All Topics  
Tiber Creek

 
Tiber Creek

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Tiber Creek
 
 
  Topics Tiber Creek Topic Home

Tiber Creek or Tyber Creek was a tributary
Tributary

A tributary is a stream or river which flows into a Mainstem river. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea. Tributaries and the mainstem river serve to drain the surrounding drainage basin of its surface water and groundwater by leading the water out into an ocean or some other large body of water....
 of the Potomac River
Potomac River

The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic Ocean coast of the United States. The river is approximately 383 statute miles long, with a Drainage basin of about 14,700 square miles ....
 in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the Capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790....


Originally known as Goose Creek, it was renamed after Rome
Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
's Tiber River
Tiber

The Tiber is the third-longest river in Italy, rising in the Apennine mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing 406 kilometres through Umbria and Lazio to the Tyrrhenian Sea....
 as the lands southeast of then Georgetown
Georgetown, Washington, D.C.

Georgetown is a neighborhood located in the Washington DC Address #Quadrants of Washington, D.C., along the Potomac River waterfront. Founded in 1751, the city of Georgetown substantially predated the establishment of the city of Washington and the District of Columbia....
, Maryland
Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic States of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia and the Washington, D.C. to the south and west, Pennsylvania to the north, and Delaware to the east....
, were selected for the City of Washington, the new capital of the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
. It flowed south toward the base of Capitol Hill
United States Capitol

The United States Capitol serves as the seat of government for the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States....
, then west meeting the Potomac near Jefferson Pier
Jefferson Pier

Jefferson Pier, Jefferson Stone, or the Jefferson Pier Stone, in Washington, D.C., marks the first Meridian of the United States, even though it was never officially recognized, either by presidential proclamation or by a resolution or act of United States Congress....
.

Using the original Tiber Creek for commercial purposes was part of L'Enfant
Pierre Charles L'Enfant

Pierre Charles L'Enfant was a France-born United States architect and civil engineer....
's original plan.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Tiber Creek'
Start a new discussion about 'Tiber Creek'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Tiber Creek or Tyber Creek was a tributary
Tributary

A tributary is a stream or river which flows into a Mainstem river. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea. Tributaries and the mainstem river serve to drain the surrounding drainage basin of its surface water and groundwater by leading the water out into an ocean or some other large body of water....
 of the Potomac River
Potomac River

The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic Ocean coast of the United States. The river is approximately 383 statute miles long, with a Drainage basin of about 14,700 square miles ....
 in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the Capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790....


Originally known as Goose Creek, it was renamed after Rome
Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
's Tiber River
Tiber

The Tiber is the third-longest river in Italy, rising in the Apennine mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing 406 kilometres through Umbria and Lazio to the Tyrrhenian Sea....
 as the lands southeast of then Georgetown
Georgetown, Washington, D.C.

Georgetown is a neighborhood located in the Washington DC Address #Quadrants of Washington, D.C., along the Potomac River waterfront. Founded in 1751, the city of Georgetown substantially predated the establishment of the city of Washington and the District of Columbia....
, Maryland
Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic States of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia and the Washington, D.C. to the south and west, Pennsylvania to the north, and Delaware to the east....
, were selected for the City of Washington, the new capital of the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
. It flowed south toward the base of Capitol Hill
United States Capitol

The United States Capitol serves as the seat of government for the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States....
, then west meeting the Potomac near Jefferson Pier
Jefferson Pier

Jefferson Pier, Jefferson Stone, or the Jefferson Pier Stone, in Washington, D.C., marks the first Meridian of the United States, even though it was never officially recognized, either by presidential proclamation or by a resolution or act of United States Congress....
.

Using the original Tiber Creek for commercial purposes was part of L'Enfant
Pierre Charles L'Enfant

Pierre Charles L'Enfant was a France-born United States architect and civil engineer....
's original plan. The idea was that it could be widened and channeled into a canal to the Potomac. And so part of it became the Washington City Canal, running along what is now Constitution Avenue
Constitution Avenue

In Washington, D.C., Constitution Avenue is a major east-west street running just north of the United States Capitol in the city's Northwest, Washington, D.C....
. By the 1870s, however, because Washington had no separate storm drain and sewer system, the Washington City Canal was notoriously stinky. It had become an open sewer. When Alexander "Boss" Shepherd joined the Board of Public Works in 1871, he and the Board engaged in a massive, albeit uneven, series of infrastructure improvements, including grading and paving streets, planting trees, installing sewers and laying out parks. One of these projects was to enclose Tiber Creek/Washington City Canal. A German immigrant engineer named Adolf Cluss
Adolf Cluss

Adolf Cluss was a Germany-born United States immigrant who became one of the most important architects in Washington, D.C., in the late 19th century, responsible for the design of numerous schools and other notable public buildings in the capital....
, also on the Board, is credited with constructing a tunnel from Capitol Hill to the Potomac "wide enough for a bus to drive through to put Tiber Creek underground."

Many of the buildings on the north side of Constitution apparently are built on top of the creek, including the IRS building, part of which is built on wooden piers sunk into the wet ground along the creek course. The low-lying topography there contributed to the flooding of the National Archives
National Archives and Records Administration

The United States National Archives and Records Administration is an Independent agencies of the United States government charged with preserving and documenting government and historical records and with increasing public access to those documents....
 (Archives I in Washington, DC), IRS
Internal Revenue Service

The Internal Revenue Service is the Federal government of the United States agency that collects taxes and enforces the tax law. It is an agency within the U.S....
, and Ariel Rios
Ariel Rios Building

File:Ariel Rios Building.jpgThe Ariel Rios Federal Building is located in the Federal Triangle in Washington, D.C., across 12th Street from the Old Post Office Building , which the new building was designed to replace....
  buildings that forced their temporary closure beginning in late June 2006. In fact, until the mid 1990s, that part of Washington around the intersection of 14th
14th Street Northwest and Southwest (Washington, D.C.)

Fourteenth Street is a street in Washington, D.C. and Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., located 1? mi. west of the U.S. Capitol. It runs from the 14th Street Bridge north to Eastern Avenue ....
 and Constitution was an open parking lot because the underground water was too difficult to deal with. During construction of the Ronald Reagan Building
Ronald Reagan Building

File:Ronald Reagan Building - Washington, D.C..jpgThe Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, named after former President of the United States Ronald Reagan, is the first federal building in Washington, D.C....
 (1990-98), the engineers figured out how to divert the water. But that dewatering then reduced the water level underneath the IRS building which caused the wooden piers to lose stability and part of the IRS building foundation to sink.

A pub
Public house

A public house, the formal name for a pub in Britain, is a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic beverage for consumption on or off the premises in countries and regions of United Kingdom influence....
 near Tiber Creek's historic course north of Capitol Hill was named after it. The Bistro Bis restaurant now occupies the Tiber Creek Pub's former location.