The Rain Gardens of the Environmental Protection Agency

Rain Gardens of the Environmental Protection Agency

As I was riding around Downtown D.C. on this bike ride, I found myself riding past the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) headquarters building, which is located in the Woodrow Wilson Plaza at 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue (MAP).  Now, I had never really thought that much about the EPA.  I had heard about it from time to time in the news, most recently in regard to the water contamination and public health crisis that occurred in Flint, Michigan.  But I knew little else.  So I decided to look into it and find out more after my ride.  And I learned the following.

The EPA is an independent executive agency of the Federal government that began in December of 1970 during the Nixon Administration.  The EPA is not a Cabinet department, but the administrator, who is appointed by the president and approved by the Senate, is normally given cabinet rank.  The agency is comprised of just under 14,000 employees, half of whom are engineers, scientists, and environmental protection specialists; while other employees include legal, public affairs, financial, and information technologists.  Employees work at either the headquarters building here in D.C., one of ten regional field offices, or one of the agency’s 27 laboratories located throughout the United States.

The EPA’s mission is the protection of human health and the environment.  They provide technical assistance to support recovery planning of public health and infrastructure, such as waste water treatment plants. The agency conducts environmental assessment, research, and education. It has the responsibility of maintaining and enforcing national standards under a variety of environmental laws, in consultation with state, tribal, and local governments. It delegates some permitting, monitoring, and enforcement responsibility to U.S. states and the federally recognized tribes. EPA enforcement powers include fines, sanctions, and other measures. The agency also works with industries and all levels of government in a wide variety of voluntary pollution prevention programs and energy conservation efforts.

While I was still at the headquarters building during my ride, however, I saw a sign on the agency’s very small grounds.  So I went over to check it out.  So I went over to check it out,  The sign is for an exhibit entitled, “Landscaping with Rain Gardens.”  So I decided to learn more about rain gardens as well.

A rain garden is a depressed area in the landscape that collects rain water from a roof, driveway or street and allows it to soak into the ground.  Most often planted with grasses and flowering perennials, rain gardens can be a cost effective and beautiful way to reduce runoff from property, especially large properties like buildings in cities or parking lots at malls.  Rain gardens can also help filter out pollutants in runoff and provide food and shelter for butterflies, song birds and other wildlife.  Of course it is a little more complex than simply planting a few plants. So the EPA has some informational resources on its website, and I have provided links to that information below.  

So with Spring just beginning, I encourage everyone to also learn about and maybe even plant a rain garden.  It not only helps make natural areas more attractive, but allows us to help offset the impact that our presence and the presence of our homes and other buildings have on the environment.

  

The sign reads, “In front of you is a rain garden, also called a bioretention cell, designed to act as a sponge and to filter stormwater runoff. It has specialty selected soils and plants that are both water and drought tolerant.  Rain gardens are designed to mimic natural processes enforce or meadows where rainfall is evaporated, taken up by plans or drained into the soil.  Rain gardens are simple to build and can be installed and residential yards, schools, parks, parking lots, a long roads – almost anywhere.”

    

    
[Click on the photos to view the full-size versions]

NOTE:  Information and instructions for rain gardens from the EPA website.

•  Rain Gardens, Green Infrastructure
•  Bioretention Illustrated: A Visual Guide for Constructing, Inspecting, Maintaining and
Verifying the Bioretention Practice
•  Water-Smart Landscape Design Tips
•  What To Plant Database for native plants in your area
•  Woody Shrubs for Stormwater Retention Practices
•  Rain Garden Outreach and Communication How-to-Guide

The Daughters of the American Revolution Memorial Garden and Tribute Monument

Memorial Garden Fountain

Patriotically located at 1776 on D Street in northwest D.C.’s Downtown neighborhood (MAP), The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution building is headquarters to a non-profit service organization of women who directly trace their lineage to a soldier or other person involved in the United States’ efforts towards independence.  The headquarters buildings also house:  The DAR Museum, that contains over 30,000 historical relics;  The DAR Library, that includes a collection of genealogical and historical publications for the use of staff genealogists verifying application papers for the organization, and; DAR Constitution Hall, a is a concert hall to house its annual convention of membership delegations.  Founded in 1890, the organization currently has over 185,000 current members in the United States and other countries.

