Cabin John

History

Early land records in 1715 cite Captain John's Run, now called Cabin John Creek. The toponym "Cabin John" is thought to be a corruption of the name "Captain John", but the origin of the name remains unresolved. Cabin John is the location of the Union Arch Bridge, built between 1857 and 1864 over Cabin John Creek; at the time of its completion, the bridge was the longest single-span masonry arch in the world and remains the longest in the United States. The Cabin John Bridge Hotel was built in 1870 adjacent to the west end of the Union Arch Bridge, overlooking the Potomac. Originally a refreshment stand and boarding house for bridge workers, it grew into "a sumptuous establishment frequented by the most powerful politicians and important social figures of Washington, D.C." In its heyday of the 1890s to early 1900s, "the hotel was so lavish and became so important a destination for Washingtonians that The Washington Post reported about it regularly." The hotel was destroyed by fire in 1931. The neighborhood was connected by streetcar to Georgetown from 1897 to the 1930s and to Bethesda, Maryland, from about 1900. Streetcar service ended c. 1960. Bordering Cabin John to the west is Carderock, where in 1936–1939 the U.S. Navy built the David Taylor Model Basin, one of the largest test facilities for ship design in the world. The test basin facility was originally planned for Cabin John, but instead the original site, bought from Mary Ellen Bobinger, widow of the owner of the Cabin John Hotel, was used to build housing for workmen. "The Navy had 125 homes constructed… 100 for white workers and 25 for black." The homes were in two small neighborhoods, Cabin John Gardens, off MacArthur Boulevard, and Carver Road, off Seven Locks Road. The Cabin John Gardens homes were…

Geography

Cabin John is in southern Montgomery County, less than northwest of the border of the District of Columbia, and bordered to the south by the Potomac River and the state of Virginia. It contains a section of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (C&O), including locks 8 through 12. The community is the access point to Plummers Island in the Potomac, originally owned by the Washington Biologists' Field Club and called "the most thoroughly studied island in North America." As an unincorporated area, Cabin John's boundaries are not officially defined. Cabin John is, however, recognized by the United States Census Bureau as a census-designated place, and by the United States Geological Survey as a populated place located at (38.975110, −77.159281). The CDP borders are the Capital Beltway (I-495) to the west and north, Cabin John Parkway to the northeast, and the Maryland–Virginia state line to the south, along the south shore of the Potomac River. The Clara Barton Parkway parallels the Potomac and the C&O Canal, leading southeast into Washington. Downtown is to the southeast. According to the census bureau, the Cabin John CDP has a total area of , of which are land and , or 26.51%, are water.

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Montgomery Blair High
  High · Silver Spring · 3,204 students · 16.7:1 ratio
• Walter Johnson High
  High · Bethesda · 2,942 students · 18.6:1 ratio
• Wheaton High
  High · Silver Spring · 2,599 students · 16.6:1 ratio
• Richard Montgomery High
  High · Rockville · 2,390 students · 17.8:1 ratio
• Bethesda-Chevy Chase High
  High · Bethesda · 2,335 students · 18:1 ratio
• Winston Churchill High
  High · Potomac · 2,234 students · 18.6:1 ratio
• Walt Whitman High
  High · Bethesda · 2,018 students · 17.4:1 ratio
• Albert Einstein High
  High · Kensington · 2,012 students · 15.4:1 ratio