A Buried Maritime Past Along Arlington, Virginia’s Former Seaside Bluffs
The construction site of the future Hotel Indigo offered intriguing evidence into Alexandria Virginia’s formative history. Anticipated archaeological remains were excavated. The most prominent included a seventy-foot ship hull along with the remnants of a 1755 public warehouse owned by town patriarch John Carlyle. A research team excavated the site extensively during 2015-2017.
The findings reconfirmed the evolution of the town’s natural shoreline reconfiguration. In 1749 when Alexandria was originally founded, the southwestern half of the Hotel Indigo land was perched atop a bluff overlooking a cove of the Potomac River.
During that era of unregulated development, waterfront property owners had an enticing incentive for knocking down seaside bluffs and leveling the terrain. They were allowed to legally retain title for any fresh land that they created in front of their own parcels. Owners then constructed commercial wharves reaching out to the channel. This process was known as banking out. The pristine natural topography would be completely filled in by the conclusion of the 18th century leaving a landfill extended shoreline.
Old ship hulls were periodically buried amidst the fill enabling and reinforcing the wharf framework. During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, industries such as iron foundries, grocers, coopers, carpenters, blacksmiths and merchants established operations on the wharfs.
During 2017-2018, archaeologists concentrated their efforts on a Robinson Terminal South construction site. They unearthed the remains of three 18th century shipping hulls accompanied by the foundations of a similar era warehouse and 19th century pioneer mill.
The largest shipping vessel was measured at 102 feet in length. The two additional were a mid-size 62-foot and 49-foot landing vessel. Researchers from the Conservation Research Laboratory at Texas A & M University coordinated efforts with the Alexandria archaeology staff. They documented, laser scanned and reconstructed the three ships employing computer models and 3D printing.
The recovered four ships have since been documented as cargo merchant vessels. Their discovery has stimulated further questioning regarding their employed cargos. During the Colonial era, there existed widely acknowledged triangular shipping routes. The routes involved trade between the American colonies, Europe and the Caribbean. Slave transfers were commonly part of the hypotenuse across the Atlantic Ocean.