Paper mills and a nation's capital

the long version

The story of Washington, D.C. is more than the story of presidents and politicians. From 1805 to 1950 one or more paper mills operated in Washington, and Paper Mills and a Nation's Capital tells the fascinating story of paper manufacturing in the nation's capital. Robert Harrigan interweaves the stories of the mills with the national and world events that fashioned people's lives during this period. Harrigan provides a detailed history of Washington paper mills and the people and processes involved in paper manufacture. He relates how in 1809 Edgar Patterson, who published a local newspaper, began operating a paper mill at Rock Creek, where the P Street bridge crosses Rock Creek today. As hard as it may be to believe now, a paper mill once produced pulp and paper at the Georgetown waterfront. Harrigan also uncovers the operation of a paper mill in the Treasury Department during the Civil War. The mill was manufacturing paper currency that would be impossible to counterfeit.