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Block-by-Block Biking: Block 37, Connecticut Avenue from Woodley Road to 24th Street

Distance: About 285 feet

Biking Conditions: A short, flat block that ends with a light. Traffic can be a bit stop-and-go around here based on light timing, but usually it flows pretty smoothly.

Favorite Feature: The Marriott Wardman Park hotel, which perches over the west side of Connecticut Ave:

Historical Context: In 1916, developer Harry Wardman started building a 1,200 hotel here. According to Images of America: Woodley Park the move was met with skepticism -- it was called "Wardman's Folly" because many locals thought Woodley Park was too far into the countryside for a hotel to be successful.

The part of the hotel that's visible from Connecticut Ave is known as Wardman Tower. It was a 1928 addition built on the site of a house Wardman himself built in 1909. It's the only part of the early hotel that remains -- the main building was demolished and replaced in 1980.

Another great fact about the Wardman Park hotel, from Images of America: Woodley Park: during the 1920s it hosted the Washington Cat Show, delightful photographic proof of which exists in the Library of Congress archives:

Most Festive Sticker: This one, on a sign on the 24th St median:

Least Useful Bike Lock: This one on the east side of the street:

Pagoda Panda: This guy is set up near the Metro elevator -- the "Home Rules" bear was painted by Anne Marchand as part of DC's Pandamania public art project:

Street Name Deconstruction: 24th St is the first time in a while that my route intersects with the numerical part of D.C.'s grid system. A couple facts about the number 24: it is the number of letters in the Greek alphabet and it is considered unlucky in Cantonese culture because its pronunciation is similar to the Cantonese term for "easy to die," according to Wikipedia.

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Brewvet Ride 12

Location: Back to Circle Wine & Spirits (where it all began...)

Distance: 7.2 miles

Category: Try a local beer (category 2)

Beer: A six-pack of DC Brau's "The Corruption" -- nice and hoppy and a great way to end the brewvet!

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Brewvet Ride 11

Location: TackleBox in Georgetown

Distance: 11.1 miles

On Saturday I rode down to Georgetown to get some seafood with my boyfriend. After lunch we cut across downtown to the Building Museum (mediocre-looking exhibits, though, so went to the National Portrait Gallery instead) and ended up at my boyfriend's place in Mount Pleasant.

Category: Drink a macro-brew (category 6)

Beer: Corona -- not bad at all on a sweltering summer day!

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Block-by-Block Biking: Block 36, Connecticut Avenue from Garfield Street to Woodley Road

Distance: About 375 feet

Biking Conditions: The downhill slope flattens out on this block, which is just as well because traffic usually gets a bit backed up at the light at Woodley Road. I can usually pace myself so I'm able to coast and make it through the light, but not without liberal use of my brakes.

It's worth noting that this block is also where Connecticut Ave narrows back down to three lanes during morning rush hour, which probably explains why it gets a bit congested here.

It seems like this block (or at least the tree box on the east side of the street) isn't really pro-bike...

Favorite Feature: The Hampton House at 2700 Connecticut Avenue -- I can't tell whether the lions are a nod to the Zoo or just their to make the building look more dignified.

Historical Context: So how did Woodley Park come to be the site of so many grand apartment buildings? Images of America: Woodley Park explains that it was all facilitated by the construction of the Taft Bridge extending Connecticut Avenue through Rock Creek Park and of the Calvert Street Bridge:

As recent as the late 1800s and early 1900s, Woodley Park was still void of significant development. Instead, it was an area of wide-open lands with a few stately mansions scattered throughout. ... After the completion of several key bridges across Rock Creek Valley -- which for years was viewed as an obstacle not worth tackling for residential development -- [in the early 1900s] Woodley Park finally caught the attention of those looking to settle in a neighborhood on the rise.

Sassiest Sticker: This one on the east side of the street.

Scariest Sticker: This one, lower down on the same sign post:

Street Name Deconstruction: The name for Woodley Road -- and indeed the neighborhood as a whole -- comes from the name of one of the most important early estates in this area. The Woodley Mansion is to the west of Connecticut Avenue and is currently used by the Maret School -- but we'll talk more about that when I get to my commute home...

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Brewvet Ride 10

Location: Kangaroo Boxing Club in Columbia Heights

Distance: 5 miles

Remember when I had to take a few days off biking to study for the LSAT? Found out today that it went pretty OK!

So to celebrate I met up with my boyfriend after work at his apartment and then we went for drinks and dinner at Kangaroo Boxing Club.

Category: Drink an IPA (category 3)

Beer: Boulder Beer's Mojo IPA. Pairs perfectly with KBC's delicious jalepeño mac n' cheese!

Cheers!

