C & O Canal Trail and the National Building Museum

The C&O Canal Trail became a national park when Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas challenged the Washington Post to a hike along the former canals in 1954.

The Post then took up the cause to make the lands surrounding the canals from Glen Echo, MD to Georgetown a national park-a dream that became a reality in 1961.

Along the trail, I saw an immature great blue heron and several turtles. Throughout the park, the National Park Service warns visitors that an average of seven people die each year by being swept away in the white water of the Potomac that runs along the canal.

Glen Echo is a national park located next to C & O Trails. It was an amusement park that had been created by Washington D.C.'s streetcar company to get people to use their street cars. Unfortunately, the Metro does not have a stop near Glen Echo-so you have to have a car to get to the Glen Echo National Park.

Glen Echo has been developed into an artist community with a puppet theater, a theater for small children, a carousel, pottery kiln and art classes. The Spanish Ballroom which was built in the 1930's, is used for dances and dance lessons. The former bumper car barn is used for concerts.

Over Labor Day weekend, Glen Echo had its annual art show which displayed photographs, fused glass and other visual artwork from its students.

I also went to the National Building Museum which is housed in the former National Pension Office on F Street NW. The National Building Museum had a exhibition of refrigerator doors that have been created into artworks-to show that the best way to save money (and energy) is to unplug your second refrigerator and replace your 10+ year refrigerator with an Energy Star refrigerator.

The entries include the Marion Appliance Company's entry of a Ohio Buckeye player painted on Shelvador. JACO Environmental created two artworks-one for their client, Sierra Nevada with the front door having a rendering of the Luxor Hotel and one side of the refrigerator being a painting of the Hoover Dam. The other JACO was for another client, Puget Energy of Bellevue, WA and it was a door of mini-refrigerator with two dolpins.

Puget Sound received a Judge's Special Mention for their entry. They used one of their employees as a model and took a photograph of her lookng like a 1950's housewife. They then used recycled metal to create flowers and a garden on the refrigerator to highlight that replacing your old refrigerator is a good way to reduce your carbon footprint.