Key Bridge and the C&O Canal Towpath

Type of Exercise: Cycling/Biking
Biking Stats:
Distance: 30.94 mi
Duration: 2 hr 33 mins

On Sunday afternoon, I decided to take a meandering ride up the same trail I’ve been using all month to cross yet another bridge over the Potomac River.

Just above Theodore Roosevelt island along the river, there is another bridge, which connects Northern Virginia to Washington DC.

Francis Scott Key and the strange story of his house

The bridge is named for Francis Scott Key, the lawyer and poet. The reason it is named for the man is principally because the bridge, which now stands there, would have been practically IN HIS FRONT YARD (ok it was a few blocks away, but still). Ha! Francis Scott Key was a prominent Lawyer in Georgetown, where his home and law office was located. It sat there right on the bank of the river, and it had a smoke house as well as several other “useful outhouses.” From there, Francis Scott Key practiced law and plied his hand at poetry. His most famous poem was written after witnessing the defense of nearby Fort McHenry, during the war of 1812. Seeing the flag atop the fort the morning after a battle, he was inspired to write a poem about it, which was published as “Defence of Fort M’Henry.”

So how does one just casually witness a battle? Key and another man were guests of a US admiral on his ship during the night of the attack. They were there to negotiate the release of prisoners, one in particular that Key may have been hired to aid, who were taken prisoner by the British invading forces. It became evident by the enormous strength of the British presence that an attack was imminent, and Key basically was STUCK onboard that vessel, while the British attacked Fort McHenry. You can imagine what a night he had and also his relief at seeing the British rebuffed!

The song, “The Star Spangled Banner,” was not a thing until 2 years later. in 1814 Key took the poem to a composer who set it (very roughly) to the tune of a patriotic sounding song known as “To Anacreon in Heaven,” originally composed by John Stafford Smith, who in turn composed it for his beloved Anacreontic Society gentleman’s club in London. The “Anacreon” portion is a reference to a Greek poet who was well known for his drinking songs. Was the tune of our national anthem originally a drinking song, composed by a British man? Signs appear to point to yes. Anyway, the song became popular, and it was eventually sung more than any other song. Congress eventually pens a bill to make it the national anthem, and in 1931 President Hoover signed it into law. The third stanza of the song references slavery. It specifically references the British guarantee of freedom to American slaves, during the war of 1812. Key was a slaveholder, who problematically put down abolitionists and then later freed his slaves and somewhat promoted abolition. It’s a weird and convenient story, which I don’t have the details to.

OK, now is the part where I tell you something pretty unbelievable that I discovered about Key’s house. It was lost…by…the National Park Service. They dismantled it brick by brick in 1947 to make way for a highway with the intent to reconstruct it somewhere else…and then they completely lost it. To this day, it has not been found. There has been congressional inquiry, press coverage, and attempts to find it in all manner but the Key house has never been found/recovered! WEIRD! You can read more about it from an online book published online by the NPS themselves here.

Near the site where the house once stood, now sits a small park dedicated to Francis Scott Key. It contains a statue of him, a lattice-topped circular colonnade, and faded/scratched up waysides about Key and the Star Spangled Banner. It sits directly next to the Key Bridge and just above the C&O Canal, which caused Key quite a headache when it was opened. Basically, there was a lot of activity in his former back yard, and I do not believe he was very happy about it.

The C&O Canal and the Key Bridge

The Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal is a massive canal that runs from Cumberland, MD to Washington DC. The canal runs 184.5 miles South from Cumberland, cutting through the hills, mountains, and the Potomac Gorge all the way to our nation’s capital. I am being extra precise about the mileage, because it holds a personal meaning for me and my wife. We have biked every-single-mile of the canal AND the abutting Great Allegheny Passage (GAP) Trail, which runs 150 miles from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, MD.

The canal was used 1830-1924 to annoy Francis Scott Key and transport goods along-side the Potomac River, which would not be able to accommodate commercial traffic for certain sections. There is much published about this business venture, and there are books and books about all aspects of the C&O Canal, so I’m not going to go too deep into it. The canal runs through historic Georgetown and winds its way through canal locks and streets all the way back out to the Potomac River just South of the Thompson Boat Center in Washington DC.

When the Canal was in operation, a large aqueduct was built to carry traffic OVER the Potomac river to ANOTHER canal in present-day Arlington, VA. The canal was called the Alexandria Canal, and it took those canal boats to…yeah you guessed it. That GIANT aqueduct eventually became a victim of the era of its construction. They installed a road ON TOP of it. Then after years of disuse and annoying ice damming on the river, it was finally decided that the disused aqueduct would be removed and replaced with a more modern bridge, which could accommodate more contemporary needs. Something fascinating about the time: all around the area where Arlington and greater Alexandria are today were fields and farms! There were no buildings! Rosslyn, VA - grass and trees, that’s it! The only remnants of the dismantled aqueduct are the stone abutment structures on either side of the river. I stopped while on the C&O Canal to take a picture of what remains there. Today, it seems to be a gathering place for people to smoke marijuana while looking at the river. Trippy?

Bridge construction began in 1916 by the Army Corps of Engineers. Two concrete plants were constructed near the site in order to provide the MASSIVE amount of concrete that would be needed to complete this huge and expensive bridge. One plant delivered concrete by means of a ropeway conveyer to the workers on the bridge. Have you ever been in one of those bucket ski-lifts? Imagine that. That’s how they were sending concrete up to the workers from the shore. Another concrete plant was constructed MID-RIVER. Yes, it sat in the middle of the river! They floated it out into the river, and then sunk it down to the riverbed! Amazing!

The bridge project was so expensive that it ran out of money, and the architect had to go back to congress to ask for an additional 1.1 million dollars in order to finish the bridge. Now, people who work in budget (like my wife) would say… “1.1 million dollars? That’s a steal!” And they would be right in today’s terms, but that was a lot of money in 1920! Finally in 1923 the bridge was completed, opened, and turned over to Washington DC by the federal government.

The bridge saw additional renovations, additions, and adjustments in 1939, 1955, 1987, 2014, and 2016. Today, it still stands, spanning the River between Rosslyn, VA and Georgetown, and it serves automotive, pedestrian, and bicycle traffic.

So, earlier I told you that I stopped on the C&O Canal trail and took a picture of the aqueduct ruins, but I didn’t necessarily stop there on purpose. Somewhere along the way, I punctured my tire and developed a slow leak, which became apparent on the C&O Canal Trail. After almost taking a few mouthfuls of the hard canal trail gravel, I pulled over to discover a full-flat tire. No problem! I come prepared! I whipped out my extra tube, tire lever, CO2 cartridge, and bike pump, and I got to work replacing the tube. My small pump is not the most amazing thing (I’m thinking about replacing it) but it was enough to supplement the CO2 to get me to a wimpy 60 PSI. That would allow me to limp the 15 miles back home, until I could use my really good bike pump. I pushed hard and got the bike home, and then I proceeded to mow the lawn! Should I count THOSE miles too? :-)

Thanks for coming along with me!