Tiber Creek

Coordinates: 38°53′26″N 77°02′21″W / 38.8906675°N 77.0391435°W / 38.8906675; -77.0391435
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Tiber Creek
  • Tyber Creek
  • Goose Creek
National Archives at College Park
White Lot during the war, Washington D.C. Shows Tiber River, now "B" St., c. 1860–1865.
EtymologyTiber River in Rome, Italy
Location
CountryU.S.
DistrictDistrict of Columbia
CityWashington, D.C.
Physical characteristics
Source 
 • locationShaw neighborhood
 • coordinates38°54′56″N 77°01′13″W / 38.9155556°N 77.0202778°W / 38.9155556; -77.0202778[1]
Mouth 
 • location
National Mall
 • coordinates
38°53′26″N 77°02′21″W / 38.8906675°N 77.0391435°W / 38.8906675; -77.0391435[1]
Basin features
River systemPotomac River

Tiber Creek or Tyber Creek, originally named Goose Creek, is a tributary of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. It was a free-flowing creek until 1815, when it was channeled to become part of the Washington City Canal. Presently, it flows under the city in tunnels, including under Constitution Avenue NW.

History

Landscape showing a train crossing Tiber Creek, northeast of the Capitol (not pictured) in Washington, DC in 1839

Originally named Goose Creek, it was renamed during the late 1600s by settler Francis Pope, who owned a 400-acre (1.6 km2) farmstead along the banks of the creek. Dubbing his land "Rome", Pope renamed the creek after the Italian city's river.[2]

Using the original Tiber Creek for commercial purposes was part of

Alexander "Boss" Shepherd joined the D.C. Board of Public Works in 1871, he and the Board engaged in a massive, albeit uneven, series of infrastructure improvements, including grading and paving streets, planting trees, installing sewers and laying out parks. One of these projects enclosed Tiber Creek and the Washington City Canal. A German immigrant engineer named Adolf Cluss, also on the Board, is credited with constructing a tunnel from Capitol Hill to the Potomac "wide enough for a bus to drive through to put Tiber Creek underground."[5][6]

Many of the buildings on the north side of Constitution Avenue apparently are built on top of the creek, including the

Ronald Reagan Building (1990–98), the engineers diverted the water. The dewatering then reduced the water level underneath the IRS building which caused the wooden piers to lose stability and part of the IRS building foundation to sink.[citation needed
]

A

lock keeper's house from the Washington branch of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal remains at the southwest corner of Constitution Avenue and 17th Street, NW, near the former mouth of Tiber Creek, and the western end of the Washington City Canal.[8][9][10]

According to General James Wilkinson's memoirs, "I may be excused for mention another incident, which deeply interested [...] my family. My father, to preserve his health and property, purchased 500 acres of land lying on the Tyber and Potomack, which probably comprises the President's house; but at the time, about 1762, the present seat of government was considered so remote from the early settlements of the province, that my mother objected to the removal on accounts of the distance, and my father transferred the property to Thomas Johns, esq. a friend and contemporary, of his neighborhood, to whose family it proved an auspicious contract; but in this case, the benefactor did not long enjoy the prosperity he had promoted."[11]

Presently, the stream flowing under the city is often referred to as Tiber Creek though its common past with the Canal is acknowledged.[12]

See also: Washington City Canal
  • Tiber/Goose Creek around 1800, and the modern shorelines of the Potomac River
    Tiber/Goose Creek around 1800, and the modern shorelines of the Potomac River
  • Andrew Ellicott's revision of L'Enfant's Plan, showing Washington City Canal
    Andrew Ellicott's revision of L'Enfant's Plan, showing Washington City Canal
  • Survey map showing Goose Creek running along North Capitol Street in 1855
    Survey map showing Goose Creek running along North Capitol Street in 1855

Location and Course

It lay southeast of then

Georgetown, Maryland, amid lands that were selected for the City of Washington, the new capital of the United States.[13] Presently this land is the National Mall
.

Several small streams flowed from the north and south meeting at the base of Capitol Hill then heading west to flow into the Potomac River near Jefferson Pier. The overall course of the creek was kept when the Canal was built during 1815.

References

  1. ^ a b "Tiber Creek (historical)". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. April 1, 1993. Retrieved December 18, 2019.
  2. ^ "Washington Was Originally Named Rome, Maryland". Ghosts of DC. February 11, 2014. Retrieved December 23, 2021.
  3. ^ "Original Plan of Washington, D.C." U.S. Library of Congress. Accessed 2009-09-16.
  4. ^ Cornelius W. Heine (1953). "The Washington City Canal." Records of the Columbia Historical Society of Washington, D.C. 53-56 (1953-56) 1-27. Now called Historical Society of Washington, DC. Archived 2009-12-07 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ German-American Heritage Society of Washington, D.C. Accessed 2009-09-16.
  6. ^ "The Tiber Creek Sewer Flush Gates, Washington, D.C.", Engineering News and American Railway Journal, February 8, 1894.
  7. ^ Goldreich, Samuel (1998). "Bistro Bis succeeds Capitol Hill pub as welcoming lunch option." Washington Times. 1998-10-12.
  8. ^ dcMemorials.com. Plaque beside the Lockkeeper's House marking the former location in Washington, D.C. Accessed 2009-09-16.
  9. ^ HMdb.org: The Historical Marker Database. "Lock Keeper’s House Marker." Accessed 2009-09-16.
  10. ^ Coordinates of lock keeper's house: 38°53′31″N 77°02′23″W / 38.8919305°N 77.0397498°W / 38.8919305; -77.0397498 (Lockkeeper's house from Washington branch of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal)
  11. ^ Memoirs of My Own Times, General James Wilkinson. Pg 9.
  12. ^ What you’d see in Washington’s Tiber Creek sewer — if you dared to go - The Washington Post - John Kelly - August 28, 2013
  13. ^ "The Mysterious Mr. Jenkins of Jenkins Hill". October 10, 2018. Archived from the original on October 10, 2018. Retrieved October 22, 2020.

Further reading

External links

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