Prince George’s County, Maryland, officials celebrated the modernizing of one of their recycling facilities Wednesday afternoon.

The upgrades allow the county to produce higher quality materials for recycling and even make more money off the materials because they are less contaminated.

Recycling trucks are weighed before they back in tons of recycled materials into the Prince George’s County Materials Recycling Facility, or MRF. This is a non-stop process throughout the day.

鈥淥n a daily basis, we take in 250 tons per day,鈥� said Michael Bell, senior operations manager at the facility. 鈥淲e take in over 60,000 tons per year, and we process over 555 to 58,000 tons per year.鈥�

The new upgrade to the MRF are no-wrap fiber screens. They look similar to ninja stars that are constantly spinning. They are spaced out every few inches and allow fiber materials like paper and cardboard to float over, while plastic and other materials fall between the rods.

The original fiber screens would often get damaged by items such as plastic grocery bags winding around the rods.

Bell said the new upgrades fix that problem.

鈥淲ith this upgrade, these screens have allowed us to drop our downtime by 8% as well as we’ve seen the contamination levels across all our bales drop by 5%,鈥� Bell said.

All the materials are then packaged together in bales. When the bales are less contaminated by other materials, Bell said it allows them to make more money selling these recycled materials to companies that reuse them.

There are other benefits to less contamination.

鈥淟ess contamination in recycling is a big deal. Contamination leads to rodents (and it also) makes this job a lot harder for the equipment and the sorters that work on the line,鈥� Bell added.

These new fiber processing lines are just one of the many ways the MRF sifts through the recycling from 180,000 households.

There are also optical laser scanners and magnetic belt. These technological advances have led Prince George鈥檚 County to have one of the most successful recycling programs in the state.

Samuel Moki, the director of the Department of Environment for Prince George’s County, told WTOP: 鈥淔or us to install these fiber sorters, that is even going to help us recycle better. It’s even going to make our recyclable materials that we sell out in the in the market of much higher quality and much better revenue for the county, I think it’s a wonderful thing.鈥�

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After consistent problems with people hopping onto Metrorail tracks, Metro is planning to add platform barriers and doors to its most popular line.

The Metro Board of Directors will hear the latest step in modernizing the Red Line during its board meeting Thursday.

The proposal includes adding primarily glass barriers and doors that would stand roughly 5 feet, 6 inches tall. It would be the latest addition to the Red Line in Metro’s modernization plan, which added new signaling systems, equipment rooms and automated trains.

Metro said riders getting onto the tracks is a constant problem for the system. In 2026 alone, Metro has seen over 80 people trespass on the tracks and 10 people have died, according to the transit system. Generally, they see a trespasser about every three days.

Beyond the obvious safety concerns, Metro officials said people on the tracks cause significant disruptions for riders and platform screen doors will provide a safer and more efficient Metrorail.

Transit agency leaders said the partial glass barriers and doors will be installed in a way that maintains the historic architectural legacy of stations. They are also best designed to retrofit existing stations.

The project is in its early phases, where workers will survey different stations before they enter the engineering and implementation phases.

It is not clear exactly when these platform doors and barriers will be operational, but Metro officials said it would be completed no earlier than 2028. And exactly how the stations would operate while they are being installed is not clear.

Metro has also not yet disclosed the cost of the project.

Meanwhile, the Red Line, which has given commuters significant headaches with the shut down of three stations between North Bethesda and Friendship Heights, will still see significant station shutdowns and single tracking coming over the next year.

Metro has released documents showing a planned weekend shutdown between Silver Spring and Rhode Island Avenue stations for train control room replacement in February 2027.

The Red Line will also see an extended shutdown between the Twinbrook and Shady Grove stations for ties and bridge rehab starting in July 2027. An extended shutdown will start in August to rehab interlocking ties between the Union Station and Rhode Island Avenue stations.

Beyond 2027, Metro is planning a full Rhode Island Avenue platform rehabilitation.

Elsewhere on the rail system, the Orange, Silver and Blue lines will see a weekend shutdown on Oct. 17, between the Foggy Bottom and Pentagon stations. The West Falls Church yard will see a full rehab between July and November of next year. In August, the Blue Line will close from King Street and Franconia-Springfield for four days for interlocking tie replacement.

