Georgetown

The old port town on the Potomac: M Street, the C&O Canal and the bridges to Virginia.

A bridge arch framing a river view with boats — April 1930 The Potomac through an arch of the Key Bridge, with the Washington Monument in the distance, 1930.Harris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress · LC-H2- B-3944 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

History

Georgetown was a Maryland tobacco port before Washington existed, and was absorbed into the city in 1871; its own street names were replaced with the city’s in 1895. In the early 1900s it was a working town of mills, coal yards and canal boats on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, which carried coal from the Allegheny Mountains down from Cumberland until it closed in 1924.

The Aqueduct Bridge carried traffic to Virginia until the Key Bridge, named for Francis Scott Key, who had lived nearby, opened alongside it in 1923.

What's there now

Georgetown is one of the city’s most expensive neighbourhoods, a historic district of rowhouses, shops and restaurants. The canal is a national historical park.

Then and now

The rowhouses and the canal survive, and a stone pier and abutment of the Aqueduct Bridge remain beside the Key Bridge. The industry has gone: the mills and coal yards of these photographs became flats, offices and a waterfront park.

Photographs 28, oldest first

A small old wooden house with dormer windows and a shopfront on a corner — c. 1900 The Jackson House, a modest gambrel-roofed shop and dwelling at 3250 M Street in Georgetown, around 1900, before its demolition.National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F82- 7979 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

An old brick house with dormers next to small shops — 1908 The Key Mansion in Georgetown, home of Francis Scott Key, about 1908, with signs on its front.Detroit Publishing Company, Library of Congress · LC-D4-71075 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

Firemen and horses outside the open doors of a small brick firehouse — c. 1900–20 Firemen and their horses in front of the Vigilant Firehouse on Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown.National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LOT 12355-3 <item> [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

A long procession of soldiers and carriages on a road above a river — 1912 A military funeral procession crosses toward the Aqueduct Bridge, with the river and the Virginia shore beyond, 1912. place probableNational Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F81- 44257 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

A boy diving off a stone canal wall into the water while others swim and watch — c. 1909–19 Boys dive and swim from the stone wall of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal on a summer day. place uncertainNational Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F81- 1546A [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

Streetcar tracks in the foreground, a river and a hilltop college with spires beyond — c. 1909–20 Georgetown College and the Aqueduct Bridge seen across the Potomac from the Virginia shore, with streetcar tracks curving in the foreground.National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F81- 3974 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

A narrow stone canal lock with water running through it, trees on either side — c. 1910–20 Water spills through the lower locks of the C&O Canal among trees and small houses.Detroit Publishing Company, Library of Congress · LC-D4-72862 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

A narrow canal with a moored boat, a stone footbridge and brick buildings — c. 1910–20 The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal at 31st Street in Georgetown, with a canal boat moored under the arched bridge and a mill chimney behind.Detroit Publishing Company, Library of Congress · LC-D4-72863 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

A man leading a mule along a canal towpath toward a stone arched bridge — c. 1910–20 A mule and driver walk the towpath of the C&O Canal toward a stone arch bridge, canal boats moored beyond.Detroit Publishing Company, Library of Congress · LC-D4-73253 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

Two men in a rowboat on a flooded street beside a fire hydrant, misty buildings behind — c. 1909–23 Two men pole a rowing boat along a flooded Georgetown street during a Potomac flood, a fire hydrant just above the water.National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F8- 44256 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

A canal among trees with a bridge across the river beyond — c. 1909–23 Chain Bridge seen from the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, upriver from Georgetown. place probableNational Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F81- 11 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

A calm canal lined with willow trees — c. 1909–23 The C&O Canal near Chain Bridge, with willows along the towpath. place probableNational Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F81- 125 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

Horse-drawn carriages and a caisson crossing a long river bridge, a university on the hill behind — 1917 The funeral procession of Captain Charles T. Boyd of the 10th Cavalry crosses the Georgetown bridge over the Potomac, Georgetown University on the heights beyond.Harris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress · LC-H261- 7609 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

A plain old two-storey wooden house on a cobbled street corner with oyster signs — c. 1918–20 An old clapboard house with "Oysters" painted on its walls stands on a cobbled corner, identified in the title as Suter's Hotel. place uncertainNational Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F8- 1614 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

An unfinished steel bridge arch springing from a stone pier over a river, a barge beside it — 1920 The steel arch of the Key Bridge reaches out from a stone pier over the Potomac during construction in 1920, a work boat moored below.National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F8- 10305 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

Concrete bridge arches and piers rising out of still water — 1920 Arches of the Key Bridge rise over the Potomac beside the old Aqueduct Bridge, around 1920.National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F8- 10306 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

A single bridge arch reflected in still river water — c. 1920 An arch of the Key Bridge under construction rises from the Potomac, about 1920.National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F82- 4740 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

A three-storey corner building with a drug store on the ground floor — c. 1909–32 People's Drug Store No. 9 at 31st and M Streets in Georgetown.National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LOT 12359-6A [item] [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

A wooden canal boat on calm water reflected beneath wooded hills — c. 1909–32 A canal boat glides along the still, tree-lined C&O Canal, its reflection doubled in the water below wooded hills.National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LOT 12357-3 [item] [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

Children seated at desks on the deck of a boat with a teacher — 1921 Children at an open-air school on a canal boat, 1921. place uncertainNational Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F8- 15937 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

A man driving a car on caterpillar tracks, soldiers and a tank behind, a bridge arch above — c. 1921–23 A small tracked motor vehicle and a tank on show before soldiers and onlookers beneath the arches of the Key Bridge, early 1920s.Harris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress · LC-H27- A-2452 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

Children sitting on a wooden boat deck under trees — 1924 Life on a C&O Canal boat, 1924: children on the deck of a moored boat.National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F8- 31244 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

An iron truss footbridge over a canal with boats and buildings — 1925 Canal boats moored beneath an iron footbridge on the C&O Canal in Georgetown, 1925.National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F8- 36215 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

A curved stone arch over still canal water with a figure on the bank — 1925 A man on the towpath under a stone bridge on the C&O Canal, 1925.National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F8- 36216 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

Men paddling canoes on a river with spectators on the far bank — August 22, 1925 Canoes escort swimmers in the first national long-distance swimming race, from Chain Bridge to Georgetown, August 22, 1925.National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F8- 36832 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

A long arched bridge across a river behind reeds — after 1923 The Key Bridge across the Potomac seen from the riverbank.Date checked: The Library's 1916–1917 comes from neighbouring negatives, but the bridge shown complete here opened on January 17, 1923.National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress · LC-F82- 2186 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

A concrete arch bridge over boats and a riverbank — April 1930 The Key Bridge over the Potomac, with boathouses below, 1930.Harris & Ewing Collection, Library of Congress · LC-H2- B-3946 [P&P] · No known restrictions on publication

Nearby: Dupont Circle and the avenues · The Lincoln Memorial · State, War and Navy Building · Seventeenth Street · The White House and Lafayette Square