To leave the DelMarVa Peninsula, Route 50 crosses the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, which connects densely populated areas such as Washington D.C. and Baltimore with Atlantic beaches and other resort destinations.
When it was built in 1952, the bridge was “the world’s longest continuous over-water steel structure” at 4.3 miles. Demand soon overwhelmed the bridge’s capacity, and a second span was completed in 1973.
Demand still overwhelms the bridge.
Traffic leaving the shore
On a typical Saturday morning in early August, traffic was stop-and-go for about a mile approaching the bridge from the east. Those cars were full of people, like me, who were trying to leave the shore. Lots more — those who spent a last morning at the beach for just one more swim — would be coming behind us.
Traffic heading to the shore
This photo shows the people who were heading toward the shore on Route 50, probably to replace us at the beach. Their traffic was backed up perhaps two miles. It would probably get worse.
What to do? The Maryland Transportation Authority says the best times to cross the bridge (during the summer, in the vicinity of a weekend) are Thursday and Friday before 10:00 AM and after 10:00 PM.
Perhaps that schedule doesn’t fully satisfy you. If not, you’ll be glad to know there have been years of official studies on how to develop a more comprehensive solution.
Annapolis, the capitol of Maryland, is one of four state capitols on Route 50. (Jefferson City, Missouri; Carson City, Nevada; and Sacramento, California are the others.)
The Maryland State House, as this building is called, was first used in 1772, and the Continental Congress met in it in 1793-94. It the oldest state capitol building in continuous use.
The dome you see at its top is said to be the largest wooden dome in the U.S. built without the use of nails.
Route 50 enters Washington, D.C. from Maryland and passes through some struggling spots. The contrast with the city’s government buildings and public areas is striking.
A homeless camp on Route 50, seven blocks from the Capitol buildingThe Capitol, as seen from Route 50Lawn care at the White House, from Route 50 (Constitution Avenue)
Near the west end of D.C., Route 50 follows Constitution Avenue next to the National Mall.
Constitution Avenue (Route 50) in Washington, D.C.
If you’re lucky, you can park right on the street (early morning is best). Walk for a minute or two into the National Mall, and here’s what you’ll see.
The Washington MonumentThe Lincoln Memorial
The city that houses these government buildings and monuments is a stand-alone federal government entity, not part of any state. The citizens who live here possess limited political powers. They have no voting representation in the U.S. Congress, and Congress can overrule decisions of local officials. How did this situation come to be?
It all started because soldiers who had served in the American army during the Revolutionary War wanted their money.
The soldiers had not been paid for their military service, so in June 1783 they sent a message to the Continental Congress (at the time called “the United States in Congress Assembled”) asking for payment. Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, ignored them.
A few days later, in what is called the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, some 400 soldiers blocked the doorways to Congress’s meeting hall and refused to let the delegates leave. The soldiers only relented when Alexander Hamilton convinced them that Congress would act on their request.
That very evening, Congress did act, but not in the way the soldiers had hoped. Instead of authorizing back pay, the delegates voted, in secret, to ask the state of Pennsylvania to protect them from any future mutinies. Further, they threatened to move out of Philadelphia, if Pennsylvania didn’t do it.
Pennsylvania not only didn’t do it, it refused outright to do it. Miffed, Congress decamped for Princeton, New Jersey, and declared Princeton, not Philadelphia, to be the provisional capitol of the United States.
Congress did do one typically Congressional thing regarding the mutiny, though. It passed a resolution calling for an investigation.
Five years later, in 1788, James Madison proposed the establishment of a national capital. It would be controlled by the federal government, so Congress wouldn’t have to rely on a state government to provide security. This time, Congress did act. It added a clause to the U.S. Constitution providing for the establishment of a federal district that would house the U.S. Government.
The Constitution, however, did not specify where that district should be. In the course of arriving at the physical location that became Washington, D.C., the federal government moved no less than five times. First to Princeton, as we have already seen, and then to Annapolis, Maryland; Trenton, New Jersey; New York City; and, once more, to Philadelphia.
Eventually, Congress decided on a district “not exceeding ten miles square” to be located on land along the Potomac River belonging to the states of Virginia and Maryland. These states resisted giving up their property at first, but relented in 1790 when the Federal government, led by Madison, Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson, offered to pay Revolutionary War debts which Virginia and Maryland still owed.
A committee (this was Congress, after all) named the new city for George Washington, and called the district in which the city lay, Columbia. Columbia is the feminine form of the name Columbus, and at the time it was often used to refer to the United States itself.
Congress moved in on November 17, 1800.
As it happened, the land occupied by the District of Columbia occupied land that included already existing towns, including Alexandria, Virginia, and Georgetown, Maryland.
But wait a minute, you say — as you cross the Potomac on Route 50, leaving D.C. and entering Virginia — Alexandria is right down the river, and it’s in Virginia.
That’s because, in an act that would boggle the minds of many Congressional observers today, in 1846 Congress gave back Virginia’s land. But it did not return Maryland’s, and a look at a map will show that D.C.’s boundary on the Virginia side is the curves of the Potomac, while on the Maryland side its boundary is the straight lines and right angles of a district that had been “ten miles square.” This is why today Georgetown is a neighborhood in Washington, D.C., while Alexandria is a town in Virginia.