The Yellow and Green Lines will see a weekend shutdown from Hyattsville Crossing to Greenbelt from Sept. 5-7 for a train control room renewal. Weekend shutdowns are scheduled Sept. 19-20 and 26-27 for track rehabilitation.

An extended shutdown in July of next year is scheduled between Georgia Ave and Hyattsville crossing.

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The national average for a gallon of gas hit $4 Monday morning as strikes continue in the war in Iran.

WTOP spoke to commuters who were filling up their tanks and already seeing the price go up.

鈥淚t’s hard for the pocketbook,鈥� Annie Covito told WTOP as she was filling up her tank at a gas station in Fairfax County, Virginia. 鈥淚t is difficult at this time.鈥�

The price in the D.C. metro area hovers right above $4 a gallon, according to GasBuddy, a company that tracks gas prices. In the District, prices have risen around 15 cents just since last week.

The July Fourth weekend saw a low point for gas prices since the war with Iran began but averages in both Virginia and Maryland have risen by about 30 cents per gallon since the holiday. The average price per gallon has risen in every state for the second week.

鈥淚鈥檓 paying right now for what I’m paying before at least $15 to $20 more, that’s a lot,鈥� Teodros Habtemariam said. 鈥淎s long as the war with Iran continues 鈥� ceasefire here, and then ceasefire is broken 鈥� we’re not getting any solutions. So I hope they sit down and figure out something because the American people are hurting.鈥�

Analysts with GasBuddy said the war in Iran and turmoil around the Strait of Hormuz continues to weigh on the exporting of crude oil. In addition, continued Ukrainian attacks on
Russian oil refineries are further straining the supply of gas.

鈥淲ith WTI crude approaching $85 per barrel in Sunday night trading, price-cycling markets are likely to see another jolt higher in the coming days, and motorists should brace for a rougher stretch ahead,鈥� said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, in a statement.

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On July 10, detectives with the Montgomery County Police Department said an unknown man entered the Georgia Avenue location of The Angry Jerk restaurant鈥檚 bathroom at around 10:34 p.m.

He then proceeded to stab another man multiple times before running away from the scene.

Detectives are now looking for the suspect and have released surveillance footage. The man is described as black with long locks of hair. He is about 6 feet tall and around 30 years old, police said.

The suspect was wearing a black shirt, blue jeans, tan sneakers and a tan and burgundy baseball hat.

Anyone with information is asked to contact . Tips may remain anonymous.

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Commuters have dealt with the partial Red Line shutdown for over a week, waiting in long lines for shuttle buses traveling between the North Bethesda and Friendship Heights Stations.

While it is costing Metro commuters time, drivers are paying if they are caught using the temporary bus lanes created for the shuttles on Rockville Pike and Wisconsin Avenue.

Along Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda, Maryland, drivers see meters covered in red bags with signs reading “bus lane” and “no stopping.” Parking signs have been temporarily covered, but underneath, a sign reading “If towed call 301-279-8000” remains visible.

Still, in just a short time in Bethesda, WTOP spotted several cars parked in these new bus lanes with flashers on and buses merging into center lanes to pass.

Metro Transit Police has handled the vast majority of enforcement for these new bus travel lanes along the 7.5-mile route between the stations.

In their first week enforcing these lanes, officers have warned over 570 drivers to steer clear.
They have also written 37 parking tickets and 15 traffic tickets. Each ticket is $60. Montgomery County police are also assisting in enforcement, but the primary agency is Metro Transit Police.

These lanes will be enforced from 6:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday, until full service is resumed on the Red Line and the Grosvenor-Strathmore, Medical Center and Bethesda stations reopen. The construction includes adding a Purple Line mezzanine at the Bethesda station and completing other routine work.

The work is scheduled to be wrapped up on Sept. 6.

And while many of these bus lanes seem to be frustrating drivers, some may become a permanent addition to Maryland Route 355.

The Maryland Department of Transportation will evaluate whether bus lanes should remain between the Capital Beltway and Marinelli Road; they may extend the pilot program to see how it impacts traffic during the school year and when Metrorail has reopened.

