Tiber Creek

[2] Using the original Tiber Creek for commercial purposes was part of Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant's 1791 "Plan of the city intended for the permanent seat of the government of the United States .

A German immigrant engineer named Adolf Cluss, also on the Board, is credited with constructing a tunnel from Capitol Hill to the Potomac "wide enough for a bus to drive through to put Tiber Creek underground.

My father, to preserve his health and property, purchased 500 acres of land lying on the Tyber and Potomack, which probably comprises the President's house; but at the time, about 1762, the present seat of government was considered so remote from the early settlements of the province, that my mother objected to the removal on accounts of the distance, and my father transferred the property to Thomas Johns, esq.

a friend and contemporary, of his neighborhood, to whose family it proved an auspicious contract; but in this case, the benefactor did not long enjoy the prosperity he had promoted.

"[11] Presently, the stream flowing under the city is often referred to as Tiber Creek though its common past with the Canal is acknowledged.

[12] It lay southeast of then Georgetown, Maryland, amid lands that were selected for the City of Washington, the new capital of the United States.

Landscape showing a train crossing Tiber Creek, northeast of the Capitol (not pictured) in Washington, DC in 1839