19 May 2009
 
Pissing People Off
 
The sun was struggling to come out as Carl slid behind the wheel of the white sedan and Jason and I piled into the back seat. The humidity was coming up and I could feel the Washington summer lurking out there in the brown waters of the Potomac that lay just beyond the still waters of the C&O Canal.
 
General Meig’s house, if he had actually lived there, would have had a good view of the mighty work he was gouging into the g round. But that was an awful long time ago, and that was a project for the ages.
 
Carl was in a ruminative mood as we drove around the muddy circumference of the work site.
 
“Funny thing about the General. He got into it directly with the contractors. He made quite a stink for a young man, and he irritated the Secretary of the Army.”
 
I had to look it up when I got back to Big Pink, and tapped off a short whiskey with ice and water from the Decarlia treatment plant, that came to me through the nine-foot tunnel under MacArthur Boulevard.
 
It was mind-boggling. If the young Meigs had done anything like what he did back in the day, he would have been off in the wilderness with that drunken Captain Ulysses Grant, who could not find his way in the peacetime army after the Mexican War, and was only useful when the time came to actually conduct the business of war.
 
In fact, I would have court-marshaled young Captain Meigs if he had worked for me. He felt comfortable going over the head of his Service Secretary and right to the President as a Junior Officer. He really pissed off the Secretary of War, which is not a good thing to do if you work for him.
 
It was about contractors, and the big project that they wanted a piece of. He supervised the water project from 1852 to 1860, and it was a stupend ous public work, involving the design of the monumental Union Arch Bridge across Cabin John Creek, which for 50 years remained the longest masonry arch in the world.
 
He was a busy fellow in that time. From 1853 to 1859, he also supervised the building of the wings and dome of the United States Capitol and, from 1855 to 1859, the extension of the General Post Office Building.
 
In the fall of 1860, as a result of a disagreement over procurement contracts, Meigs "incurred the ill will" of the Secretary of War, John B. Floyd, and was "banished to the Dry Tortugas in the Gulf of Mexico.”
 
There he built Fort Jefferson, which due to the remote location remains one of the most pristine brick forts of the era in the world. He also set about fortifying Key West, which remained in Union hands through the war, and embarked on a secret mission without the approval of the Secretary to reinforce Fort Pickens on the banks off Pensacola against potential revolt.
 
Floyd abruptly resigned with the coming of war, to go with the Confederacy, and Meigs was returned to the manage the war against him as Quartermaster General.
 
“But you have to see this.” Carl gestured at the men on front and back-loaders, and the mock-up of the brick façade that leaned near the gate so that everyone on the site would know what the vision was supposed to be.
 
A massive construction project is in progress behind the house. Since its inauguration, Decarlia has been scooping up the sludge that falls out of the soluble water in the settling ponds and dumping it back into the placid Potomac. Naturally enough it is partly treated and partly solid waste, and the EPA has decreed that such practice will cease not later than 2010.
 
Accordingly, the water coming down from the Great Falls, and through the reservoir on the heights will now be funneled through deep concrete channels. Carl told us the sludge will be collected and trucked out to a landfill somewhere, I am hoping in Maryland.
 
It is only fair. The terms of the Colonial land grant to Lord Calvert included all the river to the high-water mark on the Virginia shore, which doesn’t seem fair, but there it is.
 
Carl drove us around to see the great pit, which is being organized into massive white concrete channels where the sludge can be collected and Exiting the back of the great pit, we drove along a narrow gravel road that led gradually upward. Decarlia is a nature reserve, in part, and the first thing we noted was a deer standing in the green next to the road. Then we noticed there were another dozen of the graceful animals clustered in a depression on the other side. The animals showed no fear. At come periodic interval, bow-hunters are permitted by the Corps to come in and cull the herd, and it must have been fairly recently, since the animals were cautious.

Apparently some independent contractors from Tennessee doing dredging on the Reservation also were caught with venison on their breath, go figure.
 
Carl said that sometimes the deer will stand still and allow the workers to pet them. All the activity below must have them a little nervous, Tan and Brown and handsomely dappled, they melted back into the trees.
 
We talked about dogs and deer and deer ticks and Lime’s disease, and I resolved not to roll up my sleeves despite the rising humidity.
 
There is a lot going on around the reservoir itself. The houses that come down almost to the perimeter fence are grand, and all feature big windows to appreciate the million dollar view of the lake.
 
The Corps has a special relationship with them, since the residents are proactive about the maintenance of their vista. One woman insisted specifically which trees should be trimmed, and which would not. There is a maple she has a particular preference for, since its colors in the Fall are quite stunning against the greenish pool.
 
She brought cookies and juice to the workers, and is in frequent contact with the Chief Engineer about just how things should be maintained. The Corps is a social institution, after all, and these days it doesn't want to piss anyone off. 

Copyright 2009 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com