They will also gather public feedback from residents and businesses on the effects of the bus lanes before any final decision is made.

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The Fairfax County Police Department said its officers are employing technology that utilizes artificial intelligence to better serve Virginia’s most populated county.

WTOP was invited inside the department’s Real Time Crime Center to learn about these new technologies, notably their response drones and body cameras that double as AI tools.

Axon body cameras

鈥淏ody cameras today in 2026 are no longer just tools for recording footage. They’re not just tools for transparency and accountability in law enforcement,鈥� said Fairfax County Sgt. Evan Brandolino, who oversees the body camera program and digital evidence management system.

Officers in four of Fairfax County鈥檚 eight districts, are now issued an Axon Body 4 camera and with it comes numerous features, including a real-time translation application that can help officers communicate in 57 different languages. About 35% of households in the county have a primary language other than English and over 180 languages are spoken throughout the county, according to census data.

鈥淭his camera is filling a critical gap when officers are first on scene of an emergency and they’re trying to get, you know, a suspect description, direction of travel, those key pieces of information, and they don’t have time to wait for an interpreter to show up or to take out their phone and dial language line and wait to be connected,鈥� Brandolino said.

Brandolino demonstrated how the camera is used. He pushed a button on the camera and it responded, 鈥淪ay translate to X for auto detect. Then release button.鈥�

In the scenario with another officer, he proceeded to have a conversation in Urdu about a missing child, gathering details about when he was last seen and what clothes he was wearing. He proceeded to demonstrate the same capabilities in Spanish.

鈥淲e’ve seen officers use it in probably close to 20 languages at this point. About 80% of the time, it’s been Spanish, and that’s just due to the makeup of our population and the districts where we’ve been testing it,鈥� Brandolino said. 鈥淏ut we’ve seen Italian, Korean, Russian, Chinese, all sorts of languages be translated in the field.”

Another new feature of the Axon camera is Draft One, an AI-assisted police report writing system. Draft One takes the footage from the officer worn body camera and generates a rough draft of a police report.

鈥淚t’s sort of an answer to the question of how do we minimize the amount of time that officers are stuck behind a keyboard or at a desk writing police reports and maximize the amount of time that they are in the field responding to calls for service,鈥� Brandolino said.

Brandolino said officers still must edit the draft composed by AI to ensure it’s accurate.

鈥淲hat might have been hours of report writing, and it condenses it into 15 minutes, 30 minutes. We’ve seen incredible time savings for our officers,鈥� Brandolino said.

Draft One is allowed to be used for all crimes except homicides, sex offenses and critical incidents such as police shootings.

Drone as first responder

The Fairfax County Police Department said it’s leading the capital region in its use of drone technology. The Drone as First Responder program, or DFR, launched within the county earlier this year. The department currently operates 13 drone launch sites with a planned expansion to 18 sites across the county.

These drones have a 2-mile radius of operation and can arrive to the scene of a reported crime in an average of around two minutes.

鈥淚t’s changing policing in a number of ways. The biggest one is that we’re able to get intel to our officers and firefighters on the ground, most of the time before they actually get there. So, we’re able to provide that critical data,鈥� said Second Lt. Brad Woehrlen, who runs the standards and training for the Drone as First Responder and drone team programs.

Woehrlen said the drones came in handy during the July Fourth weekend, when they were called to a number of house fires. They were able to get on the scene for a number of them before fire crews arrived and provide crucial data that helped decide what resources they needed for each particular incident, according to Woehrlen.

Police said they’ve also had incidents during which cars had run off the road and the drone was able to spot the vehicle before police and fire crews arrived. It has been useful for finding missing people.

鈥淪everal months ago, a caller called in what they believed was somebody with a bow and arrow in the median on a major roadway,” Woehrlen said. “Obviously, this is going to generate a massive response.鈥�

He said the response to that call would have been expansive and could have involved shutting down the entire road. But the drone was able to get overhead and notice that it was not a bow and arrow; instead, it was somebody with a stick.

鈥淚t was a perfect de-escalating tool. So, in situations like that, getting that data there before the officers got there proved invaluable,鈥� Woehrlen said.

Fairfax County’s Drone as First Responder program just surpassed 1,500 missions this year and 70% of the time they are first on scene to an emergency, according to data from the department.

