The Wharf DC

This guide to The Wharf DC in Washington traces a smell problem that plagued Southwest Washington in 1882, after Army engineers sealed off the Washington Channel while building new land from dredged river mud. It follows Major Peter Hains toward an engineered fix involving tides rather than pumps, and detours to the Maine Avenue Fish Market, selling off the same shoreline since 1805. Best heard standing at the piers, watching the channel's water move past the fish market's barges.