Free Republic

WILLIAMSPORT — Shane Burkett has been watching the Interstate 81 Potomac River bridge work from the cab of a tractor-trailer. Now that the new third lanes are open in each direction, the semi driver likes what he sees. "I think it's great. I-81 is a massive highway. ... It's a big help having that third lane now," the Williamsport resident said. The Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration formally announced completion of the $104.6 million project Thursday. The work, which has been years in the making, widened the interstate from two lanes to three lanes in each direction from...

Kurt Smolek, a Diplomatic Security special agent with the State Department and Dayton Police Academy graduate, was found dead in the Potomac River on Wednesday and the cause is listed as undetermined pending an autopsy. We're hearing tonight that Smolek, 45, is a 1998 academy graduate and one of his assignments as a special agent was as a member of Condoleezza Rice's security team. According to DC Metro police, Smolek was last seen Monday, Aug. 28, in the 600 block of Water Street, Southwest, about 10 p.m. A missing persons bulletin described hims as white with graying brown hair, brown...

A large, heavy ship, scuttled between 1775 and 1798, is being dug out of its damp grave at the site of a new hotel construction project in Old Town Alexandria. Archaeologists found the partial hull of a ship at 220 S. Union Street, part of the city's major redevelopment of the Potomac River waterfront. It's on the same one-block site where workers two months ago discovered a 1755 foundation from a warehouse that is believed to have been the city's first public building.

Radiocarbon dating of charcoal found elsewhere on this site has suggested people might have camped here and built fires by the north branch of the Potomac River, anywhere from 9,000 years ago to as much as 16,000 years ago... Some tools and bones have been found in Pennsylvania and Virginia that date well before the Clovis era, although scientists debate whether the dating is accurate.

Maryland's top transportation officials visited Washington County Thursday to discuss area road projects, including the construction of a new bridge on busy Interstate 81 over the Potomac River. The tour is an annual ritual, in which state transportation officials meet with local officials and state lawmakers to discuss the Maryland Department of Transportation's six-year capital budget. Among state officials attending the discussion at the Hagerstown library was Wilson Parran, deputy secretary of the transportation department, and Melinda Peters, who heads the Maryland State Highway Administration. Peters said that construction of the $43 million I-81 bridge will begin in the fall...

Traveled by Native Americans, presidents, generals, gypsies and families seeking a new life in the west, “The Great Road,” known today as Frederick Road or Route 355, provided a path for both the adventurer and the entrepreneur. As the main route northwest from Georgetown, the last port on the Potomac River, it was heavily traveled from the mid 18th century until it was replaced by Interstate 270 in the 1960s. It began as an Indian trail leading from the Piscataway settlement at the mouth of Rock Creek to the great “Conestoga,” a trail that included footpaths and waterways (what we...

COASTAL HAZARD MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC 608 PM EDT TUE JUN 27 2006 -snip- Flood Statement FLOOD STATEMENT WVC003-023-027-031-037-065-071-MDC001-021-031-043-VAC013-047-059- 061-107-177-179-510-630-DCC001-280709- FLOOD STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC 909 PM EDT TUE JUN 27 2006 ...SIGNIFICANT RISES UNDERWAY IN THE POTOMAC AND RAPPAHANNOCK RIVER BASINS... THE POTOMAC RIVER AT HARPERS FERRY AT 6 PM TUESDAY WAS 4.8 FEET AND RISING. FLOOD STAGE IS 18.0 FEET AND RECORD STAGE IS 36.5 FEET. AT 18.0 FEET, WATER BEGINS TO INUNDATE LOW LYING SERVICE ROADS ON THE SHENANDOAH RIVER SIDE OF HISTORIC HARPERS FERRY, DUE TO BACKWATER EFFECTS. THE POTOMAC...