Deserted downtown streets in DC During Lockdown 2020

Near the Archives

 For several months, during the Covid-19 pandemic, in 2020, the streets around the federal area in downtown Washington, D.C. were deserted.  But for the occasional bus or delivery vehicle there was no traffic at all.  In fact, many times I crossed the street anywhere, almost without looking, as there were no vehicles coming by at all.  I'd go on a walk about and the city areas of Penn Quarter and Federal Triangle were bereft of people and cars.  

11th and E Sts NW intersection

Usually it's very busy and you have to be very careful to follow the street crossing signs or you could get run over by a bike or car or van or bus. But not for the several months of the lock down. 

Shops and cafes and just about every office was closed and most had signs in the windows or doors about being closed indefinitely.  It was a very strange situation.  On the one hand, there was a certain enjoyment to the quietness of the city, but on the other hand, there was a certain uselessness in the air, as if these buildings and roadways were all for nothing.

Pennsylvania Ave NW

  If you did see a person, it was a security guard, with a mask on, or an occasional other person going on a walk.  Everyone was giving each other a suspicious look and wide berth.

 It was as quiet as an early Sunday morning downtown everywhere!

View on PA ave to Congress

Stressed Out in #Bloomingdaledc by The Public Works

Detour sign instead of tree

Huge concrete truck lumbers onto quite side street

Large sheets of metal covering up huge holes

Lately, I've been feeling quite stressed out by all the public works in the neighborhood. I can't figure out if it's all the water tunnel dig, or gas pipes being moved, or other utility work, but it's all becoming a bit of a nightmare.  And, it's not just the bright orange and yellow plastic things -- signs, pipes, vehicles, worker jackets but it's all the big lumbering vehicles and the ever-changing lanes and roads and alleys being worked in, or the increase in heavy service trucks.

Steel plates & graffited toilets & orange cones

Huge equipment, mysterious yellow barrels

And for another thing, it seems like every time I leave the house during the day I encounter some kind of blockage:  this might be a slow-down due to having to drive more carefully over the large metal plates that are mysteriously appearing in some alleys and roadways (and what huge holes lurk underneath them); it might be a temporary "road closed" sign forbidding me to enter a street I used to routinely use;  or it might be some giant concrete carrier or truck blocking the road, trying to turn a corner or grinding its gears going over the speed humps of our quiet residential street. Some of them are even 18-wheelers (yes, I've counted them) who seem to have got lost in the "Bryant Street Detour" and are attempting to get somewhere. Who knows what an 18-wheel behemoth is doing driving westbound on Adams Street for instance, or why another two-tonner is attempting a U turn on First street.

 

giant coils of yellow plastic pipe & orange cones

I want to also mention the increasing number of helicopter flights by police, park police, news stations and others (that I have been unable to identify their origin). Their noisy circling over all the development is adding to the nervous tension that I now feel as I try for some peace in the garden or on the deck. I'm sorry to say I just give them the one-finger salute as they disturb the rose pruning.

Diggers and drillers and more ORANGE things

Oh no, another street closed!

Maybe it's also the sight of the large blue toilets that the road crews must have that now also have graffiti on them, or maybe it's all those orange cones and orange nets and signs taped onto trees, but I'm finding it all GETTING ON MY NERVES. Did I mention all the added dust and litter -- since street sweeping has been suspended -- and grit and grime?  Did I mention the 2 a.m. drilling digging sounds from McMillan site?  This Bloomingdale neighborhood is no longer the quiet outpost it used to be. We're living in the middle of a giant department of public works project and it's exhausting.

Cranes looming over

More heavy equipment blocking quite residential street

Workers in orange, yellow with STOP/SLOW signs