With police eyes in the sky, many may have concerns about privacy; Woehrlen said they take these concerns seriously when going through their extensive drone operator training.

The drone can be sent directly to locations mentioned on 911 calls and while en route cameras are continuously forward facing until they get to the incident.

鈥淲e train very hard to make sure that we have the best remote operators on the department,” Woehrlen said. “We put them through a rigorous training program to make sure that they’re able to respond as best they can to help our community.”

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With the heat and thunderstorms the D.C. region is facing this summer, it may be hard to make it to the playground to let the kids run out some energy. The National Building Museum is making it a little easier as its Great Hall is now home to a 14,000-square-foot playground designed to thrill young ones and encourage their creativity.

鈥淚 think it’s pretty great. There’s a lot of different things to do,鈥� said Micah Venteau-Kock who just climbed a wooden rock wall with his younger brother.

The Playground, designed by New York-based Snarkitecture, features nine distinct activation areas that highlight construction materials like plywood, scaffolding and construction framing.

鈥淲e are about buildings and we are about the process of building,鈥� said Cathy Frankel, the museum鈥檚 deputy director for interpretive content. 鈥淵ou can understand the process of building while you’re playing here at the playground.鈥�

Some of the features include an adventure yard where kids can build objects themselves using child-friendly tools and materials.

鈥淚t鈥檚 got real building materials, plywood and pieces of pipes to create marble runs and all sorts of fun things with small motor skills, large motor skills. There are sculptures for them to add to, a great way for kids to sort of get their hands dirty, so to speak,鈥� said Frankel. 鈥淚t’s a kids-only zone. We want kids to experiment on their own. Parents can watch from the sides.鈥�

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Orit Underwood tried to build a wooden table, but she said it did not go well.

She also tested that giant plywood hill at the center of the playground.

鈥淚 think the slides were a little bit bumpy, but everything else was pretty fun,鈥� Underwood said.

鈥淭he hill that is the centerpiece of the playground. We have spanned over our fountain,鈥� added Frankel. 鈥淚t’s both a space for sitting and resting and contemplation. But there’s also a couple slides and there is a very low tunnel that goes through it.鈥�

Children can also run through a maze of winding, curving building frames, dig in the sand pit, test their basketball skills at the indoor basketball court and relax in hammocks after hours of play.

鈥淣o bugs in here, unlike other playgrounds,” Frankel said. “Lots to see and lots to do and we’re hoping people come back over and over again this summer.鈥�

Tickets for The Playground and the museum . Several time slots during weekends have already sold out.

The Playground will run in the National Building Museum until Aug. 30.

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Food and Friends prepares over two million meals each year for people in the D.C. region who are battling serious illnesses. The organization expects to double its impact with a $30 million addition and renovation.

The first shovels went into the ground Monday at Food and Friends’ headquarters in Northeast D.C.

The 17,000-square-foot expansion will dramatically impact how many people the organization can serve on a daily basis, the nonprofit said.

鈥淭he demand has been so high, and so we need more room. And we’re really, really excited to be kicking that off,鈥� Food and Friends CEO Carrie Stoltzfus said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to be able to more than double what we do.鈥�

Food and Friends currently packages roughly 7,100 meals per day and delivers throughout the D.C. region in an area approximately the size of Connecticut.

Staff described the current building as bursting at the seams, with many rooms doubling as food storage.

“Most of the expansion space will be for food production and food storage because that’s really what drives everything else that we do and why we’re all here,” Stoltzfus said.

The new building, set to be completed in May, will include a state-of-the-art kitchen. The current kitchen will be transformed into a chilled food packing room.

The expansion also adds private nutrition counseling rooms for clients who are battling diseases such as cancer, AIDS, renal failure and other illnesses.

All clients of Food and Friends are referred to the program by healthcare providers. Dietitians and chefs have developed 11 meal types tailored to specific health needs.

Rebecca Kahn, director of nutrition services at Food and Friends, said its food is medicine, leading to better health outcomes.

鈥淗ospital visits are going down as compared to before getting our services. Clients are saving money on healthcare costs,鈥� she told WTOP.

