Stopped on Chain Bridge on a Snowy Evening

Stopped on Chain Bridge on a Snowy Evening

After re-locating to the DC area from the California Sierras in the mid 1980s, we had an interesting experience with a small amount of snow.  I was teaching in Potomac, MD and living in Arlington, VA.  After work, I was to pick up my husband at George Washington University and head home.  On this day, my school was cancelled at 10 am, and everyone headed home.  Since it did not look like much weather to me and since I was to pick up hubby at 5 pm, I kept on grading papers.  At 4 pm I headed off in my trusty front wheel drive Hyundai.  There was less than 1 inch on the ground.  I recall having a vague  inclination to stop at the restroom prior to heading out, but really, this was promised to be no more than a 40 minute trip.  Well. . . I was wrong.  I could not get to GWU after 2 hours, so I headed home, confident that my Navy officer husband could navigate the metro and get home without me.  

I ended up on Chain Bridge around 8 pm. Now it was 4 hours since my identified bathroom break. Traffic did not move.. . . People ahead of me were observed shooting steamy streams out of windows or discreetly under doors.  The woods were a good 100 yards behind me--I was dead in the middle of the bridge.  I finally scrounged up a socket set from the trunk. And, yes, I peed in it.  I eased it out the door onto the bridge.  But. . . I had forgotten to take out the sockets!  quel dommage!  Several hours later. . . a steep hill and scenes from Dr. Zhivago.  Long story made short:  The sockets survived and hubby made it home through the sludge from metro to metro. But I think I had the greatest adventure of all.  

For anyone stranded on Chain Bridge. . . or anywhere else in the DC area tonight, I feel your pain.  

Stopped on Chain Bridge on a snowy evening

(S. Foster)

Whose choice was this I think I know.

I grew in landscapes filled with snow;

Where snow tires made space free and clear

Through forests forth to go. 

My little car must hang out here:

Those stalled without a driver near

Upon the Chain bridge and Potomac

The biggest snow storm of the year.

It purrs and perks amid the black.

A restroom is thing we lack.

The only vessel is a case

Of useless socket wrenches make.

The bridge is lonely, crowded space,

But I have time I have to race,

And hills to climb before home base

And evidence to still erase.