Following last month’s post about traffic circles, I now
present Part II in the series about DC curiosities.
I’d just like to start out by quoting Dave Barry and
reiterate that I Am Not Making This Up.
My second day on the job, back in June, was very
eventful. I turned in my security deposit and got my keys, I used Visio to make
a map for the first of countless times in my job, AND I got to go on a site
visit.
I was tasked with evaluating on-street parking for a new
condo development on New Jersey Avenue near the Southeast Freeway where the municipal
garbage transfer station is now.
 |
| A garbage processing center... with a view! |
I took Metro down there and then walked all over,
covering a 3-block radius of the site. At one point I walked under the
Southeast Freeway and found Garfield Park. It’s a nice place, but as I walked
up F Street I saw something interesting at the corner of 1st and F,
SE. At this corner, F Street is also labeled “Capitalsaurus Court”.
 |
| NOT MAKING THIS UP. |
Now, a lot of states have official fossils – only 8 do
not. State dinosaurs are more rare, with only 6 states and the District of
Columbia naming an official extinct oversized lizard.
Normally I think of dinosaurs being more of a western
thing. I don’t actually have any hard research to back that up, but if Jurassic
Park taught me anything, it’s that all the major paleontology work goes on out
west. Well, that, and Dinosaur National Monument is in Colorado. Thanks,
Discovery Channel!
So you can imagine that there’s a curious story behind
why the District of Columbia’s official dinosaur is actually named after DC.
In January of 1898, DC’s expansion had come to the 100
block of F Street SE. Construction workers putting in a sewer line were working
through the rocky, marshy soil when they came across a very large bone
fragment. Somebody determined that they’d actually found a dinosaur vertebrae
and so on January 28, 1898 a man named J. K. Murphy brought the vertebrae to
the Smithsonian Institution where it was entered into the museum’s collection.
In 1911, (and here I’m going based on info from Smithsonian magazine) one paleontologist
classified it as Creosaurus potens. In 1921 another paleontologist overruled
him and decided it was actually Dryptosaurus potens. 70 years later, after a
LOT of looking through books, the paleontology community concluded that it was
actually a completely unique dinosaur and named it “Capitalsaurus”. Now, it’s never been assigned a complete
description – remember, we’re just going based on a single vertebrae here – so it’s
an unofficial name and technically the quotes are part of the official
terminology.
 |
| But that didn’t stop somebody from coming up with an artistic representation… that appears to have been done in colored pencil. |
Finally, in 1998 the DC council passed the Official Dinosaur Designation Act of 1998,
declaring January 28 to be Capitalsaurus Day. It’s pretty much just celebrated
by elementary school students, but since I’m new here I figure I get a pass to
celebrate it whenever I please.
And that’s the story of my second day at work.
Next time, we learn about my most cherished meal
tradition: no, not Steak of the Union, although you’re close. It’s Discount
Supermarket Steak Night!