Loris Adams is a volunteer and a former client who received meals from Food and Friends while she battled ovarian cancer. She鈥檚 thrilled with the expansion.

鈥淧eople like me, people like your neighbors have an opportunity to be fed and nourished 鈥� body, soul and spirit 鈥� while they’re going through really hard and difficult times,鈥� she said after the groundbreaking.

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Those in the Georgetown area may hear loud booms or feel the ground shaking this week and throughout the next year, thanks to construction related to a new wastewater tunnel.

D.C. Water will be conducting controlled blasting roughly every two weeks near the Canal Road entrance to Georgetown University.

Workers are blasting a deep shaft into the northern end of the 5.5-mile Potomac River Tunnel Project.

During blasting an air horn will sound off in the area and drivers and pedestrians will be stopped for a few minutes as they do the demolition. A final air horn will sound when the area is clear and traffic can again begin moving. This blasting will continue until June 2027.

Two tunnel boring machines will dig the tunnel. One will travel 2.4 miles to the Georgetown site, the other will dig just over 3 miles to Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling and connect the existing Anacostia River Tunnel.

The entire tunnel project is expected to wrap up in 2030. Once complete, it will help keep sewage out of the Potomac River during heavy rains.

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The District Fringe Festival returns for the second year beginning this weekend. It has become a place for new artists, actors and playwrights to showcase their work for a live audience.

鈥淲hen it’s on the page, it may be a wonderful read, but it only lives on stage. That’s the only way you really know if it’s successful,鈥� said Karen Lang, director of advancement for District Fringe, about new dramas, comedies and musicals.

For three weekends, District Fringe is focused on giving these shows an affordable platform and an audience.

鈥淵ou’re just starting out, and no one has heard of you. Getting an audience in is hard. I鈥檒l tell you that getting an audience is hard, even when you鈥檝e been established, and so we give them that,鈥� Lang said.

According to Land, even renting a theater space in the D.C. area can run upward of $5,000 and instead, playwrights and directors can pay just $400 to showcase at the Fringe festival.

鈥淲e’re the cheapest game in town for you to get your work on stage, and for you to be able to have an audience that comes because a festival brings more people,鈥� she said.

Lang and other organizers curate District Fringe to provide a wide array of 20 plays, spanning drama, comedy, musical, puppetry, choreo-poem and improv.

鈥淲e have an improvised ‘Who Did It’ murder mystery, we have a show that takes place with a teenage girls’ volleyball team, and it goes a little nuts. We have a puppet show that is kind of adult themed,鈥� said Lang.

And while the sets are not expansive and complicated like the ones you may see during a Broadway show, Lang said playwrights can still tell a great story without 鈥渇alling chandeliers.鈥�

鈥淵ou can get the same feelings, the same sort of lesson in empathy with a small stage and with the humans that are acting up there and the director who has guided the production. It’s going to hit you, and I think sometimes the intimacy of that is really a big part of it,鈥� she said.

District Fringe will have three venues this year, including the Flicker Bar and box office, where they will host live stage readings.

The Phoenix Main Stage is located at the University of the District of Columbia, where full productions will be staged in a converted black box theater. The Firefly Amphitheater is outdoors and will offer primarily free programs.

Tickets can be purchased for each show on District Fringe’s. cost $15. You can also get tickets at the door. They also offer ticket packages to see multiple shows at a discount.

鈥淚 think in this era when theaters are closing down. It’s crucial that people come to see live entertainment. Theater and performing arts teach empathy,鈥� Lang said. 鈥淵ou can relax, you can watch the show, you will be entertained no matter what kind of show it is, and you may walk away with something different than what you came in with.鈥�

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Many think this Italian grocery and deli is one of the best kept secrets in D.C. and it has been that way for over a century. Last month, A. Litteri, near Union Market, celebrated its 100th year in business.

The store was opened by Antonio Litteri, a Sicilian immigrant, in 1926. Their location on Morse Street NE, just a block from Union Market, is technically their third location, but they have been in the same building since 1932, according to current owner Max Evans.

Litteri鈥檚 brother-in-law joined the business; for generations it was run by the DeFrancisci family.

Evans bought the business in 2019 after selling wine to A. Litteri as a distributor for years.

