From the Potomac, a different and magical city comes into view.
A man casts his line into the Tidal Basin as seen from under the inlet bridge, one of the local sights to be seen from the Potomac and Anacostia rivers. By Melanie D.G. Kaplan April 5 Washington is home. As a child, I picnicked along the C&O Canal and biked through Rock Creek Park to the zoo. I counted the stairs up the Washington Monument, climbed the “Awakening” statue when it was at Hains Point and performed with a dance troupe at the Kennedy Center.
Before long, I began putting in at different spots along the Potomac and Anacostia rivers. I learned my way around the urban waterways like I had Washington’s freeways.
As I’ve paddled, the city has changed. From the Anacostia, west of the Navy Yard, I watched glass apartment buildings and a soccer stadium rise from the ground. From the Washington Channel, I saw the Wharf materialize so quickly, so utterly changing the waterfront, that I scarcely remember the location of Phillips, where my grandparents took my family for special dinners. As these new developments began humming with activity, the rivers did, too.
Driving out of the park, I stopped at the National Park Service headquarters to find out. The arches weren’t boarded up, a ranger told me. Those were the gates that open and close with the tides. Her words echoed in my mind: “You know, the Tidal Basin?” Of course — the Tidal Basin. During all my years in Washington, I’d never considered how the basin functioned. And now, I had unknowingly paddled through its back doors.
The third day, it was 40 degrees. I carried my board to the dock late in the day, wearing a wet suit, neoprene booties and a knit hat. I half expected someone to tell me I couldn’t go out because it was too dangerous — too cold, too windy, too close to sunset. But the freedom that comes with being on the water means freedom to go out, even when the conditions are dicey. Across from the dock, flags at the Capital Yacht Club stuck straight out like cookie sheets.
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