE-FLOES.
reach Frederick Town and the fine country around that. This scene is worth a voyage across the Atlan- tic to view it; yet, here, as in the neighborhood of the Natural Bridge, are people who have passed their lives within a half-dozen miles of it, and have never been to survey these monuments of a war between rivers and mountains, which must have shaken the earth itself to its centre."
ICE-FLOES.
The chronicler of these events occasionally spent some hours at the Arlington Springs, in conversation with G. W. P. Custis, the proprietor of Arlington, whose mind was replete with revolutionary history, and the events of the times that tried men's souls. On several occasions he related a description of an ice freshet that took place after the revolutionary war. Said he:
"The ice, in the memorable year of 1784, moved twice: It first decended in vast quantities from the upper Potomac, till it reached the Three Sisters, where it stopped and accumulated in great masses and froze together again ; then came the deep snow, followed by a general thaw and violent rains. The second move- ment carried all before it. The shoving off of a strongly built stone house or stable from the bank, of where now is your town, is a well remembered story of the past. Both branches of the river around An- alostan Island were open in those days; the eastern branch being used as the ship channel. The freshet of 1784 tore open the western branch, and formed in
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THE CAUSEWAY.
the one freshet, a channel way that would have ad- mitted the passage of an Indiaman to Georgetown, being from twenty-seven to thirty-feet depth up to the wharves of the town.
THE CAUSEWAY.
" This channel was in all its usefulness when I came to live in your vicinity in 1802, and would have been a ship channel for the largest shipping up to this time, but for the unfortunate erection of the unfortunate causeway, which, while doing good to none, has done infinite harm to every one. It has rendered its vicin- ity unhealthy, in an eminent degree, and will, until its removal, render the island (that must soon be occu- pied as a commercial part of Georgetown) uninhabita- ble. By blocking up one-half or more of the vent for the passage of the water, the whole force of the river is now thrown upon the wharves and warehouses of Georgetown. Again, it would require but one-half of such a freshet as 1784, to do as much mischief as that memorable freshet did; for while one-half of the pass- age way for the waters of 1784, is now filled up, the river at Georgetown is but one-half as deep, being thirty feet from shore to shore fifty years ago, is now not over fifteen feet, and a vast accumulation of mud next to the causeway. What shall we do ? I answer, knock away that nuisance to every one, the causeway, and take the chances. What happened in 1784, may happen again in 1852, and a single freshet make a channel-way to Georgetown, that may carry an India- man to her wharves. Five years ago (1836), you had a
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THE CAUSEWAY.
pretty fair sample of a freshet without ice, in the navi- gation of your lower streets by boats. Had the river at that time been encumbered with icebergs, all the wharves and warehouses of Georgetown would have been an affair for history, for not a wreck would have been left behind.
"The western channel is intended by nature to be the principal channel to the town, for it is the nearest and most direct, and water chooses the nearest and most direct route always. In 1784 the Potomac had her choice, and she chose the western channel. It is a melancholy reflection that, from circumstances be- yond the control of her citizens, Georgetown is des- tined, in a limited number of years, to have no har- bor at all. The same causes produce the same effect all the world over. From each pier of the Aqueduct, there will extend a tongue of land, made by the allu- vial deposits of the river, which will unite in the har- bor and fill it up.
"The engineers have pronounced it practicable to make an artificial channel through the present bar be- low the island, only by a heavy expense in works of art. Perhaps old Potomac may take the engineering into her own hands, and. give a channel, as she did in 1784, after a manner speedily, efficient, and entirely her own.
" With the rapidly increasing commerce of the canal, it behooves you of Georgetown to look out for more commercial room by annexation of Analostan Island; but, if the causeway is to form part of the new annexation, rely upon it that the population of 10
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74
FRESHETS.
the new Territory will require a pretty smart sprink- ling of doctors, apothecaries, nurses, and grave dig- gers, who will be in full employment from the 1st of June to the 1st of December."
FRESHETS.