The DAR raises funds a number of historic preservation and patriotic endeavors. For example, they began a practice of installing markers at the graves of Revolutionary War veterans to indicate their service, and adding small flags at their gravesites each Memorial Day. Other activities included commissioning and installing monuments to battles and other sites related to the American Revolution. In addition to installing markers and monuments, DAR chapters have purchased, preserved, and operated historic houses and other sites associated with the war. The DAR also recognizes women patriots’ contributions as well as those of soldiers.

As I was riding past the DAR Headquarters on this bike ride, I decided to stop and explore the grounds. And on the grounds I was able to enjoy a number of memorials and monuments. Among them was the DAR Memorial Garden located on the north side of the main building. The garden features a gated entryway leading to a stone plaza, a number of annual and perennial plantings, as well as benches on which to sit and enjoy the beautiful setting. The Memorial Garden also features the beautiful Mississippi blue-tiled fountain, as a lasting tribute to honor the service, sacrifice and accomplishment of those who comprised the organization throughout its history.

Also in the Memorial Garden is a granite monument, known as The Daughters Tribute, which was placed there in honor of the sacrifice and dedication of the nearly one million women who have sustained the Society and its mission of service. The inscription on the monument reads, “To the women whose patriotic devotion has sustained the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, This Daughter’s Tribute Garden rededicated to honor every member in celebration of the 125th anniversary of the NSDAR, October 11, 2015, Lynn Forney Young, NSDAR President General 2013 – 2016.”  The Daughters Tribute also includes an electronic database, accessed via the National Society’s Digital Donor Wall, which allows for the honoring of DAR members.

Springtime in D.C. is a good time to visit gardens.  And I highly encourage anyone desiring to make a visit to enjoy the city’s springtime beauty to plan and make a list of the gardens that shouldn’t be missed, such as The Mary Livingston Ripley Garden and The the Enid A. Haupt Garden – two of my favorites.  And of course, The United States Botanic Garden.  And now, I recommend The Daughters of the American Revolution Tribute Garden be added to that list.

Daughters Tribute Monument

     
[Click on the thumbnails above to view the full size photos]

New York Avenue Presbyterian Church

New York Avenue Presbyterian Church 

The New York Avenue Presbyterian Church is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church (USA), currently the largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States.  It is located at the intersection of 13th Street and New York Avenue at 1313 New York Avenue (MAP).  It is situated among several tall modern building in D.C.’s Downtown neighborhood.  However, its tall steeple helps it stand out.  And on this bike ride I stopped by and spent a little time there learning more about it.  

The church was formed in 1859-60 but traces its roots to 1803 as the F Street Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church and another congregation founded in 1820 on its current site, the Second Presbyterian Church. After the merger the church was named the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, taking its name from the avenue that separated it from a tannery across the street at that time, and the original church building was constructed in the Colonial Revival style with Italianate details as designed by Architect Edward Haviland. The current church building was built in 1950 and is a replica of the original 19th century building designed by Haviland.  

The church is located four blocks from The White House.  And due to its proximity to the White House, a number of U.S. presidents have attended services there. In fact, eleven sitting presidents have worshiped in either the existing church or the original one, beginning with John Quincey Adams. The others were Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, William Henry Harrison, James K. Polk, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Benjamin Harrison, Dwight D. Eisenhower and, most recently, Richard Nixon. Members of presidents’ cabinets, congressmen and senators, and the Supreme Court justices have also attended over the years. 

Of those who have attended, Abraham Lincoln was the most active and prominent presidential parishioner. President and Mrs. Lincoln first visited the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church shortly after he took office on March 4, 1861 and just after the church’s original building was completed. Lincoln rented a pew for $50 a year, and even had a reserved hitching post outside for the family’s small horse-drawn carriage.  The Lincoln hitching post is still there today.  The family worshiped regularly there during the  Civil War.  And while attending, President Lincoln and the pastor at that time, Rev. Dr. Phineas Densmore Gurley, developed a relationship in which they frequently discussed theology.  Gurley presided over the funeral of Lincoln’s son, William Wallace Lincoln, in 1862, and then over the funeral of President Lincoln himself three years later.  

