Here's part 2 of my Washington photo series, focusing on historic Georgetown:
This is the big intersection in the Georgetown area: where M Street crosses Wisconsin Avenue. Over to the right is the historic Riggs Bank Farmers & Merchants branch, now owned by PNC Bank.
Here's a better look at that old Riggs Bank branch. I love this building!
This is the Urban Outfitters on M Street. It used to be Woolworth's, and though it's not an exact restoration, there are still some Woolworth elements left in the design.
The Old Stone House, one of the oldest structures in Northwest Washington.
An old theater sign along Wisconsin Avenue
Georgetown Park Mall
Inside Georgetown Park
Sidewalk dining at Dean & Deluca
This is the big intersection in the Georgetown area: where M Street crosses Wisconsin Avenue. Over to the right is the historic Riggs Bank Farmers & Merchants branch, now owned by PNC Bank.
Here's a better look at that old Riggs Bank branch. I love this building!
This is the Urban Outfitters on M Street. It used to be Woolworth's, and though it's not an exact restoration, there are still some Woolworth elements left in the design.
The Old Stone House, one of the oldest structures in Northwest Washington.
An old theater sign along Wisconsin Avenue
Georgetown Park Mall
Inside Georgetown Park
Sidewalk dining at Dean & Deluca
I used to whip and dodge through the traffic on M Street; then during the 10-second delay at the light, hang a hard right onto Wisconsin ahead of traffic only to weave and dodge more parked cars and etc.
ReplyDeleteAs a seasoned biker, the thing I found seriously intriguing about D.C. was that traffic was completely OBLIVIOUS to you and you could die as far as motorists were concerned. But the streets were so wide that there was plenty of room to play....in the summer the asphalt became a major topographical challenge as it melted into pot-craters, year after year after year......
This truly, though ironically, remains my favorite cycling town.....
Thanks for the fun pix. Much hasn't changed.
I remeber going on a trip to Washington with my high school French class back in the day. We were trying to cross the street to the Hard Rock Cafe across from the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building and all of us, who barely had crossed a busy street out in Bumfuck noticed that the cars never truly stopped, even when the light was red. They'd just slow down a little. Even New Yorkers will pause for a second, but not the Washingtonians. I learned pretty quickly that stuff about looking both ways before crossing the street made some sense.
ReplyDeleteGeorgetown is a lot like that from what I noticed, though now all the crosswalks have a countdown timer on M Street that tells you legally how long before someone tries to hit you. With the bike it sounds like it would have been even wilder.
Dodging traffic was fun though. I want to go back already.
Ummm: the other thing in D.C. is: 'pedestrians don't have the right-of-way.' This may have changed, but effectively means that you can never cross the street if there are drivers attempting a right turn. Seemed irritating as hell, but now that I am a driver (ugh), I realize that pedestrians (in my more progressive municipality) can clog up crosswalks infinitely so a right turn can never be executed, or anyone behind s/he who attempts to do so will lose the light.............
ReplyDeleteIt seems that countdown timer is a feature that allows for some latitude amongst the ped's before they legally die.
This is why guerrilla cycling was so fun: if the only persons who had rights were drivers, then they could deal with near-misses with cyclists. And I was quicker. And all the rangy, middle-aged bike messengers could have calligraphied my ass in motion and turned me into a hallmark card: I was so slow compared to them.
So, yes: dodging is the name of the game. Especially if you can't get slammed through as a racist/misogynist supreme court justice...
Well that explains the honking.
ReplyDeleteMost drivers at the major intersections yielded the right of way because of the tremendous amount of people on the streets for the holiday weekend, but on the smaller streets the drivers definately ruled the day.
;-)
I dig the Urban Outfitters that still looks like a Woolworth's.
ReplyDeleteThe best part of the Urban Outfitters is the part I couldn't photgraph due to the weekend crowds walking over it.
ReplyDeleteRight at the doorway, they left the orginal mosaic tile from the Woolworth's entry, complete with the letter W in a elongated diamond, which was Woolworth's symbol for years. I want to go back just to shoot that shot!