鈥淭hat’s kind of how I ended up taking over the store,鈥� Evans said. 鈥淚 got to know this place. I’m from D.C. I was born in D.C., but as a kid I didn’t even know this place existed, and that’s something that we hear every day.鈥�

Evans said the business gets brand new customers all the time.

Just last month, A. Litteri celebrated 100 years in business, and during the festivities, Evans said over 1,000 people stopped by for gelato or their iconic Italian sub.

The Italian grocery and deli is a place with hard to find items. Those include specialty pastas to Italian meats that many of your pasta recipes call for that are hard to find at your local Giant or Safeway, like San Marzano tomatoes and salty Guanciale.

鈥淭hat’s a prime example of the kind of thing that we always have,鈥� Evans said. 鈥淚t’s imported from Italy, and it’s the real deal, and that’s exactly the kind of thing that you can’t get at a regular grocery store.鈥�

There is also hardly a store in the D.C. region that has a more extensive list of fine Italian wines. But despite these specialty items, Evans said the store’s aim is to keep these culinary components as affordable as possible.

Evans said the rise of cooking tutorials on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok has also given rise to people search out these harder to find items to cook with in their own homes.

鈥淭hose things have a huge effect on the kind of things that people are looking for, and just people’s general comfort with food and wine as a whole,鈥� Evans said.

While these groceries are a thriving business, the real draw for most are their sandwiches.

鈥淲e tend to be a little bit more affordable than a lot of other places doing similar things, and that is intentional, and it’s because I want to keep this place available to as many people as possible,鈥� Evans said. 鈥淲e really try hard to keep the prices down for subs.鈥�

The most famous sub is the classic Italian on a hard roll, packed with capicola, Genoa salami, mortadella, prosciuttini and provolone.

During the lunchtime rush, hungry people fill out their order form and hand it to the deli counter, and minutes later receive the deli delight wrapped in butcher paper.

Over its 100 years, A. Litteri has seen a lot of change in its Northeast D.C. neighborhood, transitioning from a more industrial area to now a gentrified area with high-rise apartment buildings and Union Market just down the street.

Evans said this growth has actually improved business rather than pricing the Italian store out of the area.

鈥淭he changes in the neighborhood have brought way more residents,鈥� Evans said. 鈥淧eople with more disposable income, so we have a level of neighborhood foot traffic that the store never had for 90 years.鈥�

Evans hopes they can stay open for another 100 years and credits his loyal customers.

鈥淲e owe it completely to our customers, we have unbelievable, loyal customers that, in lots of different hard times over the years, have turned out for us, and so we don’t take it for granted,” he said.

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A popular record store in Alexandria, Virginia, that saw much of its merchandise destroyed by flooding in January, has found a new home after nearly six months.

The good news for customers is that it is just blocks away from their previous location.

Crooked Beat’s new home is on the same street, Mt. Vernon Avenue, in the Del Rey neighborhood of Alexandria.

鈥淚t just feels great that we’re going to be in this neighborhood, and our customers are very, very happy,鈥� said Bill Daly, the store鈥檚 owner.

The previous store saw several devastating floods in January that destroyed hundreds of records, some decades old.

鈥淥ver $107,000 in damages, and we got zero compensation,鈥� Daly said.

Daly said they were told the basement area never floods when they moved in, but eventually found the place was flooded, forcing them out of the location. For months, the store was only open online and during certain pop-up events.

Kourtney Pompi with Crooked Beat told WTOP that they lost not only the physical location.

鈥淭here鈥檚 just been also a loss of the community by not being able to come into the store, but it’s been wonderful to see how they’ve been able to come out in the ways that they have, despite us not being open,” Daly said.

That strong support from customers even led to their new location. A longtime supporter, almost three decades, stepped in and bought a row house store location for the business.

鈥淪he came and looked at it with us, and she said basically, I’ll buy the building and you move there,鈥� Daly said.

What drives this type of loyalty?

“We talk about music, we’re passionate about it,” Daly said. “We can talk to people about Chuck Brown, we can talk to people about Fugazi, Led Zeppelin, Radiohead, The Clash. A lot of people who are deeply into music can come here.”

