Alexandria, VA – The photo featured in July’s Unseen Old Town offers a grittier glimpse of our hometown.
We’re looking down the 100 block of South Union Street, approaching Captain’s Row. This photograph, taken by Julian Burke just after Tropical Storm Agnes struck in June 1972, captures a sandy, storm-swept street still bearing the mark of rising Potomac floodwaters.
Notice the sandbags bracing the doorways of the old warehouse on the corner—an attempt to hold back the surge brought on by Agnes’ heavy rains. Sand may also have spilled over from the Virginia Concrete Plant, just out of frame to the left. That site would later become the large office building that now dominates the east side of the block and overlooks Waterfront Park…