|
THE MECHANICS OF THE TIDAL BASIN [Notes by Hayden A. Sears, a nephew of General Peter C. Hains III] |
|
The Tidal Basin was created as part of cleaning up the "flats", draining the swamps that
were where the Mall is today, and keeping the Washington harbor clean. (Peter III could tell you
about hunting ducks with a shotgun across the street from the family house in the 800 block of
16th Street.)
First a brief description of the layout of the area. Imagine two rivers joining in the form of a large "Y". The left side and stem of the "Y" are the Potomac River. The right fork on the "Y" is the Anacostia River. Now, right in the middle of the fork is a small dead end channel of water that is the Washington harbor. That channel was created when the dredged dirt from the Potomac was put down as the peninsula that became Hains Point and Potomac Park. That little dead-end channel had no natural circulation yet the drains from the swamp, and all the sewers and street drains from old 1880's Washington dumped their output into it. You can imagine the odor. General Hains' solution was to build the reservoir that is called the Tidal Basin between the Potomac River and the top end of the Washington harbor. The Tidal Basin is an ingenious, passive design that uses the tides to solve the problems associated with the dead end Washington harbor. There are two sets of gates on the Tidal Basin - one between the Potomac and the Basin, and another between the Basin and the harbor. The gates are operated by the tides. When the tide comes up the river from the ocean it goes up the harbor channel and pushes those gates closed. At the same time, the surge going up the Potomac pushes the gates from the river to the Basin open and fills the Basin with water. When the tide turns and goes out, its retreat down the Potomac "sucks" the river gates closed, and its retreat down the harbor sucks those gates open and releases a surge of fresh water into the harbor channel that helps clean it out. The Tidal Basin is literally the water tank that "flushes" the Washington harbor with each outgoing tide. |