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All ph0tos by the author. The map was generated using Google Maps.
Route 50 passes the White House on Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C. We tend to think of the White House as it currently exists, but of course it has evolved:
At first, White House cooks relied on an open hearth fireplace in the kitchen. In 1801, Thomas Jefferson began enjoying food cooked on a White House stove.
The British burned the White House during the war of 1812.
The six presidents who preceded Andrew Jackson did not have running water in the White House. It was installed in 1833, during Jackson’s administration.
In 1848, the first gas lamps were used in the White House. Before that, President James K. Polk and his predecessors used candles and oil lamps to read and to get about during the night.
The first White House telephone was installed in 1879. To reach President Rutherford B. Hayes, you could call his telephone number: 1.
Benjamin Harrison brought the first Christmas tree into the White House in 1889.
William Howard Taft converted the White House stables into a garage in 1909, so he would have a place to park his new official cars.
In the past, the White House hosted some big parties:
In 1829, Andrew Jackson’s inauguration party drew 6,000 people, way more than he expected. Food ran out, and to get people out of the White House, the staff mixed whiskey and orange juice in washtubs and put them outside on the back lawn. Jackson himself escaped through a window, decamping to a hotel for the night.
In 1911, William Howard Taft celebrated his 25th wedding anniversary with 8,000 of his closest friends. Several orchestras played, and electric lights in the trees made for a romantic atmosphere.
And the White House was not immune to slavery:
Enslaved persons helped build the White House before President John Adams and his wife, Abigail, moved in, in 1800.
The British burned the White House in 1814, during the War of 1812. Before that happened, President James Madison’s wife, Dolly, removed and hid Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of George Washington. At the same time, enslaved persons removed other items from the White House. They then brought them back after the war.
Enslaved persons are known to have slept in the White House, including during Andrew Jackson’s tenure.
During James Buchanan’s presidency (1857 – 1861), his administration included both Northerners and Southerners. During White House dinners, the two sides had violent arguments over abolition. As a result, and not from a noble impulse, Buchanan removed enslaved persons from the White House.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a short walk from Route 50 (Constitution Avenue) in Washington, D.C.
Designed by Maya Lin, it was controversial when it was completed in 1982, but it is still powerful today. As you walk down a sloping walkway, the names of those who died in the war rise before your eyes.
Visitors at the Vietnam Memorial
The photo above shows a group of tourists who visited one summer morning. They are listening to a docent, a veteran of the war, who is explaining how additional names are occasionally added to the wall, even now.
Just a few of more than 58,000 names
The surface of the wall is polished, and you might see your reflection among the names of the dead.
U.S. 50 enters Virginia in the suburbs of Washington D.C., and then passes through Virginia horse country on the way to Winchester, Virginia. West of Winchester, it follows a route surveyed by George Washington, himself.
The buildings in the photo above are part of Fort Myer, a U.S. Army post in Arlington, Virginia. They face Route 50, just west of Washington, D.C.
Behind the buildings, there is a parade ground. On September 17, 1908, Orville Wright took off from there to demonstrate a Wright Brothers airplane to the U.S. Army. An Army observer, Lieutenant Thomas E. Selfridge, rode with him.
The plane developed mechanical problems while in flight. It crashed, and Lieutenant Selfridge became the first fatality ever in a powered airplane.
In 1909, the Wrights gave it another try at Fort Myer. Their new plane needed to pass certain tests before the Army would buy it, and the final test was a ten-mile cross-country flight carrying a passenger. This flight went better than Lieutenant Selfridge’s. It was successfully completed, at an average speed of 42.5 miles per hour.
The Army paid the Wrights $30,000 for their plane.
Virginia’s horse country communities on Route 50 have been concerned because the increasingly busy highway is the main street of their towns.
To maintain (or reclaim) a sense of being a community rather than a pit stop, they have adopted the strategy of traffic calming. This approach encourages drivers to slow down and drive in a manner more appropriate to a community than a highway.
Some traffic calming tactics are shown in these photos from the towns of Upperville and Aldie, Virginia.
The top photo shows paving stone warning strips placed on approaches to the towns. (I know they’re hard to see, but they’re out there, just before and after the car.) These strips cause tires to rumble when they’re crossed, to alert drivers that something different is coming up.
A traffic calming island
This photo shows a landscaped median. It’s intended to block sight lines and force drivers to make a slight sideways movement, causing them to slow down.
Traffic calming on Route 50
This photo shows paving stones used at an intersection in one of the towns. The main road in the photo is Route 50, and the change in pavement is intended to encourage drivers to slow down, both visually and by the sound tires make driving over it.
These ideas and others have been in place for several years. Are they effective? I don’t know what the research says, but they work on me.
On June 21, 1863, near what is now a prosaic Route 50 intersection east of Winchester, Virginia (shown above), Confederate general J.E.B. Stuart skirmished with Union forces.
He prevailed in that minor battle, and his success gave him the freedom to move north across the Potomac River to Gettysburg, where he joined General Robert E. Lee.
Confederate and Union armies met at Gettysburg from July 1 to July 3, 1863, and the Confederate forces were defeated. Many regard that defeat as the turning point in the Civil War.
The site of a minor, yet important, Civil War skirmish
