In the late 1700s, the first bridges, now completely gone, connected the new Federal City to the outside world. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, more and bigger crossings arose to support industry, allow the expansion of suburbs, commemorate cultural and civic leaders, and enhance the aesthetics of the District’s waterfronts and parks. Although the city abandoned civic-minded, commemorative, and monumental constructions for utilitarian highway monoliths in the mid-twentieth century, a recent renaissance has seen a welcome shift to walkability and beauty instead of brute utility. Using the city’s bridges as an index of the times, our speaker, author Bob Dover tracks how connecting to Virginia impacted both Virginia and DC from the 1750s to today.
Our speaker’s book “Bridge of Washington, D.C: A History and Guide” will be available sale at this event and the author will be happy to sign it.
Author, Bob Dover, is a retired geologist and environmental planner who specializing in surface water hydrology. In 2022, he published “Bridgespotting: A Guide to Bridges that Connect People, Places, and Times” which is an exploration of the uses of bridges throughout the US and Europe for tourism, historic preservation, and recreation. Realizing that his hometown was one of the few cities that did not already have a book about its bridges, he spent a couple years exploring, researching, and documenting them – and then wrote it!
This event immediately follows a brief annual AHS members’ meeting. This event will be in-person and via Zoom.
PREREGISTER FOR ZOOM ACCESS
You can attend this event on Zoom or in-person on the Marymount University Main Campus. If you want to attend this event virtually, please CLICK HERE To register. You can also cut and paste this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe5hahdEKOetY34nQ9roXBAFSDf4BhdRF-8xSY-rXoPnYl3iQ/viewform into your own browser and complete it there. Please register by Wednesday, June 10. Zoom access information will be sent to you in an email on the morning of the event on Thursday, June 11. This is the same registration forthe brief members meeting.
NEW LOCATION
This month we will be at the Aurora Hills Community Center located at 735 18th Street, South in Arlington, (zip code: 22202). Parking is free. Free overflow parking is at the parking lot at Virginia Highlands Park (1600 South Hayes Street) connected by a short sidewalk. Pentagon City Metro is your best public transit bet.
For more information, please email: info@arlingtonhistoricalsociety.org.