They expect to open the new store on Mt. Vernon Avenue in mid-August.

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Metro is partially shutting down the Red Line. The stations at Grosvenor-Strathmore, Medical Center and Bethesda closed Monday morning, and shuttle buses are running between North Bethesda and Friendship heights.

There are express buses that take you straight from Friendship Heights to North Bethesda. Other buses will take riders to each station that’s closed.

During that early morning commute, over a dozen buses were constantly lined up at the North Bethesda station on Rockville Pike, so riders didn’t have to wait very long to board.

The main work will be at the Bethesda station, where workers were building a new mezzanine to connect with the future Purple Line.

Some rehabilitation and track work will also be done at other stations.

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In the D.C. region, conversations often start with, 鈥淲hat do you do?鈥� WTOP鈥檚 鈥�Working Capital鈥� series profiles the people whose jobs make the D.C. region run.

The task seems like a cruel punishment from a vindictive Naval officer, but instead it is the meticulous work of a handful of preservationists at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

鈥淲e’re charged with making sure that the boat makes it for another 250 years,鈥� said Peter Fix, lead conservator from Texas A&M University.

In the temperature and humidity-controlled room at the museum, Marissa Agerton, a research assistant with Texas A&M, lathered a small cotton swab with an ethanol mixture and slowly started cleaning the 250-year-old awning piece from the Gunboat Philadelphia.

The team cleaned “about one square foot an hour, give or take, depending on how dirty it is,鈥� Fix said, adding that there were a staggering 7,200 square feet aboard the last surviving U.S. ship from the American Revolution — all requiring the same Q-tip cleaning.

鈥淪urviving鈥� is a strong word. The Philadelphia, captained by Benjamin Rue, was sunk by a British fleet during the first day of the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain.

The exact cannon ball that sunk the gunboat was found aboard and is displayed in a claw-like holder emerging from the hole in the hull. The arrow marked on the cannonball identifies British artillery.

Cannons on the bow and each side of the ship remained as it was raised, several of them still had shot loaded down the muzzle.

And while the Americans, lead by a yet-to-turn-traitorous Benedict Arnold, lost the naval battle, they delayed British forces from sailing down the Hudson River and cutting the colonies in half.

鈥淭hey do sail down to the American fortifications after the battle, and they take a gander, and they say, ‘we don’t have what’s required in order to do this,'” said Kenneth Cohen, curator of Early America and Chair of the Division of Military and Society at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. 鈥淭hey turn around and go back to Canada, and one of the Americans who’s there writes to his father, who was governor of Connecticut at that time, and he says, ‘Delay is to us a victory.’鈥�

The Philadelphia was raised from the lake bed bottom in 1935 and installed in the museum in the early 1960s. Since that time, it has seen previous preservation projects, including a coating of liquid nylon.

鈥淭hat liquid nylon now is 60 years old, and that is starting to get really tight,鈥� Fix said. 鈥淪ince the liquid nylon is only on one side it is beginning to peel these little chips off the boat.鈥�

The conservator said if 鈥測ou breathe on it鈥� wrong, these chips can easily come off.

As visitors look at the gunboat, they may also notice small nodules along the hull. These are the areas where the iron nail fasteners oxidized into the wood.

Fix explained these nodules are actually the original width of the planks before the bacteria in Lake Champlain started breaking down the wood. The microbes do not eat the oxidized wood as easily and instead eat around it.

鈥淭hat means that we’re actually looking at the inside of this plank as it was originally built,鈥� Fix said.

For the past year, Fix and the Texas A&M team have been restoring the Gunboat Philadelphia to as close to the original as possible, first dry cleaning it with vacuums and dusting and then moving to the ethanol water mix and cotton swabs to clean any grime away.

鈥淐leaning is actually a conservation treatment because all of this material impacts the ship in a different way,鈥� Fix explained.

Some of the materials they try to remove are skin cells, dust or any pollutants that may come from outside the museum.

The work has been expansive, cleaning the entire outside hull, as well as every nook and cranny on the deck, trying to restore the boat to as close as it originally was as possible.

鈥淥nce you’re in the boat, you’re crouched kind of like goblin style, at certain points you’re getting like up and underneath,鈥� Agerton said.

