Potomac River | ALXnow

JUST IN: Tall Ship Providence to suspend operations on the Potomac River

Published June 22, 2026 at 4:15PM

The Tall Ship Providence sails to its new home, The Senator John Warner Maritime Heritage Center at Waterfront Park (staff photo by James Cullum)

The Alexandria-based Tall Ship Providence Foundation is suspending its educational and tour programs on the Potomac River, effective Friday, June 26, the organization announced today (Monday).

The decision, which was recently made by the nonprofit’s board, means Tall Ship Providence will be sold if significant funding is not found, the organization’s Executive Director Kathy Seifert told ALXnow. As it stands, the bar at the floating pier at Waterfront Park will stay open to pay for upkeep of the ship, which Seifert says will stay docked in Alexandria until the end of the summer.

News

Woodrow Wilson Bridge to open Monday night for Clipper Round the World Yacht Race

By James Cullum

Published June 22, 2026 at 3:45PM

The Woodrow Wilson Bridge at sunset (Staff photo by Jay Westcott)

The Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge will have a drawbridge opening briefly tonight (Monday) to allow for the passage of yacht race participants.

The drawbridge is scheduled to open at 10 p.m. to allow for passage of vessels participating in the 40,000-nautical-mile Clipper Round the World Yacht Race, the city announced. The bridge opening is expected to last 15 to 20 minutes.

News

Woodrow Wilson Bridge opening twice early Tuesday morning

By James Cullum

Published June 15, 2026 at 6:50PM

The Woodrow Wilson Bridge at sunset (Staff photo by Jay Westcott)

There’s more than one reason to stay up late — the Woodrow Wilson Bridge will be opening twice in the early hours of Tuesday morning (June 16).

The bridge will first open at 12:01 a.m. for the passing of the Gazela, a 19th-century fishing vessel docked in Alexandria over the weekend as part of the city’s America250 celebration. The opening will last 15 to 20 minutes, according to DC Police Traffic on X.

News

After NPS pump station denial, City Council advances alternate waterfront flood mitigation system

By James Cullum

Published June 15, 2026 at 3:45PM

Sandbags outside a business on lower King Street (staff photo by James Cullum)

With minimal discussion on Saturday (June 13), Alexandria City Council voted to move forward with an “enhanced gravity storm sewer system” to combat flooding along the waterfront in Old Town.

The City Council action was taken four months after the National Park Service denied the city’s plan to build a pump station at Waterfront Park (1 Prince Street). The city’s previously approved proposal would have closed Waterfront Park and Point Lumley Park from the fall of 2026 until the fall of 2028 to rebuild segments of the sea wall and to install the pump station to recirculate water in flood-prone areas back to the Potomac River. The denial by NPS forced the city to make “significant modifications” to the plan, project manager Matt Landis told Council.

News

City Council greenlights financing, first phase of Old Town North power plant redevelopment

By James Cullum

Published June 15, 2026 at 2:45PM

Proposed open space for the former PRGS site in Old Town North as seen from the Potomac River (via HRP Group)

The Alexandria City Council on Saturday unanimously greenlit construction and financing plans to redevelop the shuttered Potomac River Generating Station in Old Town North.

City Council approved property owner HRP Group’s plan to develop the first phase (Blocks B and C) of the six-block, 19-acre project with mixed-use apartment and retail buildings, create more than 10 acres of public open space and convert an old pump house into a community amenity. City Council also approved a $135 million financing deal for the project, which HRP Group says will catalyze more than $2 billion in private investment into the site. Deconstruction of the former power plant could begin as early as next year and is expected to take up to 20 months.

News

Alexandria dedicates memorial for victims of 2025 DCA mid-air collision

By James Cullum

Published June 2, 2026 at 1:45PM

Pilots at the dedication of the Potomac River Mid-Air Collision Memorial on Monday, June 1, 2026 (staff photo by James Cullum)

Surrounded by friends, family and regional leaders, a memorial was dedicated Monday at Rivergate City Park in Old Town North to the 67 victims of the mid-air collision near Reagan National Airport on Jan. 29, 2025.

