Category:Old United States Naval Observatory

English: Old Naval Observatory. The building still exists, but it's part of a much larger complex, the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. Looking at a map showing what 1860 Washington looked like, it was located on a tract bounded by E street on the north, 23rd street on the east, 25th street on the west, and the Potomac River on the south. (24th street ended at E street, with the Observatory driveway on the other side.) The Potomac river side is roughly equivalent to C street, but is angled (higher than C street on 25th street side, but below it on 23rd, such that there was an Upper Water Street below C, but that was it). By 1900, Upper Water Street had been extended along the old shoreline so it became the southern boundary, but the entire area south was being landfilled (eventually used for the Lincoln Memorial). Nowadays, of course. that area is completely changed. 23rd street is still there, but the rest of the rectangular street grid is gone. It's near the Kennedy Center, and Google Maps still points out the "Old Naval Observatory". (It also shows an outline of what was the angled Upper Water Street on the grounds of the National Academy of Sciences) - (lightly edited from remarks by User:Clindberg, originally made at User talk:Jmabel/Stereo cards of Washington, D.C.)