Later after President Lincoln’s death, the church’s steeple, then the tallest in the city, was destroyed in a storm and rebuilt through the generosity of Mary Harlan Lincoln, widow of the president’s son Robert Todd Lincoln. When the original church building was replaced in the early 1950’s the Lincoln Memorial Tower with its belfry and four-sided clock was disassembled and rebuilt.  Additionally, the bells in steeple tower were a gift to the church in 1929 from Mary Lincoln Isham, one of Lincoln’s granddaughters.  The largest bell bears an inscription in the president’s memory.  And inside the church in addition to the the family pew, there is a Lincoln stained glass window, an early emancipation document, and other memorabilia.

The New York Avenue Presbyterian Church is more than just a building or historic church.  It has remained active over the years, and continues to do so today.  From the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking from the church’s s pulpit to warn about the consequences of the war in Vietnam in the late 1960’s, to voting in 1998 to become a “More Light” congregation and work toward “the full participation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) people in the life, ministry and witness of the church and in society”, to its current online worship services due to the coronavirus pandemic, the church continues to be active in the community.  In fact, approximately 1,200 people currently come to the church building on a weekly basis for a wide range of purposes, including meeting with a tutor in Community Club or a social worker at the McClendon Center, receiving a cup of coffee or an article of needed clothing through the Radcliffe Room ministry for the homeless, attending one of a number of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, or worship with one of the four congregations the church hosts.  The New York Avenue Presbyterian Church is a church that is reformed and always reforming.  

    
[Click on the thumbnails above to view the full size photos]

The Newseum Building

The Newseum

On this bike ride I stopped by the Newseum building, located at 555 Pennsylvania Avenue (MAP) in northwest D.C.’s Downtown neighborhood.  But that’s not anything new.  I have done that hundreds of times before over the years.  That’s because the Newseum had an exhibit entitled “Today’s Front Pages Gallery,” in which it displayed the front pages of dozens of newspapers along the front of its building each day so that passersby on the sidewalk could stop and read them.  So I used to frequently stop and read the headlines and a story or two.  Also, being able to see all the different newspapers together is something I’ve always found it interesting because of how different newspapers from different parts of the country, as well as foreign newspapers, cover the same story so differently.  For example, the way the different newspapers reported the election of Donald Trump in November of 2016 were vastly different.  Similarly, the coverage of the killing of Osama Bin Laden back in 2011 was covered quite differently by different newspapers, especially foreign ones.

After today’s visit, however, I decided it was about time I wrote about it.  I figured if I don’t write about it now, it might soon be too late.  Because the building will soon be known by another name.  Sadly, The Newseum is closed.  And not just temporarily because of the pandemic.  Last December, citing financial difficulties, the Newseum closed down permanently.  However, on May 15, 2020, the Newseum began searching for a new location.  So while the building, purchased by Johns Hopkins University for $372.5 million, will change, hopefully the Newseum won’t when it opens in its new location, wherever that turns out to be.

Capital Harvest on the Plaza Farmers Market

Capital Harvest on the Plaza

During today’s lunch break I rode to the weekly farmer’s market, Capital Harvest on the Plaza (CHoP), located on the Woodrow Wilson Plaza at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue (MAP) in Downtown, D.C.  Actually, instead of “during” today’s lunch break it would be more accurate to say “for” today’s lunch break.  Because I went there to eat lunch at one of the many eateries that sets up as part of the farmer’s market.

In addition to ready-to-eat, farm-fresh edibles and artisanal novelties, the weekly farmers market allows local farmers, artisans, and producers to sell home grown, fresh organic fruits, vegetables, meat, and other locally produced food, as well as flowers and canned and baked goods, at an affordable price.  You can also stop by their information booth and stock up on recipes and tips for maintaining a healthy and socially responsible lifestyle.