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June Mileage

Total May Mileage: 410.9 miles

Longest Stretch of Biking: 17 days

Number of Days: 2 days, mostly around LSAT time

Longest Distance on a Single Day: 27.9 miles

Number of Days with 20+ Miles: 4 days

6/30: 22.6

6/29: 14.2

6/28: 9.7

6/27: 13.3

6/26: 13.9

6/25: 13.3

6/24: 13.9

6/23: 14.4

6/22: 27.5

6/21: 12.3

6/20: 13.6

6/19: 13.3

6/18: 13.3

6/17: 19.9

6/16: 25.8

6/15: 19.1

6/14: 9.5

6/13: 0

6/12: 13.8

6/11: 13.3

6/10: 0

6/9: 1.6

6/8: 7.3

6/7: 13.3

6/6: 10.7

6/5: 13.3

6/4: 13.3

6/3: 13.3

6/2: 13.5

6/1: 27.9

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Brewvet Ride 9

Location: Home sweet home, after a ride with a friend out to A & J Restaurant in Rockville.

Distance: 21 miles

We took the Capital Crescent Trail to Bethesda and then got on the Bethesda Trolley Trail. The trolley trail leaves you on big suburban roads, but mostly they've got decent shoulders to ride in. A & J Restaurant was really great -- we got some amazing sesame noodles and scallion pancakes. We caught a little rain on the way back, but nothing too heavy!

Category: Try a new craft beer (category 8)

Beer: Ram's Head IPA. Nice and hoppy, a great cap to a really fun ride!

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Brewvet Ride 8

Location: Meridian Pint in Columbia Heights

Sorry for the shitty picture, it was super wet outside and I was a bit fermished -- but very glad to have my waterproof pannier with me (as seen blurrily in the foreground)!

Distance: 3.6 miles

I rode over to Meridian Pint -- in pretty intense rain -- after work yesterday to meet up with my boyfriend. After that we went to Pete's Apizza on our way back to his apartment.

Category: Get a drink at a local bar (category 1)

Beer: Both of us got pints of the Mad River Steelhead Double IPA. I'd never had it before, but it was really delicious!

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Block-by-Block Biking: Block 35, Connecticut Avenue from Cathedral Avenue to Garfield Street

Distance: About 615 feet

Biking Conditions: Another nice downhill stretch -- I've usually picked up a good amount of speed by this point and I'm moving pretty much at the speed of traffic. There are quite a few recessed manhole covers in the right lane of this block, but they're not too hard to navigate around.

Favorite Feature: This building on the west side of the street, which seems to be enjoying of its proximity to the zoo:

Historical Context: The row houses between 2814 and 2918 Connecticut Ave were built by Harry Wardman in 1911. 

Wardman and his team built about 3,000 residential buildings in the city, including about 2,000 row houses, according to a 2005 Washington Post article on his legacy. When Wardman died in 1938, an roughly 10 percent of DC residents supposedly lived in his homes, according to Wikipedia.

Fanciest Sprinkler: This one, on the side of The Carlton at 2829 Connecticut Ave:

The apartment also has a really nice front yard area:

Someone Feels Real Passionate About British TV: Whoever put up this sticker:

Street Name Deconstruction: There's definitely some sort of connection between this part of Woodley Park and President James A. Garfield -- in the 1970s a restaurant on Calvert Street was claiming to be located at the former site of Garfield's home, but Ghosts of Washington couldn't sort out how that could be true.

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Brewvet Ride 7

Location: Yesterday my boyfriend and I rode out to Pizzeria Paradiso in Old Town Alexandria, which has delicious pizza and a great, ever-changing draft beer list:

(I forgot to take an exterior photo, though.. whoops!)

Distance: 23.3 miles, which looked more or less like this:

We started off at my boyfriend's apartment in Mount Pleasant and took 14th St and 15th St through the city before getting on the 14th St bridge to connect with the Mount Vernon Trail.

The way back was pretty much the same, except that we decided to take 11th St North through the city (mostly because it's the easiest in terms of hills) but had to deal with some detours thanks to the Safeway BBQ Cookoff, which had taken over Pennsylvania Ave. 

I'd never taken the 14th St bridge before, but I think I like! The separation between bikers and cars traveling at highway speeds certainly seems safer than the ankle-high railing they have on the Teddy Roosevelt Bridge. Plus, while looking at Street View to get a better sense of the route, I found this dude -- someone in #bikedc is famous!

Category: Try a Belgian (category 5)

Beer: Houblon Chouffe's Belgian IPA. Nice and refreshing after a hot ride!

