Around Town

With warmer days ahead, an outdoor pizza restaurant and wine bar on the Potomac River waterfront will soon make its seasonal return.

Catboat Pizza Bar plans to reopen next month at the Washington Sailing Marina in Alexandria, offering fresh pizza, drinks and lawn games with picturesque views. It will be the restaurant’s second season on the water at 1 Marina Drive.


News

A woman was rescued Tuesday evening after driving into the Potomac River along the GW Parkway.

The incident happened shortly before 7 p.m. on the Parkway between the 14th Street Bridge and Memorial Bridge. A crowd gathered along the Mt. Vernon Trail as U.S. Park Police and good Samaritans helped to pull the driver to shore.


News

The Arlington County Fire Department’s water rescue team did not respond to last week’s fatal midair collision, against the wishes of local firefighters, ARLnow has learned.

While first responders from throughout the D.C. area descended on the site of the devastating collision that killed 67 people on Jan. 29, ACFD personnel trained to respond to water emergencies did not receive permission to act. That is according to internal materials that this news site obtained through an anonymous source.


News

Plans for two new bridges over the Potomac River have moved “to the next level” with the announcement of a contractor to design and build the structures.

The Virginia Passenger Rail Authority (VPRA) last week named Long Bridge Rail Partners — a joint venture between three general contractors — as the organization responsible for finalizing designs and beginning construction on the “South Package” of the Long Bridge Project.


News

A vehicle ran off the Arlington Memorial Bridge and into the Potomac River.

A two-vehicle crash shortly before 7 p.m. Thursday caused a pickup truck to smash through the side of the bridge and into the river around mid-span.


News

A groundbreaking ceremony for a new two-track railroad bridge over the Potomac River took place yesterday (Tuesday) with several federal officials in attendance.

Attending the formal construction kickoff for the Long Bridge Project — part of a $729 million effort to reduce bottlenecks and improve reliability for commuters — were U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine (D-Va.), and other Northern Virginia congressional representatives.


News

A body has been found in the waters north of the Key Bridge, according to D.C. Fire and EMS.

Arlington County firefighters assisted their D.C. counterparts in what was originally a water rescue, after a person was seen floating in the Potomac. It later deemed to be a recovery operation when the person was found deceased.


News

(Updated at 11:25 p.m.) At least two people have been pulled from the water on an icy cold night after a car drove into the Potomac along the GW Parkway.

The crash was first reported around 9:30 p.m., near Columbia Island Marina and the Humpback Bridge. It was not immediately clear how the car ended up in the water.


Opinion

A group is seeking to make it legal to swim in the Potomac again.

The Potomac Riverkeeper Network is working to get D.C. to lift its decades-old swimming ban, saying that the Potomac is now clean enough for safe swimming in certain parts of the river. From the group’s website:


News

There is a new sign of progress on the 30-year-old project to build a boathouse in Arlington.

In anticipation of planning and design work kicking off this year, the Arlington Boathouse Foundation — an organization that exists to ensure residents one day can launch non-motorized boats, such as kayaks, into the Potomac from the county’s shoreline — has launched a new website.


News

New Covid Testing Location — “Arlington County is opening an additional no-cost COVID-19 testing kiosk at Sequoia Plaza. The kiosk is in partnership with Curative, which operates four additional sites in the County. The kiosk is located at 2100 Washington Blvd, on the service road behind the Stambaugh Human Services Center building (Sequoia 1). Beginning on Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022, the kiosk will operate Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.” [Arlington County]

Va. Changing Covid Tracing Efforts — “Today, the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) announced it is changing from attempting to investigate every case of COVID-19 and trace all contacts to focusing on follow-up of outbreaks and cases in high risk settings. This response is more effective when a virus spreads very easily and quickly and many infected people do not have symptoms.” [Virginia Dept. of Health]


News

Structure Fire Near Ballston — “Units located a detached structure on fire behind a house with minor extension to the house. The fire was quickly extinguished with no reports of injuries to firefighters or civilians. The fire remains under investigation by the Fire Marshal’s Office.” [Twitter, Twitter]

Plane Runs Off DCA Runway — “A Frontier Airlines plane slid off the end of the runway at Reagan National Airport Friday night. Flight 538 from Denver was arriving at the airport at about 10:30 p.m. when the incident happened, Micah Lillard of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority said.” [WTOP]


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