The U.S. Geological Survey recently announced that the old Fort Reno in Tenleytown is D.C.’s highest elevation point. Among those celebrating the designation over the weekend was Frank Haendler, 77, a retired civil servant and Tenleytown’s unofficial historian.
What is the high-point celebration?
There’s some disagreement as to where the high point in the District of Columbia is located. We knew and always knew that it was at Fort Reno in Tenleytown. … The U.S. Geological Survey has established it as 409 feet. It would have been 430 feet, but they created a reservoir when they tore down the old Fort Reno.
One of the names for Fort Reno was “The Summit That Saved the Union.” There’s a very interesting and true story that gave it that name.
What’s the story?
The famous raid when [Confederate Gen.] Jubal Early was late. He was late because of Fort Reno. Jubal Early was advancing on Washington … and he and his troops greatly outnumbered the troops defending the city, and [Brig. Gen. John] McCausland was the cavalry leader. And he was sent up what is now the Rockville Pike.
General McCausland was met with withering fire [from Fort Reno] and decided that it would not be possible to take Fort Reno. Early decided to divert and go up Seventh Street to Fort Stevens. That delay … gave enough time to the troops that [Union Gen. Ulysses S.] Grant had urgently dispatched from Virginia. Without that 24-hour delay, Jubal Early probably would have been sitting in the White House.
So, the high point has some relevance.
Does this designation have any deeper significance?
The significance is, of course, that because it’s the high point, it had such a pivotal role in the defense of the city.
But Tenleytown had been on the map, so to speak, for more than 60 years before the war. It’s the second-oldest community in the District. The reason that Tenleytown was settled was that it was a high point. They rolled the tobacco down to the port at Georgetown.
