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Three Sisters (District of Columbia)

Georgetown (Washington, D.C.)Islands of the Potomac RiverRiver islands of Washington, D.C.
The Three Sisters islets, DC
The Three Sisters islets, DC

The Three Sisters are three rocky islands in the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., west of the Key Bridge. A notable landmark in colonial times, the islets are less well known as the Three Sisters Islands and Three Sisters Island.Bridges have been proposed for the Three Sisters several times, most recently in the 1960s, when the Three Sisters Bridge proposal led to a decade of protests and ultimately, its cancellation.

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Three Sisters (District of Columbia)
Capital Crescent Trail, Washington

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 38.9039 ° E -77.0806 °
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Capital Crescent Trail

Capital Crescent Trail
20057 Washington
District of Columbia, United States
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The Three Sisters islets, DC
The Three Sisters islets, DC
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Three Sisters Bridge
Three Sisters Bridge

The Three Sisters Bridge was a planned bridge over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., with piers on the Three Sisters islets. Envisioned in the 1950s and formally proposed in the 1960s, it was cancelled amid protests in the 1970s. A bridge over the Potomac in the same location was first proposed in 1789, and bridges have been planned every few decades since then. In the 1950s, the creation of the George Washington Memorial Parkway and the extension of the parkway onto the north side of the Potomac River from Chain Bridge to Carderock, Maryland, led to calls to turn Canal Road NW into a highway and to build a bridge over the Three Sisters to link the two sections of parkway. The rationale for a Three Sisters Bridge changed over the years. At one time, the bridge was to be part of the "Inner Loop" system of spoke-and-hub freeways planned for the District of Columbia. At another, it was intended to bring then-unbuilt Interstate 66 into the city. The bridge proposal proved highly contentious and is a notable example of a "highway revolt". Local residents of the Georgetown neighborhood and the citywide Committee of 100 on the Federal City opposed the bridge. Opponents of superhighways in the District of Columbia also opposed the bridge, as part of their opposition generally to the Inner Loop. Several protests involved civil disobedience, and some were violent. The Three Sisters Bridge spawned numerous lawsuits, one of which reached the Supreme Court of the United States. Representative William Natcher, a strong proponent of the bridge and chair of a key congressional subcommittee, withheld funding from the Washington Metro for six years in order to pressure the city into constructing the bridge. A legislative revolt in the United States House of Representatives in late 1971 released these funds. With Natcher unable to coerce the city, the bridge proposal effectively died. It was removed from federal planning documents in 1977.

Georgetown University Astronomical Observatory
Georgetown University Astronomical Observatory

The Georgetown University Astronomical Observatory (also the Heyden Observatory and Francis J. Heyden Observatory) was founded in 1841 by Father James Curley of the Department of Physics at Georgetown College. Father Curley chose a site on the college grounds, planned the building, and supervised its construction to its completion in 1844. Costs were initially paid by Rev. Thomas Meredith Jenkins, S.J., and Rev. Charles H. Stonestreet, S.J., who were Georgetown professors at the time. The observatory was used in 1846 to determine the latitude and longitude of Washington, D.C., which Curley determined to be latitude 38°54′26N and longitude 5h8m18.29s (west of Greenwich).In 1850, Benedict Sestini used the observatory to make a series of sunspot drawings, which were engraved and published (44 plates) as "Appendix A" of the Naval Observatory volume for 1847, printed in 1853. In 1888, Johann Georg Hagen was named director. He was responsible for the installation of the 12-inch equatorial telescope with which for twenty years he observed and gathered data on variable stars. This instrument is still in continuous use. In 1928, Paul McNally became director. Francis J. Heyden, S.J. became director in 1945, and continued research into solar eclipses. In 1972, Georgetown University closed its Department of Astronomy, and the observatory was used by the Georgetown University Astronomical Society. Light pollution from surrounding Washington, D.C., has limited viewing celestial bodies from the location. On July 2, 1973, the observatory was designated as a U.S. national landmark National Register of Historic Places. The Georgetown University Astronomical Society has, with support of Department of Physics and Georgetown University, periodically sponsored renovation of the Heyden Observatory, which is now primarily used by the Laboratory of Entomology and Biodiversity directed by Edward M. Barrows. The Heyden Memorial Garden is on the east and north sides of the observatory. The garden has a conservation garden with native species; formal gardens; ponds with fish, frogs, water plants, and other biota; and trees including American beech, crapemyrtle, eastern redcedar, and English oak. The conservation garden is a monarch butterfly waystation. In 1989, as part of GU's bicentennial celebration, Professor Donald M. Spoon, who had a lab in the observatory at the time, organized the dedication of the garden. Father Heyden attended the ceremony. At the time, the garden was full of hundreds of iris species and cultivars, including new ones that Professor Spoon bred. Currently, Observatory Hill likely has thousands of species of archaens, bacteria, and eurkaryans, including animals, fungi, plants, and protistans. About 20 pollinator species regularly visit flowers on the hill. Currently the observatory is operated and maintained by the Georgetown University Astronomical Society.

The Fellowship (Christian organization)

The Fellowship (incorporated as Fellowship Foundation and doing business as the International Foundation), also known as The Family, is a U.S.-based nonprofit religious and political organization founded in April 1935 by Abraham Vereide. The stated purpose of The Fellowship is to provide a fellowship forum where decision makers can attend Bible studies, attend prayer meetings, worship God, experience spiritual affirmation and receive support. The Fellowship has been described as one of the most politically well-connected and one of the most secretly funded ministries in the United States. It shuns publicity and its members share a vow of secrecy. The Fellowship's former leader, the late Douglas Coe, and others have justified the organization's desire for secrecy by citing biblical admonitions against public displays of good works, insisting that they would not be able to tackle diplomatically sensitive missions if they drew public attention.The Fellowship holds one regular public event each year, the National Prayer Breakfast, which is in Washington, D.C. Every sitting United States president since Dwight D. Eisenhower has participated in at least one National Prayer Breakfast during their term. The group's known participants include ranking United States government officials, corporate executives, heads of religious and humanitarian aid organizations, and ambassadors and high-ranking politicians from across the world. Many United States senators and congressmen have publicly acknowledged working with the Fellowship or are documented as having worked together to pass or influence legislation. Doug Burleigh is a key figure in the organization and has taken over organizing the National Prayer Breakfast since the death of his father-in-law, Doug Coe. The current president of the organization (starting in 2017) is Katherine Crane.In Newsweek, Lisa Miller wrote that rather than calling themselves "Christians", as they describe themselves, they are brought together by common love for the teachings of Jesus and that all approaches to "loving Jesus" are acceptable. In 2022, Netflix released a documentary called The Family which depicts the organization's influence on American politics throughout history.