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Major setback in effort to save historic DC trolley bridge
Major setback in effort to save historic DC trolley bridge
Michelle Basch | @MBaschWTOP
January 10, 2020, 4:57 AM
The future looks bleak for D.C.’s last standing streetcar bridge, which has been abandoned since streetcars stopped operating on the Glen Echo Trolley Line in 1960.
The 120-year-old Foundry Branch Trolley Trestle in Glover-Archbold Park in Northwest is in bad condition, and Metro, which owns it, wants to tear it down.
Others, including the D.C. Preservation League, have been working to save it.
The District Department of Transportation, or DDOT, offered to take ownership of the bridge and consider repurposing it into part of a new walking and biking trail.
But following the December completion of a feasibility study, DDOT decided this week not to take control of the bridge.
DDOT is moving ahead with plans to replace a 110-foot-long pedestrian bridge over Arizona Avenue NW, upgrade part of a trail in that area, and create a new connection to the Capitol Crescent Trail from Arizona Avenue NW.
DDOT’s decision about the trolley trestle means the Mayor’s Agent for Historic Preservation can now consider Metro’s application to raze it. No hearing date has been set yet.
Like WTOP on Facebook and follow @WTOP on Twitter to engage in conversation about this article and others.
© 2020 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
Michelle Basch | @MBaschWTOP
January 10, 2020, 4:57 AM
The future looks bleak for D.C.’s last standing streetcar bridge, which has been abandoned since streetcars stopped operating on the Glen Echo Trolley Line in 1960.
The 120-year-old Foundry Branch Trolley Trestle in Glover-Archbold Park in Northwest is in bad condition, and Metro, which owns it, wants to tear it down.
Others, including the D.C. Preservation League, have been working to save it.
The District Department of Transportation, or DDOT, offered to take ownership of the bridge and consider repurposing it into part of a new walking and biking trail.
But following the December completion of a feasibility study, DDOT decided this week not to take control of the bridge.
DDOT is moving ahead with plans to replace a 110-foot-long pedestrian bridge over Arizona Avenue NW, upgrade part of a trail in that area, and create a new connection to the Capitol Crescent Trail from Arizona Avenue NW.
DDOT’s decision about the trolley trestle means the Mayor’s Agent for Historic Preservation can now consider Metro’s application to raze it. No hearing date has been set yet.
Like WTOP on Facebook and follow @WTOP on Twitter to engage in conversation about this article and others.
© 2020 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
Washington, D.C.
Foundry Branch Trolley Trestle Ruins
A derelict bit of transportation infrastructure hidden in the woods.
Go for a hike through Glover-Archbold park, just beyond Georgetown University, and you may happen upon this mysterious rusting hulk. The steel pratt-truss bridge floats high overhead and disappears at either end into the camouflage of densely overgrown canopy. On top, a fresh generation of saplings have taken root amidst the rotting 120-year-old timbers.
The bridge is one of the last remaining pieces of the old streetcar system that carried District residents around the city for a century, long before the subway opened. This particular line opened in 1896 and ran from Georgetown into Glen Echo, Maryland, with the 280-foot-long bridge lifting traffic over the valley around the Foundry Branch stream.
The last trolleys ran over the Foundry Branch Trestle in January 1960 and ownership passed to the WMATA subway authority. Over the subsequent decades, the bridge fell into disrepair, and by 2008 the D.C. Preservation League was warning that it is “barely standing with the help of improvised cables.” Following inspections in 2014, the National Park Service and WMATA are currently working to stabilize the trestle and and build a covered walkway underneath incase of falling debris.
Foundry Branch Trolley Trestle Ruins
A derelict bit of transportation infrastructure hidden in the woods.
Go for a hike through Glover-Archbold park, just beyond Georgetown University, and you may happen upon this mysterious rusting hulk. The steel pratt-truss bridge floats high overhead and disappears at either end into the camouflage of densely overgrown canopy. On top, a fresh generation of saplings have taken root amidst the rotting 120-year-old timbers.
The bridge is one of the last remaining pieces of the old streetcar system that carried District residents around the city for a century, long before the subway opened. This particular line opened in 1896 and ran from Georgetown into Glen Echo, Maryland, with the 280-foot-long bridge lifting traffic over the valley around the Foundry Branch stream.
The last trolleys ran over the Foundry Branch Trestle in January 1960 and ownership passed to the WMATA subway authority. Over the subsequent decades, the bridge fell into disrepair, and by 2008 the D.C. Preservation League was warning that it is “barely standing with the help of improvised cables.” Following inspections in 2014, the National Park Service and WMATA are currently working to stabilize the trestle and and build a covered walkway underneath incase of falling debris.
