Dupont Circle

—Diverse Visions / One Neighborhood —

Before the city built a bridge over Rock Creek at P St., this area was a favorite fording place. In fact, it was here that the Baltimore Light Dragoons and French units led by Lafayette, Count Rochambeau and Duc De Lauzan crossed Rock Creek during the American Revolution. A low-level covered bridge crossed the creek from 1855 until 1871, when Georgetown and Washington jointly constructed a $43,000 metal truss bridge. A horse-drawn trolley of the Metropolitan Railroad Company ran west from Dupont Circle across the P St. Bridge into Georgetown. The present double arched masonry bridge was built in 1935 and renovated in 2004.
The elegant Dumbarton or "Buffalo Bridge" that carries Q St. over Rock Creek was built in 1914-15 to the designs of Glenn and Bedford Brown. The bridge is embellished with a series of masonry heads modeled on Sioux chief Kicking Bear as well as two large bronze buffalos (above) by sculptor Alexander Phimister Proctor (1860-1950)Fire Fact | April 1, 1940Box 345 sounded for fire at 2131 O St. NW. The four-alarm fire at an old stable converted to apartments killed three.Fire Department information and images courtesy of Capitol Fire MuseumArtist | Jody BergstresserThe artist's comments have been vandalized and are unreadable.
Sidebar:Fire
Alarm Boxes such as this one (originally painted red) were installed in the District after the Civil War. Telegraphs transmitted the box number (top) to a fire alarm center. This system was used until the 1970s when the boxes were converted to a telephone system. By the 1990s, the callbox system had been replaced by the 911 system and was abandoned.

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The first houses south and west of Dupont Circle
Dewi Saraswati
Indonesian Embassy/Walsh-McLean Mansion
James G. Blaine Mansion Historical
Mahatma Gandhi Memorial
Lajos (Louis) Kossuth
The Society of the Cincinnati
Theodore Roosevelt
Lajos (Louis) Kossuth
2019 Q Street NW

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