Tenleytown neighborhood/Fort Reno - Washington, DC - January 2015

One beautiful weekend afternoon we went water tower hunting in DC. There are not many but we found a historic tower in the Tenleytown neighborhood. This area is the highest point in DC at 409 feet above sea level. Because of that, it was turned into a fort during the Civil War. Lincoln visited the fort on July 11, 1864, and later that day Confederate troops advanced on it from the north. Calvary from the fort engaged the advancing enemy and the fort's cannons shelled the enemy nearly four miles away. Read more here on page 11 from Cultural DC.

Thirty years after this fight the city removed the fort remnants and constructed an underground water reservoir and the red-brick water tower. It took some digging but I read that the sandstone castle is the pumping station.

Water tower and pumping station (castle)

However, you'll notice three structures on the hill in the picture below - a second red-brick tower with white on top (far left). Believe it or not, that is actually a cold-war era communications tower called "cartwheel" meant to look like a water tower. It is now operated by the Federal Aviation Administration for civil communication needs. Read more here. 

Tower on far left is a cold-war communications tower

Christmas 2013

It is embarrassing that it has taken me a year to put up a water tower picture from last Christmas.

We made a quick trip to Raleigh over Christmas and grabbed one of the many Richmond, VA water towers. It was a great sunset view.

Ever been to the National Christmas Tree in DC? It has a really big model train around it. And every model train must have a water tank. Not quite a typical water tower pic but I couldn't resist. 

Water towers from around the DMV (District, Maryland, Virginia)

It cracks me up when radio stations, newspapers, etc. refer to our area as the DMV. I always think of the Division of Motor Vehicles. They could have done MDV or VDM, but no - DMV. It also is very close to DMZ - De Militarized Zone which also doesn't have a good connotation in my mind. Be that as it may, we have tried hard to find water towers close to us. There are not many. In 2011, a year after we moved here, I posted some fruits of our labor from the area. This is only my second post in 3 years showing water towers from the DMV area.

However, on previous vacations to DC we have found others. Links to those are here -
1. 2005 drive from NC to MD for a friend's baby shower
2. 2006 Thanksgiving in MD with same friend that had baby (you know who you are!)

Providence Hospital in Northeast DC -
You might think I visited here, as I am accident prone, but we just drove by it.

Rooftop tower off NY Ave -
This is on our way to our favorite spot - The National Arboretum

Maplelawn, MD -
My friend lives up this way. It is a new planned community with all the appropriate big box stores.

Prince William County, Manassas, VA -
I took my interns to visit the local landfill and recycling center in Manassas and low and behold there was a great water tower near by. This picture is cluttered by I love showing all that goes on at a landfill. The school bus took us to the top of the landfill face.

Prince William Forest Park, Manassas, VA -
One day Millie and I just got in the car to go hiking and found this great park.
I was so surprised to see it had an old water tower there. 

Vienna, VA -
This was a true water tower hunting weekend. We drove to the end of the Metro's orange line - Vienna - and found a water tower sporting the local high school mascot.

Watertowers around DC, VA, MD - 2011

We have been here over a year. We've traveled quite a bit to take the dogs out and visit new places. It's been hard to find watertowers though. The few that we have found are below.

Ellicott City, MD - This is near Bob and Em's new house

Old industrial tower on our way back from Sugarloaf Mountain, MD

White Post, VA - On our way to Front Royal near the Shenandoah Valley

Arlington, VA - On our way to Target. Not exciting but we pass it regularly

Washington DC - near Union Station. I see this every time I take the train

Fort Myer, Arlington, VA - Another nondescript tower. However, we did get to visit Fort Myer (a working military base). It has a thrift shop that is open to civilians twice a month. It was a small town. Reminded me of Boys Town in Omaha.

Charles town, WV - We got this tower on our way to Harpers Ferry, WV. A very cool place to visit.