We have had many freshets in the Potomac. The great freshet of June, 1836, over-flowed the wharves and cellars along the line of Water Street, and did great damage to the canal. The freshets of April and September, 1843, were equally as destructive. So was the freshet of October, 1847, when the banks of the canal were rent asunder, and navigation suspended until the spring of 1848. The freshet of April, 1852, was very destructive; navigation was suspended on the canal all summer, and it cost the company several hundred thousand dollars to repair damages. The water in the river was so high that it ran over the causeway, which joins Analostan Island with the main-land, and washed away the stone wall, and made a new channel for the river, which damage cost the town several thousand dollars to repair. We have had, since, a number of freshets in the Potomac during the years 1856, 1860, 1863, 1866, and 1867, but none of them doing much damage. The freshet of October 1st, 1870, was very destructive; carrying away more than one-half of the Chain Bridge, and washing away the causeway and south draw of the Long Bridge. The canal was greatly damaged, several lock-gates were seen floating down the river, and navigation sus- pended for several weeks, which cost the company be-
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COLD WINTERS.
tween eighty and one hundred thousand dollars to re- pair the injury. The freshet of 24th, 25th, and 26th of November, 1877, was higher than either of the freshets of 1847, 1852, or 1870, doing serious injury to the banks of the canal, which cost the company two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to repair, and again washing away the stone causeway, which joins Analostan Island with the main-land, giving a chance to the Commissioners of the District of Columbia to repair the damage.
COLD WINTERS.
The severity of the winter of 1780, or '84, is de- scribed by Jefferson in his "Notes on Virginia." He says : " That the winter was so cold, that the Chesa- peake Bay was frozen from its head to the mouth of the Potomac River, and at Annapolis, where the bay is five miles wide, the ice was five inches thick."
The winter of 1827, was of remarkable severity in this latitude. Alexandria was nearly burnt down on the 18th day of January of that year, and many citi- zens of our town skated on the ice to Alexandria, and assisted in extinguishing the conflagration. The win- ter of 1829-'30, was very cold, and the ice broke up with a freshet, carrying away the schooner Washing- ton from Crittenden's wharf, where she had been made fast with numerous cables, which were rent like pipe stems, and the vessel carried down the river until she grounded on Easby's Point. At the same time the Long Bridge was shattered to pieces by the ice, four- teen gaps being made by the force of the freshet.
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COLD WINTERS.
Congress then purchased the remnant of the bridge of the Potomac Bridge Company for twenty-thousand dollars, and afterwards erected the present structure. The winter of 1831-'32, was very long and extremely cold. The chronicler was, at that time, a scholar at Professor Hallowell's school, located in Alexandria, and well remembers the severe coldness of the weather. The cold weather commenced in Novem- ber, 1831; the Potomac River was soon ice-bound, and the boys enjoyed fine skating. On coming home to spend the Christmas Holidays, we crossed the river at the Ferry near the Aqueduct, and saw on the ice, at the time, a wagon loaded with wood, being drawn by four horses. The mercury (in the Thermometer situated constantly in the shade on the west side of our dwelling), indicated four degrees below zero. In the first part of January, 1832, we had a thaw, and the ice passed quietly away; but in the latter part of the month the weather again turned suddenly cold, and the Potomac was frozen over. On the 28th of Janu- ary, of that winter, after two nights freeze, I at- tempted to come home by way of the Long Bridge. On arriving at the bridge, I found no track broken for the Ferry Boat, and to cross on the ice was con- sidered impossible, as the river is more than a mile wide. Having my skates with me, and not liking to turn back, I put them on, and taking the branch of a tree in my hands, I crossed over in safety, to the sat- isfaction of the crowd who stood looking on at my fool-hardy venture. As I skated on the ice, it was so thin that it would crack and bend under my light
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COLD WINTERS.