The CHoP Farmers Market is open Fridays, spring through fall, from May 3 to November 22, 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., and is accessible via metro by either the Federal Triangle (blue/orange/silver lines) or Metro Center (red/blue/orange/silver lines). Parking is available onsite in the Reagan Building’s underground parking garage.  But, of course, I prefer to ride a bike there.

There are also a number of other good farmer’s markets in the city that are also open during the workweek, including: the U.S. Department of Agriculture Outdoor Farmers Market, located next to the U.S.D.A. Headquarters at 12th and Independence Avenue in southwest D.C. (also open Fridays); the Freshfarm by the White House Market located at 812 Vermont Avenue in northwest, D.C. (open Thursdays); the Penn Quarter Market, located at 801 F Street in northwest D.C. (also open on Thursdays); the Foggy Bottom Market, located at 901 23rd Street in northwest, D.C. (open Wednesdays); the Rose Park Recreation Center Farmers Market, located at 1499 27th Street in Georgetown (also open on Wednesdays), and; the CityCenterDC Market, located at 1098 New York Avenue in northwest, D.C. (open Tuesdays).  There are additional farmers markets throughout the city that are open on the weekends as well.  Now, if I could just find a good farmers market open on Mondays.

[Click on the thumbnails above to view the full size photos]

Earth Day Park

Earth Day Park

During this lunchtime bike ride, I discovered a very small park wedged into a narrow strip of land along 9th Street, stretching from Independence Avenue to C Street (MAP), and situated between the Federal Aviation Administration Building and the U.S. Department of Energy Building.  The land also serves as the roof of  the Interstate-395 Tunnel.  A small sign at the northern end identified it as Earth Day Park.  Having passed by it many times without ever noticing or hearing about it, I decided I needed to find out more.    

It turns out that the park was a combined effort of several government agencies, including the U.S. Energy Department, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the General Services Administration, and the D.C. Department of Transportation.  Apparently enough employees from the adjacent government buildings, including Department of Energy Secretary Hazel R. O’Leary, had gotten tired of seeing the neglect of this weedy, trash-strewn piece of land located adjacent to their buildings.  So contact was made with the General Services Administration, which manages and supports the land and buildings and basic functioning of federal agency facilities, who then coordinated the building of the park with the D.C. Department of Transportation, who owned the land.

Earth Day Park has a number of unusual aspects to it.  As part of the celebration of Earth Day 1994 President Bill Clinton outlined a series of recommendations for Federal agencies to increase “Environmentally and economically beneficial policies on Federal landscaped grounds.”  Earth Day Park embodies these “greening” principles.

The park utilizes solar energy, including an array of photovoltaic cells on top of the sign at the front of the park,  to provide electricity for the lamp posts and lighting.  The park also incorporates the use of different plants.  For example, it uses dwarf ornamental grass instead of lawn perennials and annuals, reducing the need for gasoline powered mowers, edgers and trimmers along with fertilizers and pesticides.  The park’s use of mulch and drought tolerant plant species, as well as the raised beds, allows for moisture to be retained by the soil, thus conserving water.   And the use of regional plant material, adapted to local climate and biological conditions,  provides a unique ecosystem that increases the rate of success of the plants.

And because of the incorporation of these principles, Earth Day Park requires far less maintenance than that of a traditionally developed park, making it a truly “green” park.

[Click on the photos to view the full-size versions]

A Mobile Art Museum

A Mobile Art Museum

As I was riding my bike this afternoon though Downtown D.C., I found myself in an area named City Center (MAP), which is a unique, pedestrian-friendly, 10-acre mixed-use project developed by Hines and Qatari Diar.  The City Center project is home to more than 191,000 square feet of retail stores and restaurants, 520,000 square feet of office space, 458 rental apartment units and 216 condominium units, a 1,550 space parking garage, a public park, a central plaza and pedestrian-oriented streets and alleyways.  Additionally, construction of a 370-room luxury hotel, The Conrad, with 30,000 square feet of additional retail space, is almost complete and expected to open later this year.