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Block-by-Block Biking: Block 34, Connecticut Avenue from Hawthorne Street to Cathedral Avenue

Distance: About 350 feet

Biking Conditions: A nice, short downhill block. There's a light at Cathedral Ave that I can usually catch if I take it easy going down this street.

When I started doing this route, this was the area where I would start trying to get over to he left lane so I could be in position to turn on to Calvert Street. But lately I've just been staying in the right lane all the way through and then doing a box turn at the intersection of Connecticut and Calvert. Not having to merge lanes here has made my mornings a lot less stressful!

I will say, though, there's a pretty serious lack of actual bike parking around here...

Favorite Feature: The sprawling Cathedral Mansions complex, which takes up all of the west side of the street.

Historical Context: Images of America: Woodley Park has this to say about Cathedral Mansions, which was built by notable developer Harry Wardman in the early 1920s:

Cathedral Mansions offered transportation facilities to and from the city center via a bus service with a real parlor car, "a real smoking compartment," and a streetcar for transportation between the apartment buildings. Built as the "world's largest apartment group," 2,700 residents lived at Cathedral Mansions in the 1920s. Due to its large size and bevy of services, the apartments were billed as "A City Within Itself."

Shorpy also has this great 1924 photo showing the grocery store that served the complex:

Most Apt Sticker Juxtaposition: This one on the east side of the street:

And this one on the west side:

Street Name Deconstruction: This one doesn't seem to tough to work out -- I'm gonna guess it's called Cathedral Ave because it leads in the general direction of the National Cathedral.

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Brewvet Ride 6

Location: Chevy Chase Wine and Spirits at 5544 Connecticut Ave

It's only a few blocks north of my apartment, but I'd never actually been inside. Turns out I've been missing out: they've got an awesome selection of craft beers sold as singles, which is pretty perfect as a Brewvet destination!

Distance: 7.5 miles, just added on a bit to my regular evening commute

Category: Drink a porter (category 7)

Beer: The Duck-Rabbit's Porter

I'd never heard of Duck-Rabbit until I saw City Paper's write-up of their Black Ale -- the idea of a brewery devoted to dark beers is pretty awesome. The porter is really rich and delicious!

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Block-by-Block Biking: Block 33, Connecticut Avenue from Jewett Street to Hawthorne Street

Distance: About 570 feet

Biking Conditions: There are two stoplights in quick succession -- one at Jewett and one in front of the main entrance to the Zoo on the middle of this block. Usually I hit a red on at least one of them, and those reds take a lot of patience to sit through since neither are at through streets. The second light boasts the widest crosswalk I think I've ever seen -- and also one of the most underused during morning rush hour:

The hill crests at the second stoplight and then starts a nice descent. There's also a CaBi station and some bike racks on this block.

Favorite Feature: Definitely the Zoo!

The National Zoo opened in 1889 and its sprawling layout presented a new model for zoos, according to Images of America: Woodley Park:

The zoo's spacious and picturesque area marked a significant departure from the 19th century philosophy of creating zoos in small areas. ... As part of the zoo's efforts to create a natural setting for its animals, natural rock quarries were installed to contain the bears, a plan that prove unsuccessful as some bears escaped.

The book also highlighted these amazing photos from the Library of Congress showing the Zoo's polar bears being serenaded sometime between 1920 and 1932:

Historical Context: What's now 3000 Connecticut Avenue on the west side of the block across from the Zoo used to be an estate known as Oak Hill or Redwood. 

The estate was built around 1819 and Jefferson Davis stayed here in 1856. According to Images of America: Woodley Park, Davis's wife wrote that "at midsummer we took a house two or three miles out of town, and spent the heated term there. Mr. and Mrs. [Franklin] Pierce used frequently to come for us for the day, and such intimate talks, such unrestrained intercourse and pleasantries exchanged are charming memories."

The association with Davis caused issues for the property during the Civil War. The call box sign on the site says that "Union soldiers convalescing in hospitals nearby thought Jefferson Davis owned the property, so they continually raided the farm. They were so destructive that [actual owner] Captain French's widow and children, who still lived there, were forced to move to town." The house was razed around 1920.

Best Stickers: My favorite is this "daily grind" sticker:

But this one is a strong second:

Street Name Deconstruction: Little did I know, but Hawthorne is actually a neighborhood in upper NW. I think probably the most likely inspiration is Scarlet Letter author Nathaniel Hawthorne, but maybe it was presaging that dicey-looking HawthoRNe show…

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Block-by-Block Biking: Block 32, Connecticut Avenue from Devonshire Street to Jewett Street

Distance: About 455 feet

Biking Conditions: There's a bit of a climb on this block -- not very intense, but things can get a bit tricky if you get stuck behind a bus at the stop at the beginning of the block. Usually, though, I've got enough momentum from coming over the relatively flat Klingle Bridge to get up the hill easily.

