The lost and untold history of Washington, DC. New and old content regularly tweeted automagically for your scrolling pleasure.
Washington, D.C.
- Tweets 58,117
- Following 3,108
- Followers 27,574
- Likes 366
In 1986, DC was one of the last places in America where 18-year-olds could legally drink. It took one horrific crash on the Beltway to change everything in 48 hours.
ghostsofdc.org/2014/01/29/dr…
4
13
86
6,715
In 1922, President Harding unveiled DC's only statue of a woman on horseback in Meridian Hill Park. Then in 1978, someone stole her sword and it stayed missing for 33 years.
ghostsofdc.org/2012/01/08/th…
1
10
1,063
In 1912, crowds gathered at all hours, some until midnight, just to watch sculptors chisel a giant marble globe outside Union Station. One slip could ruin everything.
ghostsofdc.org/2012/10/09/cr…
2
4
686
The day before Wilson's 1913 inauguration, 5,000 women marched up Pennsylvania Ave into a hostile mob. It took an hour to move 10 blocks, and even Helen Keller was too shaken to speak.
ghostsofdc.org/2015/05/11/wo…
2
6
863
In 1969, students camped on tiny Potomac islands and planted a flag reading "Stop the Bridge." A congressman held DC's Metro hostage to force it through anyway. Here's how they still won.
ghostsofdc.org/2015/04/13/ne…
1
1
1
825
In October 1928, a massive German airship floated silently over the White House and Capitol. Even President Coolidge stepped outside, bareheaded, to catch a glimpse.
ghostsofdc.org/2012/02/06/gr…
3
19
986
In 1860, 70 samurai in silk robes and topknots arrived in DC, drawing crowds of 20,000. One 17-year-old interpreter became such a heartthrob that women chanted his name outside his hotel.
ghostsofdc.org/2023/10/27/ja…
2
16
1,194
DC workers numbered every brick of Francis Scott Key's Georgetown house so it could be rebuilt. Then they stacked the pieces by the river and lost the whole thing.
ghostsofdc.org/2014/12/17/fr…
8
40
737
39,960
A sitting US president was once arrested in DC for speeding... on his horse. And the officer who booked him? That story is even more remarkable.
ghostsofdc.org/2014/03/04/ul…
8
873
A boy on tiptoe peers into the candy bins at a Chevy Chase corner store, same as he did in 1975, and 1931, and 1926. How a frame house at Broad Branch and Northampton has survived a century:
ghostsofdc.org/2026/09/24/br…
1
1
18
1,730
Who was the "objectionable neighbor" so awful they forced a homeowner on Corcoran St. to sell at a loss in 1885? We dug into the 1890 census to meet the block.
ghostsofdc.org/2013/02/19/co…
1
899
In 1915, D.C. had two entirely separate school systems mapped out block by block. One tiny schoolhouse on Chain Bridge Road was still lit by oil lamps well into the 1920s.
ghostsofdc.org/2019/12/31/19…
3
3
1,001
Zoom into an 1870s photo of Ford's Theatre and you'll spot a shop selling wooden legs, iron legs, even children's legs. The story behind it is stranger than you'd guess.
ghostsofdc.org/2013/12/02/am…
1
10
63
4,671
A president's dedication, a civil rights leader fresh from a bombing, and a lawsuit against Ben Bradlee for assault at a funeral. All three happened inside one quiet Quaker house on Florida Ave.
ghostsofdc.org/2012/12/21/th…
3
15
1,080
Arlington County was almost called Mount Washington. The twisting tale of how it got its name involves an English earl, George Washington's step-grandson, and a Confederate general's abandoned mansion.
ghostsofdc.org/2012/02/16/wh…
6
946
In 1880, a mob of 1,000 men marched on the DC jail with ropes, demanding a prisoner be handed over. Standing between them and a lynching? US Marshal Frederick Douglass.
ghostsofdc.org/2012/11/09/to…
2
21
95
3,720
In 1970, an unemployed bread truck driver hijacked a jet to Dulles and demanded $100 million from the Supreme Court. His reason? He believed the IRS shorted him $471.78 on his 1964 taxes.
ghostsofdc.org/2019/09/03/du…
1
6
1,403
In March 1995, a woman scaled a rail, crossed a dirt buffer, dropped into a moat, and swam 26 feet to reach two African lions at the National Zoo. What she told a court clerk hours earlier is the strangest part.
ghostsofdc.org/2012/03/19/wo…
2
5
947
Tucked in a Foggy Bottom alley sit tiny row houses once crammed with families in under 700 square feet. Today they sell for over half a million. The story of Snows Court says a lot about DC.
ghostsofdc.org/2012/06/25/sn…
4
15
347
22,241
In 1881, Senator John Sherman platted Columbia Heights with streets named Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Kenesaw, and Whitney. By 1905, almost all of them were gone. What happened?
ghostsofdc.org/2012/04/18/ol…
8
1,409