What I saw was this:
It’s a bridge that leads directly to – the side of a building?! The attached plaque (photo below) offers a very nice explanation for the bridge’s existence. But you don’t have to be a genius to notice two things: 1) it is sturdier than necessary for a mere footbridge over Maine Avenue, and, 2) it was certainly not “built in 2004” but is much older than that.
When you walk to the far end of the bridge, and look back, another thing becomes evident; at some point, this was a spur of the rail line (to the left in the photo below) that runs adjacent to the building at the end of the bridge to nowhere.
A quick peek at Google Maps confirmed my suspicion:
View Larger Map
I was sure there must be an interesting story, but I saved this in the back of my mind in the brain file labeled "Things I Should Check Out One Day When I Have the Time and Inclination." The file is enormous.
Fast forward a couple of weeks, and, oddly enough, I stumble across a passage in the book I am reading - "An Army at Dawn" by Rick Atkinson - that describes President Roosevelt's trip to Casablanca for a high level conference in January of 1943. The need for secrecy, combined with the president's inability to negotiate stairs, led them to depart from a hidden location. From the book:
At 10:30 P.M. on Saturday, January 9, 1943, the presidential limousine rolled through the White House gates and turned south past the rime-glazed Ellipse and the Washington Monument. Only four blocks from the executive mansion, the car veered down a guarded ramp on the east side of Fourteenth Street and vanished beneath the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The new presidential rail coach, Ferdinand Magellan, stood on a secret spur built two months earlier to allow secure shipments of newly printed paper money from the government presses overhead.
A little more searching produced an article from 1995 on American Heritage.com (Link HERE) describing, among other things, the beginning of the president's trip:
On Saturday, January 9, 1943, at about 10:30 P.M., the President, Hopkins, and the presidential physician Ross T. McIntire boarded a five-car train on a secret siding behind the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
Then, on a buried page on the Bureau of Engraving and Printing website (Link HERE):
Also during World War II, then President Franklin Roosevelt had a very unique use for the Bureau's special siding and loading platform located in the basement of the Bureau's Annex Building. Because it was very difficult for the President to climb stairs, when he was scheduled to travel by train, the Presidential railroad car was shuttled onto the Bureau's siding and the President was driven by car to the Bureau where he was able to board his private car directly from the loading platform.
Could it be?
Another check of Google Maps reveals this:
View Larger Map
The bridge to nowhere is visible as a white line pointing toward the building next to the "Maine Ave SW" label just above East Potomac Park. Immediately north of that is a crumby old parking lot. North of that is a building adjacent to D Street (the one that looks like it has eight black rectangles). Want to guess what that building is? The Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
A little more searching produced this:
[Image courtesy of historicaerials.com]It would seem that the bridge to nowhere that was "built in 2004" existed when this aerial photo was taken in 1949. It's hard to tell from the photo if there were tracks on it, but, if there were, they disappear under the building that was there at the time. Also, it appears that, by 1949, there were multiple short side-tracks from this spur, all ending in what is now a parking lot.
Ahh, sweet mysteries of life!
One thing that you can't tell from these photos is that there are changes in elevation here. The beautiful circular plaza at the end of Maryland Avenue (visible in the Google Maps photo above the 1949 photo) is probably 50 feet higher than the parking lot just to the west of it. The existing track still goes under that plaza and emerges on the other end just beyond Twelfth Street.
Look closely at the modern day Google Maps photo - where D Street intersects Fourteenth Street, there is a long, narrow concrete building running parallel to D Street, just across from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, along the northern edge of the parking lot. The building, with the same two short, verticle lines splitting it into three sections, is also visible in the 1949 photo. Upon close examination, it is obviously something that was meant to accommodate railroad cars.
[This view taken from the Maryland Avenue Plaza looking down]More searching online found a photograph (below) of the same structure - taken from ground level, and at a different angle - showing that, indeed, there were railroad tracks that have since been removed. I'm not sure when this image was taken, but, judging by the appearance of the front end of the Dodge truck on the left, it wasn't too long ago.
[Image courtesy of clouse.org]If you look east from in front of this structure, the paved ramp and what would have been the tracks now lead... nowhere (photo below). But this MUST be the "guarded ramp on the east side of Fourteenth Street."
If the rail cars came in from the east, as it would appear looking at this photo, this track must have connected with the main track somewhere.
I went to the east, and stood on top of the railroad overpass at L'Enfant Plaza, and looked directly west under Twelfth Street. To serve the ramp at the long concrete structure behind the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the track would have to run parallel to, and directly adjacent to D Street. What do you think I saw from L'Enfant Plaza?
The existing tracks disappear into the tunnel on the left, where they go under the Maryland Avenue plaza, and emerge on the other side. The tunnel on the right contains an old rail bed, and it goes... nowhere. But it does veer off at the correct angle to bring it next to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing building.
When I was there, the tunnel entrance was not accessible as far as I could tell. The entire area is fenced off, and, coincidentally, monitored by cameras (two of which are visible in the lower left corner of the above photo). The area is currently a construction site. Rather than risk arrest for trespassing, or a mugging at the hands of some current resident of the derelict tunnel, I decided to end my investigation for now.
Without even knowing it, initially, I had stumbled upon the remnants of the once-secret rail spur into the Bureau of Engraving and Printing building - the heavily-guarded departure and arrival point for the many journeys of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. I'm not sure how the bridge to nowhere fits into the whole picture, but once I read about Roosevelt's getaway to Casablanca, I was pretty sure it would lead me to the site.
Bear in mind that travel was very different in Roosevelt's day. The rail journey that began in Washington, DC on January 9, 1943 ended in Miami twenty-seven hours later. From there, he boarded a plane bound for the meeting with Churchill, making him the first president to leave the nation during wartime, and the first president ever to fly while in office.
There is no statue or monument near the old ramp and loading dock. There is not even a sign. This is a piece of history you can only find by looking for it. Things like this fascinate me, and I could explore areas like this for hours (if I don't get arrested by the Secret Service). It's part of the history and mystery of Washington DC, and something that (keep your fingers crossed) I can spend a lifetime exploring.
Afterthought: Imagine how many tunnels, structures and God-knows-what-else are under the city that we DON'T know about. Did you ever wonder why you don't see your elected representatives running around the streets near the Capital building on their way to legislative sessions? There is a subway system just for them (Link HERE).
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