Q415 passing Anacostia tower  Contributor's Pick!       
CSX manifest freight southbound on "connecting track" bound for DC and then the RF&P.
Date: 5/8/2005 Location: Washington, DC Views: 3538 Collection Of:   John Fuller
Locomotives: CSX 8771(SD60M)    Author:  John Fuller
Q415 passing Anacostia tower
Picture Categories: Yard,Action This picture is part of album:  Benning Yard
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User Comments
Name Type Comments Date
Zachary DeVore General Sweet shot! Is that tower still standing? 6/4/2008 7:55:24 PM
William H. Davis Jr. General Great shot 11/24/2008 12:49:52 AM
Jim Gavin General Great shot !! That must be some nice neighborhood to have razor wire around the tower. 12/24/2008 11:30:55 PM
Switchman Images General Wasn't Anacostia demolished within the past year? 6/5/2009 6:55:30 PM
Jim Dodds General Nice. That must be a scary area to live/work in if they have barbed wire around the tower :( I would want guards around and even a personal pistol to keep with me in the tower with me if it's that dangerous of a place :( anyway awesome shot, and I'm glad you didn't get mugged taking this photo. :) Anyway, seriously, I love this photo. I've never seen a tower that looked like this before...the architecture is interesting :) 1/2/2010 11:49:37 PM
Virgil Fitzpatrick General How much traffic is through there? I'd like to shoot that area sometime 4/1/2010 11:54:22 AM
David Nutter General Nice shot! 11/7/2010 1:00:21 AM
Dennis Weber General Nice Shot. 12/4/2010 9:06:05 AM
Ted Marshall General Like it. Not your everyday picture of D.C... Better. ;-) 9/11/2011 2:11:20 AM
John Danielson General Excellent shot! 1/22/2012 3:21:01 PM
Jonathan Vincent General That has to be the most well constructed tower I've ever seen! Is it still standing? 12/23/2012 1:00:17 PM
Jonathan Vincent General I especially like the fact that the "Anacostia" sign doesn't even fit the wall........... 12/23/2012 1:01:26 PM
John Fuller General From a PRRHS article in 1989, the tower was built in 1893. Per my photos of the hole where it had been, it was demolished the first week of January 2008 or possibly late December. Conrail closed it in 1988 but it continued in use by a bridge tender, who operated the Anacostia swing bridge until the tower was demolished by CSX. 12/24/2012 10:42:20 AM
Bob Beaumont General Nice shot! 5/21/2018 11:13:01 PM
Tom Beckett General Cool shot. That was a pretty good location, if not the safest place in the world. I spent an afternoon there back about 1986 or so, caught the Tropicana train on the Anacostia River bridge, as well as what was already CSX then, but still a lot like the B&O in practice. Home page 06-09-2020 6/9/2020 3:45:19 AM
John Fuller General Yes, Tom, the barbed wire around the tower does hint that this is not a very safe place. During the daytime, however, I never encountered any problems with anyone. Didn't even see anyone, and I visited a number of times because I live only 15 minutes away in Virginia. It was a great spot for interesting photos, and to an extent still is with the bridge over the Anacostia River, but with the tower gone, it's lost its appeal for me. 6/9/2020 7:46:55 AM
Tom Beckett General I am a native New Yorker, no stranger to bad neighborhoods-but in NY, even places in the "good" neighborhoods have gates on the storefronts. But as you note, during the daytime a lot of places are mostly OK. Like any large city, you just have to pay attention to your surroundings, and be a little leery of people. The afternoon I spent there was pleasant, the only people I saw were fishing, maybe a dozen or so. I'd go back there if the opportunity arose. Here's how it looked then. The tower was active, and not surrounded by razor wire in 1986. http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4044114 11/27/2020 3:41:53 AM
John Fuller General Loved your 1986 shot at this location with Conrail equipment, especially that caboose! Unfortunately I did not develop an interest in railfanning until 10 years later :-( 11/27/2020 11:52:03 AM

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