D.C.'s Manhole Covers Document City's Change

WHEN YOU THINK of manhole covers in the District, you probably think of those things that explode downtown or in Georgetown, scaring office workers and causing D.C. emergency response crews to send in the rescue boats. But yet, manhole covers (or drain covers, like this one on 10th Street NW pictured at right) often tell the history of a city, and local blogger Rob Goodspeed takes a look at the history of manhole covers and may be one of the first to do so. And there's a lot of ground to cover, because "... there's been no shortage of agencies digging holes in the ground for various purposes," from the General Services Administration to Metro to AT&T.

Writes Goodspeed:

... [F]ew of the covers I have found are unusually ornate or beautiful. Most are utilitarian in nature, and many of the contemporary covers are positively dull. Beauty aside, to the informed reader manholes can tell a story about the history and function of the modern city.

So next time you're looking down, watch out for an on-the-street piece of history.

(Standard disclosure: This writer worked with Goodspeed, now a community planning master's student at the University of Maryland, to launch DCist back in 2004, a site both of us are no longer affiliated with.)

» "An Introduction to the Manhole Covers of Washington, D.C." [Goodspeed Update]

Photo courtesy Rob Goodspeed

Posted By Michael Grass at 9:01 AM on March 23, 2007 Tagged in Free Ride , Out and About , Streetscapes , The District

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