This is one of my favorite places in greater DC.
As a child, I was fascinated by airplanes. My dad has a pilot’s license, and when I was a tot he’d take me to Salt Lake International Airport to look at the private planes (Cessnas, Mooneys, Pipers, and such) and watch the big airliners land on runway 34L. And ever since, I’ve loved airplanes and flight.
Living in DC is a bit of a planespotter’s dream, given the venue that is Gravelly Point Park. Run by the National Park Service, Gravelly Point Park is immediately north of the main runway at Washington National Airport (DCA). And if the winds are from the south, aircraft pass amazingly close to folks who patiently wait at the park (either with their bikes, on rollerblades, jogging, or playing futbol on the fields).
The combination of a short runway and close proximity to the end of said runway makes for amazingly low passes from the landing aircraft. You can see the landing gear in detail, and the roar of the jet engines is deafening (especially on older MD-83 and Boeing 737-300 aircraft that don’t fully meet Stage IV noise restrictions). If you’re lucky, you can hear the wake turbulence as it whips overhead, and think of what it must be like to be a smaller plane trying to deal with the whipping, swirling winds left behind a 757 or A321.
It’s cool stuff, that’s for sure.
Washington Cube
4 February 2008 — 22:14
It’s a great place to go and blow the cobwebs out. A former coworker and I used to drive over there for just that reason. One of Washington’s best secret places.