But I had been to City Center before, and it was none of these things that captured my attention.  What interested me most during today’s ride was a blue, industrial-looking cargo container set up in the park area of the development.  It was open on one end, and people were going in and out of it.  So naturally I was curious and had to find out what it was and what was going on.  So upon closer inspection I was able to find out that it was a mobile art museum sponsored by CulturalDC, an organization that provides a wide range of programs and services that support artists’ ability to live and work in the city.

The mobile art museum’s sole exhibit is by an artist named Jamea Richmond-Edwards, and is entitled “Stay Fly.”  Richmond-Edwards graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Art degree from Jackson State University in 2004 where she studied painting and drawing. She went on to earn a MFA from Howard University in 2012.  In addition to being an artist, she is also currently an Adjunct Professorial Lecturer in the Art Department of American University here in D.C.

“Stay Fly” is an immersive exhibit that explores black Americana, haute couture and fashion, and status symbols.  Comprised of the some of the artist’s colorful, textured paintings, as well as large and small-scale collages, and some of the artist’s personal designer clothes and items that reflect the personal styles which surrounded the artist as a young woman growing up in Detroit in the 1990’s.  The totality of the exhibit is intended to draw attention to the historical and often complex relationship between Black consumers, capitalism, fashion, luxury goods and personal creativity.

Instead of happening upon it by accident like I did, I recommend you make plans to go experience “Stay Fly.”  The exhibit is open Tuesdays through Saturdays, from 11:00am until 7:00pm, and will be in City Center through April 13th, and admission is free.  And while you’re there, make a day of it and enjoy the rest of City Center’s stores, restaurants, and the uniqueness of the project’s park and open spaces.

[Click on the photos to view the full-size versions]

The Magnolias at the Enid A. Haupt Garden

The Magnolias at the Enid A. Haupt Garden

Today the cherry blossoms here in D.C. begin their “peak bloom.”  Peak bloom is defined by the National Park Service as the day when 70 percent of the cherry blossoms surrounding the Tidal Basin are open.  But the best time to see the cherry blossoms, depending on the weather, is four to seven days after peak bloom.  So I will be posting some photos of this year’s cherry blossoms later in the week.

During this lunchtime bike ride, I went out to see one of the cherry blossoms’ seasonal precursors, magnolia blossoms.  There are many places throughout D.C. where there is an abundance of magnolia trees, such as the U.S. National Arboretum, Rawlins Park, and Lafayette Square Park, to name just a few.  But on this bike ride I stopped by the Enid A. Haupt Garden, located at 1050 Independence Avenue (MAP) in the Southwest portion of D.C.’s Downtown neighborhood. 

The garden is named after Enid Annenberg Haupt, an American publisher and philanthropist who, as an heiress to a family fortune, was able to make significant contributions to her personal causes and interests, including the arts, architectural and historic preservation, and cancer research.  But foremost among her interests and philanthropic endeavors was horticulture.  Her devotion to restoring and maintaining gardens around the country and the world earned Haupt a reputation as “the greatest patron American horticulture has ever known.”

The garden opened on May 21, 1987 as part of the redesigned Smithsonian Castle quadrangle, which was financed by a three-million dollar endowment Haupt provided for its construction and maintenance.  Initially approached with a request that she finance a small Zen garden within the quadrangle, after a review of the plans Haupt said that she was “not interested in putting money into a Zen garden … I’m only interested in financing the whole thing.”

The Haupt Garden is a public garden in the Smithsonian complex.  It is situated on just over four acres between the back of the Castle and Independence Avenue, and features an embroidered parterre in a geometric design of plants and flowers rotated seasonally, an Asian-influenced garden adjacent to the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, and a Moorish-influenced garden adjacent to the National Museum of African Art, and wide brick walks, and 19th-century cast-iron garden furnishings from the Smithsonian Gardens’ Garden Furniture Collection line the perimeter.

But it was the saucer and tulip magnolias that I went to the park to enjoy today.  The magnificent trees do not have the same history and fame as do the cherry trees that line the nearby Tidal Basin, but these magnolias are equal in beauty with their more famous counterparts.  And the aroma of the magnolia blossoms filled the air.  It was a great way to spend the first day of the cherry blossoms’ peak bloom.

