The National Park Service manages some of our country’s most prized icons, including the Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial, and Lincoln Memorial, National Mall, East and West Potomac Park, Presidents Park, the White House grounds and numerous other parks and monuments. Most of the NPS lands west and south of the Washington Monument were created by dredging and filling operations and lies only 6 to 12 feet above sea level. Following the 1936 Great Flood, the US Army Corps of Engineers was authorized and constructed a permanent Washington DC Levee system along the Lincoln Reflecting Pool. The National Park Service is the levee sponsor and is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the levee system. In order for traffic on 17th Street to continue to flow at grade, a gap was left between the east end of the levee and the Washington Monument grounds. Failure to erect the 17th St Closure structure and the 23rd St sandbag dike before a major flood event on the Potomac River will result in billions of dollars of damage, loss of nationally-critical federal government operations, interruption of congressional/national security operations, and flooding of 1,000 homes. Most importantly, lives will be lost.
Site visit participants will observe the active installation of the 17th Street panel closure exercise by the Park as well as learn about the hydrologic history of the area, the design of the Potomac levee system, and the operational and maintenance impacts to the Park.
The tour will depart the Baltimore Convention Center at 8:00 AM and will return around 4:00 PM eastern. All attendees must ride the provided transportation to attend.
