Falls Church’s GEORGE bus service is closing down. The 8-year-old circulator service between East and West Falls Church Metro stations will run for the last time on September 27.

Bye George. We hardly knew ye.

Image from wikipedia.

Friend of BeyondDC Craftgasm snapped this cell phone picture just minutes ago while walking by the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry Temple on 16th Street, where DDOT photographers were reviewing the very first Capital Bikeshare bike.

DDOT’s representative says this bike arrived earlier today. Presumably they’ll be making higher quality pictures available soon.

Do want.

At 2:00 p.m. today, the District of Columbia officially opened the new Pennsylvania Avenue bike lanes. All the cool kids attended the opening ceremony, including Mayor Fenty, US DOT Secretary Ray LaHood, Congressmen Blumenauer and Oberstar, and DDOT Director Gabe Klein, among others.

Friend of BeyondDC David Patton swung by and snapped these pictures:

From left to right: DDOT Bicycle Program Coordinator Jim Sebastian, DDOT Director Gabe Klein, DC Mayor Adrian Fenty (speaking), USDOT Secretary Ray LaHood, Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), DC Councilman Jack Evans, DC Councilman Tommy Wells.	DDOT Director Gabe Klein introduces a Bixi bike-sharing bicycle, to the applause of USDOT Secretary Ray LaHood.

Thanks a million, David!

Update: DDOT has additional photos in a Facebook gallery. – June 23

Glover Park ANC 3B will be taking up a resolution supporting streetcars at its meeting tonight. Local residents may find the meeting interesting, and may want to consider speaking in support.

I’m out of town again Thursday and Friday, so I probably* won’t be blogging again until next week.

In the mean time, enjoy Bike To Work Day on Friday. All the cool kids are doing it.

If you follow BeyondDC on Twitter you know that I attended last night’s seminar on streetcar propulsion technologies. I had intended to live-tweet the entire meeting, but my phone died a few minutes in, scuttling those plans.

Greater Greater Washington has a good write-up of the meeting, which I won’t attempt to replicate, but here are my notes, including the handful of tweets I got out early in the meeting:

• Tweet: At streetcar power seminar: historian says cable car companies in cahoots w/ legislators who enacted wire ban.
• Tweet: Even portland wire is over engineered & can be less obtrusive.
• Tweet: Bordeaux wireless system so ineffective they’e had to supplement w/ battery.
• Tweet: DC streetcars have existing batteries for up to 100 feet.
• Philadelphia’s SEPTA has streetcar components still in use that are over 100 years old. Streetcars are a capital investment that lasts.
• FTA requires “risk assessment process” that makes it harder to get federal money for unproven technologies.
• Summary of available wireless technologies: Batteries and battery-like capacitors are the only viable alternative right now that isn’t cost prohibitive. Slightly more expensive, but not much. However, they are only good for short distances.
• Other technologies are in development and may be good in another few years, but so far are prohibitively unreliable and expensive.
• Longest distance viable using existing wireless battery/capacitor propulsion is about 1 mile.
• Going with battery/capacitor generally means no (or very limited) air conditioning. Big problem for DC.
• Bordeaux’s wireless system is 7x as expensive to operate as overhead wire.
• DC business groups propose a grass track where streetcars meet important L’Enfant city squares & circles.
• Savannah, GA has 1-mile-long wireless heritage trolley, using battery/capacitor.
• Major advantage of overhead wire: Best system for handling ice in winter. Easy to clear wires of ice.
• Gabe Klein says city hoping for $500-$800 million in federal funds to help complete city-wide $1.5 billion plan.
• The conclusion of the panel was that the only viable option using existing technology is a hybrid combining wires for most of route lengths, with short stretches using a battery/capacitor backup where wireless is most desirable. Only system that’s proven & affordable, other than 100% wires.

While the seminar panel did not specifically endorse any plan for powering Washington’s streetcars, their commentary adds weight to the hybrid solution proposed by GGW. It’s common sense. Let’s get it done.