 

[Click on the photos to view the full-size versions]

Update (4/4/2019):  What a difference a few days make.  The photo (below) is of the same magnolia trees three days after the first photo (above).  So if you’re going to come see them next year, make sure your timing is right.  The brevity of the magnolia blossoms is similar to that of the cherry blossoms.

The Assassination Site of President Garfield

The Assassination Site of President Garfield

President James A. Garfield was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March 4, 1881, until his death by assassination six and a half months later while waiting to catch a train at the Baltimore and Potomac rail station.  The site where it happened s just a few hundred yards from the 20th President’s official Presidential Memorial in an area of the city that has gone through many changes since the train station’s building and tracks were demolished in 1908 during a redesign of the National Mall.  The National Gallery of Art’s West Building is now located there (MAP).  But one thing stayed the same at the site for the first 137 years after President Garfield’s assassination.  That was the absence of a plaque or historical marker to indicate what happened there on July 2, 1881.  But that recently changed.  So on this bike ride, I went there to see the new historical marker.

When President Garfield was elected in 1880, a man named Charles Julius Guiteau falsely believed he had played a major role in his victory.  He also thought he should be rewarded with a consulship for his efforts in electing the new President.  So he submitted applications to serve in Paris or Vienna, despite the fact he spoke no French or any other  foreign language.  But when the Garfield administration rejected his applications, he decided it was because he was part of the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party, and President Garfield was affiliated with the opposing Half-Breed faction of the party.  Guiteau was so offended at being rejected for a consular position that he decided President Garfield had to die so that Vice President Chester A. Arthur, who was a fellow Stalwart, would succeed him.  He thought this would not only end the war within the Republican Party, but would lead to rewards for fellow Stalwarts, including himself.

As difficult as it is to imagine in today’s political world, the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln was seen as a fluke due to the Civil War, and Garfield, like most people, saw no reason why the president should be guarded.  In fact, the President’s plans and schedule were often printed in the newspapers.  Knowing his schedule and where he would be, Guiteau followed Garfield several times.  But each time his plans to kill the President were frustrated, or he lost his nerve.  Then in the summer of 1881, when the President had been in office for only four months, Garfield decided to take a train trip to New England to escape the swampy summer heat of D.C.  Right after he arrived at the Baltimore and Potomac rail station, Guiteau emerged from where he had been hiding by the ladies’ waiting room and walked up to Garfield and shot him twice, once in the back and once in the arm, with an ivory-handled pistol, a gun he thought would look good in a museum.  Guiteau was quickly apprehended, and as he was led away, he stated, “I did it. I will go to jail for it. I am a Stalwart and Arthur will be President.”

The wounded President was taken upstairs to a private office in the train station, where several doctors examined him.  There they probed the wound with unwashed fingers, another thing that is difficult to imagine today.  At Garfield’s request, he was then taken back to The White House.  The physician who took charge at the train station and then at the White House was Willard Bliss, an old friend of the President’s.  About a dozen physicians, led by Dr. Bliss, were soon probing the wound, again with unsterilized fingers and instruments.

Although in considerable pain despite being given morphine, the President did not lose his sense of humor.  He asked Dr. Bliss to tell him his chances, which Bliss put at one in a hundred. The President then replied, “Well, Doctor, we’ll take that chance.”  In addition to his treatment, Garfield was also being given oatmeal porridge and milk from a cow on the White House lawn for nourishment.  However, he hated oatmeal porridge.  So when he was told that Indian chief Sitting Bull, a prisoner of the U.S. Army, was starving, Garfield initially said, “Let him starve,” but then quickly changed his mind and said, “Oh, no, send him my oatmeal.”

During the President’s treatment, Alexander Graham Bell attempted to locate the bullet with a primitive metal detector.  (The use of X-rays, which likely would have helped the President’s physicians save his life, would not be invented for another fourteen years.)  However, he was unsuccessful.  But they were able to help keep Garfield relatively comfortable in the stifling heat that he had been trying to escape with one of the first successful air conditioning units, which reduced the temperature in the sickroom by 20 degrees.

