Historic Southwest Waterfront

Historic Southwest Waterfront

Join Washington Walks on an exploration of D.C.'s Southwest waterfront neighborhood and hear about its connections to the U.S. Civil War and the largest attempt by enslaved Americans to escape to freedom.

The Southwest waterfront has morphed from a small collection of late 18th-century brick buildings along the Potomac River to a large group of mid 1960s structures of steel and concrete. In between, the riverside has been the site of

     - a conflagration during the War of 1812,

     - where 77 enslaved women, men and youth attempted to sail to freedom aboard the schooner Pearl,

     - the execution of the "Lincoln Conspirators," and

     - a lonely wharf where poet Walt Whitman tended to wounded soldiers. 

Discover one of D.C.'s oldest neighborhoods that just so happens to exist alongside one of its newest place-making developments, The Wharf.

People who liked this D.C. walking tour also liked: Renewing Urban Renewal and Walt Whitman, A Poet and His City.

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