Overbeck Lecture: Bridges of Washington, D.C.: A History

About this event

The history of DC is also the history of its bridges. In the late 1790s, the first bridges, now completely gone, connected the new Federal City to the outside world. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, more and bigger crossings arose to support industry, allow the expansion of suburbs, commemorate cultural and civic leaders, and enhance the aesthetics of the District. Although the city abandoned civic-minded constructions for utilitarian highway monoliths in the mid-twentieth century, recent years have seen a shift toward walkability and beauty instead of brute utility. Using the city’s bridges as an index of the times, author and DC native, Bob Dover will explore how the construction, renovation, and demolition of bridges from the mid-1700s to today, including those adjacent to Capitol Hill, have reflected population growth, industries, wars, aesthetic movements, and other historical developments in our Nation’s Capital.

Geologist and Washington native Bob Dover is the author of Bridgespotting: A Guide to Bridges that Connect People, Places, and Times (2022) and Bridges of Washington, D.C.: A History & Guide (2026).

Reservations can be made starting October 26. Seating will begin at 6:30 pm on November 16; the power point presentation will begin at 7 pm, followed by a question and answer period.

From Ruth Ann Overbeck Capitol Hill History Project