During the weeks of intensive care after being shot, Garfield would alternately seem to get better and then take turns for the worse.  He developed an abscess around the wound, which doctors probed but most likely only made worse.  He also developed infections that cause him to have a fever of 104 degrees, and he lost a considerable amount of weight.  Eventually, Dr. Bliss agreed to move him to Elberon, part of Long Branch, New Jersey, where his wife had been recovering from an illness at the time her husband was shot.

There, Garfield could see the ocean as officials and reporters maintained what became a death watch. Garfield eventually succumbed to a combination of his injury and his treatment.  On September 18, Garfield asked Almon Ferdinand Rockwell, a friend and business associate who was at his bedside, if he would have a place in history. Rockwell assured Garfield he would, but told him that he still had much work to do.  The President responded, “No, my work is done.”  He died later that night.

According to many medical experts and historians, Garfield most likely would have survived his wounds had Dr. Bliss and the other doctors attending to him had the benefit of modern medical research, knowledge, techniques, and equipment.  In fact, much like President Ronald Reagan after the assassination attempt at The Washington Hilton here in D.C., Garfield would probably also have survived being shot.  Instead, the treatment he received at least contributed, and most likely caused his death.  It is thought that starvation also played a role in President Garfield’s death.

Four presidents have been assassinated while in office.  And two of them occurred here in D.C.  President Lincoln was killed at Ford’s Theater in 1865, and just 16 years later President Garfield was shot by Guiteau less than a thousand yards away from where President Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Boothe.  There were already official markers for President Lincoln at The Petersen House in D.C. where he died, President William McKinley in Buffalo, New York, and President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas.  Now all four sites have been properly recognized.  I’ve now been to the two sites here in D.C.  The other two, however, are a little too far away for a lunchtime bike ride.

   

[Click on the photos to view the full-size versions]

The Thomas Hollowell Ghost Bike

The Thomas Hollowell Ghost Bike

Sadly, during my recent hiatis from my daily lunchtime bike rides, another ghost bike was erected here in D.C.  A ghost bike is a bicycle that is painted white and left as a memorial at a site where a cyclist was fatally injured by a collision with a motor vehicle.  It serves as a reminder of the vulnerability of cyclists.

This most-recent ghost bike was placed at the intersection of Constitution Avenue and 12th Street (MAP), in northwest D.C.’s Downtown neighborhood, to remember a Virginia cyclist named Thomas Hollowell, who was hit and killed at that intersection on September 24, 2018.  He was struck by a speeding car that drove through a red light.  The driver then fled the scene, leaving the 64-year old cyclist dying in the street just steps from his job at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, where he was commuting at the time he was killed.  It is also just a block away from my office.  Almost three weeks later police arrested 20-year-old Phillip Peoples of Suitland, Maryland, and charged him with second degree murder in the death of Hollowell.  A D.C. Superior Court judge ordered Peoples jailed without bond pending trial, where he remains today.

So now that I’m back out riding again for my lunchtime bike rides, I rode to the intersection where Hollowell was killed to see the ghost bike and pay my respects.

Hollowell is the latest of several cyclists or scooter riders to die on D.C. streets in the last year.  The most recent accident prior to Hollowell’s involved 20-year-old Maryland resident named Carlos Alejandro Sanchez-Martin, who was hit and killed by a car in September while riding a scooter through Dupont Circle.  Before that, Jeffrey Hammond Long, was also struck and killed in DuPont Circle while riding his bike.

Ironically, Carol Regier, his wife, shared with those present at the memorial ride during which the ghost bike was placed at the intersection, that “He was very, very interested in coming up with new ideas about how to make cycling more safe.  How to make it so cars could see the bicycles on the road better and how to get the cars to be a little more conscious of the fact that there are other people on the road.”  It is my sincere hope that this happens before there is a need for another ghost bike here in D.C., or anywhere else.

 

[Click on the photos to view the full-size versions]