The District Department of Transportation will be displaying one of its new streetcar vehicles on May 5-8 at 9th and H Streets, NW, in the parking lot where the old convention center was located. The streetcar will be open for the public to enter and walk around.

Admission is free. The schedule is as follows:

Wednesday, May 5, 11am – 7pm
Thursday, May 6, 11am – 7pm
Friday, May 7, 11am – 7pm
Saturday, May 8, 11am – 5pm

The streetcar is one of three DDOT purchased to run on the Anacostia route (where there is no prohibition against overhead wires) that arrived in December.

Metrorail set another record yesterday. 877, 890 trips were recorded on the system, making it the busiest non Presidential inauguration day ever. In addition to the normal throngs of commuters and city dwellers, tourists flocked to the city to see the cherry blossoms, and the Caps had a sell out.

Here are the five busiest days:

1. Jan 20, 2009 – 1, 120, 000 trips – Obama inauguration
2. Apr 1, 2010 – 877, 890 trips – Cherry blossoms
3. Jan 19, 2009 – 866, 681 trips – Obama inauguration
4. Jul 11, 2008 – 854, 638 trips – Women of Faith march
5. Jun 9, 2004 – 850, 636 trips – Reagan funeral

Today could threaten to make the list as well. There’s no hockey game, but since it’s closer to the weekend the number of cherry blossom tourists may well be higher.

On the other hand, death spiral looms.

There are three tiny islands in the Potomac River slightly upstream from Georgetown, called the Three Sisters. You can see them from the Key Bridge. They’re cursed.

The story goes something like this:

Prior to European contact, the Potomac River divided the territories of the Powhatan and Susquehannock nations. The Powhatans lived south of the river in what is now Virginia, while the Susquehannocks lived north of it in what is now Maryland. The two groups did not get along.

Late one night, three Powhatan sisters decided to sneak across into Susquhannock territory in order to avenge the deaths of their betrothed husbands-to-be, who had been killed in a battle earlier that day. As the three Powhatan sisters crossed the Potomac River in a canoe, monstrously strong wind and water currents swept down the river, causing the river to become uncrossable, and eventually drowning the girls. As they drowned they uttered a curse, that if they could not cross the river at that location, no one else ever would. The spot where the sisters drowned was hit by a fierce lighting storm, and then the three islands rose up from the river bottom to their present location.

Since that time, nobody has had any luck crossing the river near the Three Sisters.

• 1791: L’Enfant proposes a bridge at Three Sisters as part of his grand plan for Washington. Most of the plan goes forward, but not the bridge. L’Enfant himself dies bitter and broke.
• 1826: Georgetown city officials petition Congress to build a Three Sisters bridge in order to compete with the Chain Bridge further upriver. The petition is ignored.
• 1857: Plans are submitted to Congress for a suspension bridge at the Three Sisters. Before construction begins the Civil War breaks out, and the idea is abandoned.
• 1969: Construction begins for a Three Sisters bridge as part of the Eisenhower Interstate Highway system. The new bridge is just a steel skeleton in 1972 when a giant storm approaches the Potomac, with monstrously strong wind and water currents, and fierce lightning. The storm is much like the one that drowned the three Powhatan sisters centuries earlier. When the storm subsides, the framework for the new bridge is gone, disappeared into the river depths. By then, local interests opposed to the bridge all along won their battle, and a new bridge wasn’t built.

One curse, four complete failures. You decide.

For a more complete narrative of the curse story, read its chapter in It Happened In Washington, DC.

Washingtonian Magazine is looking for stories related to the housing boom and bust, and asked BeyondDC to put out a call for help. Here is their ad:

Did you buy a home during the frantic years of bidding wars and packed open houses? Or did you sell your house for more than you’d ever imagined possible? Did you see your neighborhood transformed? If so, we’d love to hear from you. If you have a story to share, please email Washingtonian features editor Denise Kersten Wills at dwills@washingtonian.com.