Have cars ever gone off the GW Memorial Pkway into the water?

[Anonymous]

I have recently started take this route to and from work and see so many people sightseeing on the sides even at rush hour. But the rails on the roadway parts over the water “run” areas seem so low.

[Anonymous]

Yes. It happens. I'd estimate annually or every other year, but I'm sure someone will post a more accurate assessment.

[Anonymous]

Where are you talking about, specifically? The only place you can really see the river on the GW is between boundary channel and Roosevelt bridge. And even then, there’s like 100+ feet of grass median to the river.

The rest of the parkway is wooded.

Even up in the overlooks section, if you ran off the road and went over the cliffs, you’d be stopped by a tree well before you reached the river.




Are you maybe referring to Rock Creek Parkway in DC instead? Because people do drive into that a few times a year, especially around curves across from the P street beach area

[Anonymous]

Cars do go off the Parkway, and a few have had some pretty hard falls down the sides. On the DC side I'm not sure if any have ever made it to the Canal or not as the railings are made of rock.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where are you talking about, specifically? The only place you can really see the river on the GW is between boundary channel and Roosevelt bridge. And even then, there’s like 100+ feet of grass median to the river.

Uh, there's something else on the "grassy median"

Cough, Mount Vernon Trail, cough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where are you talking about, specifically? The only place you can really see the river on the GW is between boundary channel and Roosevelt bridge. And even then, there’s like 100+ feet of grass median to the river.

The rest of the parkway is wooded.

Even up in the overlooks section, if you ran off the road and went over the cliffs, you’d be stopped by a tree well before you reached the river.




Are you maybe referring to Rock Creek Parkway in DC instead? Because people do drive into that a few times a year, especially around curves across from the P street beach area

Op here. I drive from McLean to DC and back again there are numerous areas of small bridge like intersects. I believe one is called Donaldson Run. I am new to this route but I do see the guard rails appear to be quite low and the roadway quite high it seems.

[Anonymous]

Why are the guardrails even necessary? We don't have guardrails along route 1 in Fairfax county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have recently started take this route to and from work and see so many people sightseeing on the sides even at rush hour. But the rails on the roadway parts over the water “run” areas seem so low.

born and raised here. while I've heard of cars going down the embankment or down the "grassy knoll", i have never heard of a car actually going into the Potomac from the GW Parkway. That is pretty hard to do if you know the topography of that area. I am talking about the long stretch of the parkway between 495 and Arlington.

[Anonymous]

A car went into Rock Creek tonight. Again.

https://twitter.com/dcfireems/status/1162611864653705216?s=21

[Anonymous]

Yes, when there’s a sinkhole.

[Anonymous]

It happened in April:
https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Car-Crash-After-Armed-Robbery-Closes-Part-of-GW-Parkway-in-Arlington-Virginia-Police-County-508875581.html

One from 2014:
https://washington.cbslocal.com/2014/08/24/car-in-water-nb-lanes-on-g-w-parkway-blocked/