weight, and I could distinctly see the leaves and twigs floating in the water under my feet. Having arrived on the Washington shore, I felt so well satisfied, that I would not have returned for the fortune of Stephen Girard. The winter of 1835, was the coldest ever ex- perienced in this latitude. We had some weeks a thaw, and then the weather would turn extremely cold. The mercury indicated in January, sixteen de- grees below zero. We had three severe cold spells of weather during that year; one of which was in March. On the 3d of that month I skated on the Potomac, playing " Bandy " and " Prisoner's Base." The winter of 1839-'40, was long and cold. The ice broke up in the Potomac on the 10th of February, 1840; and car- ried away the Chain Bridge, and the draw of the Long Bridge. The winter of 1840-'41, was long and cold ; though the degree of cold was not as great as some previous winters. The 12th of February, 1841, was the coldest day during the season, and it is well re- membered by the inhabitants of this town as the day that General Harrison paid Georgetown a visit just before his inauguration as President of the United States. We all remember the winters of 1855, 1856, and 1857; the snows were deep, and the cold was severe. During the winter of 1857, sleighing was enjoyed by our inhabitants. Fleet horses were brought on from other cities to race on Pennsylvania Avenue, and when the drivers would be arrested for driving at an improper speed, they would pay the fine, crack the whip over the head of justice and go it again. This was the winter that a locomotive was run on the
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SEVENTEEN-YEAR LOCUSTS.
ice across the river, from Maryland to Alexandria ; also, sleepers and rails were laid upon the ice at Haver de Grace, across the Susquehanna River, and trains of cars crossed over for more than a month.
There is a law of nature, that one extreme is fol- lowed by another. The extreme hot summer of 1834, was followed by the cold winter of 1835; and the centennial year of 1876, was very warm; the heat set in about the 20th of June, and never broke until the 13th of July, when we had a few pleasant days, when the heat set in again and lasted until the 1st of Sep- tember. The winter of 1876-'77, was severe. The extreme cold set in on Saturday, the 9th of December, and continued to the 13th of January, when we had a thaw.
SEVENTEEN-YEAR LOCUSTS.
I heard a citizen remark at one time, that every locust-year was followed by a cold winter. This re- mark will hold true, though no philosophical reason can be assigned for it. On examining some old registers in manuscript, I found that the locusts ap- peared in 1800, and was followed by an extreme cold winter; then again in 1816, and another cold winter. I well remember their appearance in the summer of 1834, which was followed by the severe winter of 1835, as above stated; they again appeared in the summer of 1851, and the winter of 1852, was one which young and old will long remember. In 1867, they again made their appearance, which was followed by the cold winter of 1868. There may be
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SEVENTEEN-YEAR LOCUSTS.
something providential in all this, which the obtuse intellect of man may not be able to fathom ; that swarms of locusts should come out of the ground once every seventeen years, spreading destruction among the trees and shrubbery, deposit their eggs, then tum- ble into naught, and their departure followed by an extreme cold winter, which may cause the eggs to re- main in a torpid state, for seventeen years, before the locust is produced again.
11
CHAPTER III.
POTOMAC CANAL-FALLS BRIDGE-MILITARY COMPANIES-CON- TESTED ELECTIONS-BANKS IN GEORGETOWN.
These chronicles would be imperfect if they did not contain a brief description of the Potomac Canal, char- tered by the Legislature of Maryland in 1784. This canal runs around the principal falls of the Potomac River. At the Great Falls, where the difference of level is seventy-six feet nine inches, it was surmounted by five locks of solid masonry of stone; each one hund- red fect in length, of various widths of from ten to fourteen feet, with a lift of from ten to eighteen feet; also, guard locks, and entensive basin-a canal twelve hundred yards in length lined with stone. The two lower locks were excavated entirely from the solid rock, and exhibited an imperishable monument of per- severance and skill. At the Little Falls, the differ- ence of level is thirty-seven feet, and was surmounted by four locks of solid masonry of stone, of the dimen- sions of eighty feet in length, and twelve feet wide, and by a canal two-and-a-half miles long ; on the mar- gin of which were found inexhaustible supplies of val- uable stone for building purposes. The canal, at both the Great and Little Falls, was excavated of the fol- lowing dimensions: Twenty-five feet wide at the sur- face, twenty feet wide at the bottom, and four feet deep. Gondolas and small canal boats only navi-
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