Favorite Feature: The very classy art deco Kennedy-Warren apartments, which take up pretty much all of the east side of the block.

Historical Context: The Kennedy-Warren was built in 1931 and "was the first building in Washington where aluminum was extensively used on both exterior and interior," according to Images of America: Woodley Park.

The developers and namesakes -- Edgar S. Kennedy and Monroe Warren, Sr. -- went bankrupt in 1932 and their main creditor, the B.F. Saul Company, has owned the complex ever since, according to Wikipedia.

Wikipedia also notes:

An unusual feature of the Kennedy-Warren when it opened in 1931 was its air-cooling system. Three enormous fans drew cool air from Klingle Park at the back of the building and forced it through the public corridors. Residents could then open metal louvers above their hallway doors to cool individual apartments. … The fans were removed during the 2009-11 renovation after central air conditioning was installed.

The apartments are pretty swanky -- as of 2011, Washington City Paper reported that rents in the South wing, which was added in 2004, had the highest rents in the city. Probably the most notable former tenant is Lyndon Johnson, who lived in a three-bedroom apartment here from 1937 to 1938 while he was a junior congressman, according to Wikipedia.

Most Heavily Secured Fence: This one, on the west side of the street:

Street Name Deconstruction: The name Jewett has a few interesting transit-history connections. It was the name of an Ohio streetcar manufacturing company and a boxy model of sedans made by the Paige-Detroit Motor Car Company in the mid-1920s.

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Brewvet Ride 5

Location: Capital Beer & Wine in Bethesda

Which had this very appropriate sign:

Distance: 13.8 miles

I decided to take the circuitous route home. I always forget that taking G Street through GWU is a terrible idea and I ended up doing a fair amount of sidewalk biking on Virginia Ave because traffic was pretty crazy there. But everything was great once I got on the CCT -- it's so wonderful to be able to bike for an extended period of time without having to worry about intersections or cars.

Category: Drink a Saison (Category 9)

Beer: Green Flash Brewing Co.'s Saison Diego. Saisons aren't usually my favorite kind of beer, but after a hot ride this one was pretty refreshing!

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Block-by-Block Biking: Block 31, Connecticut Avenue from Macomb Street to Devonshire Street

Distance: About 715 feet

Biking Conditions: Most of this block is taken up by the bridge over Klingle Valley. It's the same number of lanes as the connecting portions of Connecticut Ave and pretty flat, but for some reason it has something of a freeway overpass vibe that always stresses me out a bit. The block ends with a stoplight at Devonshire Street, which I usually gives me a green light.

Favorite Feature: This dino carved into the sidewalk on the eastern sidewalk:

Bridge Basics: The Klingle Bridge was built between 1930 and 1932 by the same engineers responsible for the Calvert Street bridge and cost about $486,000, according to Images of America: Woodley Park. The book notes that the urns that still decorate the bridge "were designed to resemble miniature lighthouses, while art deco detailing also was used for decoration."

Historical Context: Ghosts of DC featured this great photo of the wreckage of a 1925 crash off the earlier version of the Klingle Bridge:

At the time of the crash, the Washington Post wrote that the driver of the car seemed to lose control of it steering, at which point the car crashed into another automobile, "caromed off the bridge into space" and "somersaulted 75 feet to the highway below."

These days Klingle Creek looks more like a peaceful trickle:

Strangest Sticker: This one on a trashcan just south of the bridge, which I think is supposed to have an anti-smoking message...

Street Name Deconstruction: The name Devonshire seems mostly to be associated with the county of Devon in England and with the "Duke of Devonshire," a position held by the Cavendish family. Although, confusingly enough, the Cavendish family estates are actually in Derbyshire (which I always fondly associate with Mr. Darcy).

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Brewvet Ride 4

Location: My fridge

Distance: 23.8 miles, which looked more or less like this:

This morning I biked downtown to go on BicycleSpace's easy morning ride, which took us around the southwest waterfront. Very low key, but fun. After the ride I treated myself to a new pannier! I love my Jandd grocery panniers, but I decided that I need something waterproof and I've heard nothing but good things about Ortlieb. Getting the mounting mechanism set up the way I wanted was a bit of a learning process, but since figuring that out it's been awesome!

After that I ran a few more errands downtown, got lunch at District Taco and biked home for a drink!

Category: Enjoy an IPA (Category 3)

Beer: Victory's HopDevil IPA. My boyfriend bought a six-pack of these a little while ago and there were a few cold bottles left waiting for me when I got home. It's definitely got a bit of a kick to it and it's a great summer cool-down beer.