And while the ship is 250 years old, it is quite stable to work on the deck. The conservators have studied the ship in detail and know the weight and geometric center of every plank on the ship (these measurements stored on a massive spreadsheet will come in handy when they have to move the ship for its more permanent display within the museum).

They also have to work underneath the boat. And much like a mechanic fixing an undercarriage, they need a flashlight and a rolling creeper to access the boats underside, which has been lifted about a foot off the floor onto a wooden track.

WTOP rolled a creeper underneath and spoke with Texas A&M research assistant Angela Paola.

鈥淲e would take these little tools that we made, basically little arms made out of like brass rods and paint brushes. We would stick them up in there and then sweep them around so we could sweep the debris out from here,鈥� Paola said.

Silt, mud and black walnuts that had been at the bottom of the boat was removed, often splattering onto their faces.

鈥淚 would have to get out and go to the bathroom to fish something out of my eyes, even with the goggles and the face mask on,鈥� Paolo said.

Not only do they have to worry about the dirt and grime that sticks to the boat, but also temperature, humidity and even the vibrations all around the museum.

鈥淲e have accelerometers, which measure tilt and vibrations that are happening in the building,鈥� said Jennifer Jones, the project director and curator for the Gunboat Philadelphia.

鈥淲e have a lot of mechanical systems in the museum that create vibration, and we have things that we are recording that are outside of this museum as well, including the Blue, Orange and Silver lines that go underneath the mall here on the east side of the building.鈥�

The crew at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History works under the public eye, rather than removing this piece of history during America鈥檚 250th birthday festivities. A large window allows passersby to view the crew as they clean the deck and work on the cannon that were still on board.

鈥淵ou want to be as friendly as possible and wave, but you can’t wave all day,鈥� Fix said. 鈥淧eople frequently think that we are AI or we’re actors. We’re not. We are real conservators.鈥�

鈥淚t’s been challenging at times, but most of the time the kids are just super excited,鈥� agreed Agerton.

The conservators have even started moving a teaching cart outside the exhibit into the public areas at scheduled times so they can get a better understanding of the project.

鈥淎rchaeology is a very exciting thing. Shipwrecks are a very exciting thing. It’s just going to engage the public, and so we’re just seeing that firsthand,鈥� Agertons said.

Both Paolo and Agerton agreed that working on the project as their first job out of graduate school was a dream come true.

鈥淲orking for the Smithsonian is not something you ever expect that you’re going to do working straight out of grad school,鈥� said Agerton, adding that it is 鈥渁 once-in-a-lifetime kind of project working on this Revolutionary War period gunboat.鈥�

鈥淚t feels like an impossible task when you look at it on the grand scale, but when you like lock in on like one spot at a time, and you know we’re all together working on the same project, so it goes by pretty fast,鈥� Paola said.

Once the preservation project is completed, the Gunboat Philadelphia will be placed back into permanent display.

WTOP/Luke Lukert

WTOP/Luke Lukert

WTOP/Luke Lukert

WTOP/Luke Lukert

WTOP/Luke Lukert

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Temperatures were pushing over the century mark Friday 鈥� so hot, you might think you can fry an egg on the sidewalk. I actually tried to fry an egg in this heat.

Trying to give it a little more chance of success, I decided to use my asphalt dark black driveway and a cast iron skillet to keep the mess to a minimum. I left it outside in the heat of the day for over an hour.

My car鈥檚 temperature reading said it was about one hundred degrees Fahrenheit at my home. An infrared thermometer showed that the asphalt and cast iron were 176 degrees.

As I put the egg in, there was only a plop rather than the sizzle I was hoping for. I was hoping instead to get a nice, slow-cooked egg.

Coming back 15 minutes and 30 minutes later, the egg didn鈥檛 cook much. Some of the outer egg whites burned and became brittle, but most of the whites stayed translucent and the yolk was extremely over easy, hardened just slightly.

This myth is busted.

According to culinary experts, you need about 275 degrees to properly fry an egg. I guess this blacktop driveway just can鈥檛 compete with a gas range.

Not the 101st way to cook an egg.

WTOP/Luke Lukert

WTOP/Luke Lukert

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