An East-of-the-River View

—Anacostia Heritage Trail —

Late On The Night Of April 14, 1865, a guard at the other end of the Navy Yard Bridge allowed a young man on horseback to cross, despite a wartime curfew. Unbeknownst to the guard, the rider, John Wilkes Booth, had just shot President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre. Booth was fleeing to the home of Dr. Samuel Mudd in Prince George's County, Maryland, by way of Good Hope Road.

As details of the assassination arrived at the Anacostia police substation days later, so did a rumor that Booth might be hiding out in the area. Officers commenced a hunt for the fugitive, but he was long gone.

The bridge Booth traveled, the first of many at this site, was built in 1820 to allow residents to reach jobs at the Navy Yard. Before then people used the Eastern Branch Bridge at Pennsylvania Avenue. That structure, which dated to 1797, was blown up in August 1814 as the British marched toward Washington bent on its destruction during the War of 1812. Unfortunately the British succeeded in reaching the capital via Bladensburg Road instead. General William H. Winder, commander of the defenses of Washington and Baltimore, ordered the destruction of the Navy Yard as well, to keep it out of British hands.

This intersection was Anacostia's first commercial center. From here businesses spread east on Good Hope Road
and south along Nichols Avenue. Among the earliest establishments were Robert Martin's general store and post office, his Farmers' and Drovers' Hotel, David Haines's blacksmith and wheelwright shop, Duvall's Tavern, and George Pyle's grocery. Out Good Hope Road, greenhouses and a brick factory provided local jobs.

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