Evening star., 1937-02-28
By John ClaseH Proctor.
DOWNTOWN section of Wash

~ tt local history Ie!al,.7 and also some soms
Is what was formerly known a!
squares $50, 38l and 382. TheSt
squares, which remained plated a
originally planned for nearly cen
tury and a half. were a few years agr
combined ard turned into one large
square. which is now occupied by tn;
Department Of Justice.
Originally. these squares were
bounded by Ninth street on the cas-
and Tenth street on the west, anC
the area is still so bounded Square
362 was between Constitution anc
Louisiana avenues; square 381, be.
tween Louisiana avenue and c street
and square $50, between C street anc
Pennsylvania avenue. c street anc
Louisiana avenue at this point have
been obliterated, and that part Of
Louisiana avenue which extended from
the court house to Seventh street
has been changed to Indiana avenue
and Louisiana avenue, as at present
indicated on the city map, is a new
designation.
Looking at the Department of JUS
tice Building today, one would have
to stretch his imagination con7ider-
ably to visualize this part OF Wash
ington a hundred years and moro
ago. Indeed, most Of this ground
during the early years of the city'S
history, was covered at times by water
and was largely made up of marsh
land, and only that part south of what
was c street was firm enough to hold
q structure of any kind
One can easily see why this part
of the city was marshy ground, for
in addition to its being fraction
less than IL feet above tideWater, it
was bordered on the south by what
was originally Tiber Creek, and plans
were made as early as 1871 to con-
meet this stream with the James
Creek by means of a canal, so that
boats might enter the city by way
Of the Potomac River, at the mouth
of the Tiber, about where is now
Seventeenth street and Constitution
avenue, and leave by way Of the canal,
which was to empty into the East
ern Branch of the Potomac at Sec
ond street southeast.
WORK on the connecting link was
begun and after the expenditure
of S5,170 1t was abandoned in 1895,
after some $1,000 cubic yards OF
earth had been removed. In this con-
dition it remained until 1910, when,
a new company having been formed,
with Elias B. Caldwell as president
and B. H. Latrobe as engineer, the
work was resumed, and on May 10 of
that year President Madison turned
the first sod for a new beginning
toward its completion.
BY October, 1915, it was pronounced
practicable for loaded boats to pass
through, and its completion was cele-
brated by the board of directors of the
company, who obtained barge and
together with the City Council and
some prominent citizens left the
bridge at Twelfth street and what IS
now Constitution avenue and in half
an hour reached the Eastern Branch,
a distance of 2 miles. The barge was
followed by a similar vessel carrying
the Marine Band
For many years parts of the canal
were unwalled and the tide came up
as far as C street. and from Ninth to
Twelfth street. BY 1887 the canal
had been much improved and had
been walled through its entire course
Its width varied. From the Potomac
to where is now the Archives Build
ing it was $50 feet and in other Sec
tions its width varied from As to 30
feet. Up to 1887 the cost of the canal
had been $225,000, but this was nat
urally greatly increased in subsequent
years. 1t was never success and
was finally filled up in 1879 However,
1t was through this canal that the
massive marble columns, brought
down the Potomac and the Chesa-
peake & Ohio Canal. were conveyed
to the Capitol Tie stone for the
Smithsonian Building was also de-
livered in this way.
THERE was another stream, though
a considerably smaller one, that
contributed its part to the early
marshy condition of the Department
of Justice site, ana which entered
this area on the Avenue side, about
midway between Ninth and Tenth
streets, and emptied into the Tiber.
This stream was made up OF two
branches which became one at about
this point One of these branches
flowed southwark through the block
where stands the department store OF
Woodward & Lothrop and continued
on through the block to the south. to
=. It's destination as indicaaed This
stream was known as Sluice Run and,
though the writer has not seen it
marked on any of the old maps of the
CITY, vet there is excellent evidence 10
prove that there was such a stream,
though it is said to have been formed
principally from surface water in the
Sumner and ice and snow in the
Winter.
The larger of the branches that
flowed through the original squares
to the south of Pennsylvania avenue,
between Ninth and Tenth streets, had
its source in the neighborhood of
Franklin Park, flowed south on
Thirteenth street, crossed, southeast