To an audience of victim families, American Airlines staff and regional officials, Audrey Patel played an old happy birthday message from her husband, Vikesh Patel, who was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 5342. Behind Patel at the waterfront stands the memorial, a simple bench with the inscription, “May the 67 lives lost over these waters on January 29, 2025 be forever remembered.”

Around Town

New 20-foot sculpture quietly installed at TideLock development in Old Town North

By James Cullum

Published June 1, 2026 at 2:45PM | Updated June 2, 2026 at 12:31PM

Sculptor Christian Benefiel’s art installation in Old Town North (staff photo by James Cullum)

A new art installation near the Potomac River in Old Town North was quietly installed over the weekend.

Sculptor Christian Benefiel, on Saturday, installed and put the finishing touches on Beacon 3, a commissioned piece at the TideLock office-to-residential development (1033 N. Fairfax Street) in Old Town North. The piece was constructed over the last year from welded steel and resembles a nautical beacon and satellite with jet engine parts.

News

State health officials push safe swimming pledge after young child drownings rise in 2025

By Emily Leayman

Published May 21, 2026 at 2:45PM

Person swimming (photo via Brian Matangelo/Unsplash)

After pool drownings of children 5 and under reached a five-year high last year in Virginia, state health officials are urging families to take a “safe swimming pledge” as pools open for the season.

In 2025, there were 12 accidental drownings of children aged 5 and under in Virginia — more than the nine reported over the prior three years: three in 2024, two in 2023 and four in 2022. Virginia reported 473 drownings in all bodies of water between 2020 and 2024.

Around Town

Volunteers needed to help run four tall ship tours at festival next month in Old Town

By Emily Leayman

Published May 20, 2026 at 11:45AM

The Tall Ship Providence sails to its new home, The Senator John Warner Maritime Heritage Center at Waterfront Park (staff photo by James Cullum)

As Alexandria prepares for a major waterfront festival next month, the Office of Historic Alexandria is seeking hundreds of volunteers to assist with four tall ship tours.

The city put out a call for volunteers to take shifts at the Sails on the Potomac waterfront festival from June 12-14, one of the city’s America250 events celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. A highlight of the three-day festival will be free timed tours of four tall ships — Swedish Navy warship replica Kalmar Nyckel, Royal Navy schooner replica Sultana, historic fishing vessel Gazela and Alexandria’s own Continental Navy ship replica Providence.

News

Alexandria to install memorial for victims of 2025 mid-air collision next month

By James Cullum

Published May 6, 2026 at 11:45AM

On Feb. 5, 2025, locals in Alexandria gather at a vigil for the 67 victims of the Jan. 29, 2025 midair collision over the Potomac River (staff photo by Vernon Miles)

Alexandria leaders will install a memorial bench next month at Rivergate City Park honoring the 67 people who died in last year’s mid-air collision over the Potomac River.

The City, in partnership with U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-8), will install the memorial from 5:30-7 p.m. Monday, June 1, in the northeastern area of the park at 2 Montgomery Street in Old Town North. The memorial includes the bench, newly planted trees and a plaque with the names of the 67 victims from American Airlines Flight 5342 and the PAT 25 U.S. Army helicopter.

News

Community meeting lined up for power plant site’s mixed-use plan in Old Town North

By James Cullum

Published April 14, 2026 at 1:45PM

The overall view of Block B looking west along the Potomac River, at the former Potomac River Generating Station (via City of Alexandria)

The owner of the dilapidated former Potomac River Generating Station in Old Town is hosting a community meeting next month on mixed-use redevelopment plans for part of the site.

HRP Group‘s virtual community meeting will be held via Zoom on Monday, May 4 from 6-7 p.m. Under discussion will be the special use permits for Block B and Block C (both submitted in July 2025), as well as open space along the waterfront and Norfolk Southern rail corridor.