Washington DC Bike Ride

Washington DC is a great place to ride bike! There are several nice trails including rail to trails taking one to any number of directions to and from our nation’s capital. I was staying very close to Regan National airport. Considering this I chose to join the Mt Vernon trail since it goes right by the airport. The Mt Vernon trail is 18 miles long winding along the Potomac river to George Washington’s famous home with the same name. I had a different destination in mind though. I went the opposite direction with the desire to ride along Capital Creek. In order to do this I crossed the Potomac to the western end of the mall stopping to see a few favorite monuments, and then made my way to Georgetown, where the trail begins. I rode about 8 miles up this trail before I decided it was time to turn around. At the far north end I went through an interesting rail bridge. The Dalecarlia Bridge is a beautiful roman arch bridge made of brick. Within the passage way were 4 “duck ins” that rail workers if they happened to be in the tunnel when “train time” came. Incidentally, this former rail and before that the capital canal were used to transport coal to the capital until gas and electricity became the preferred form of energy.
23 Miles

P.S. I wasnt really in this picture but I was really there. Thank you Photoshop for allowing me be "in" the picture!