From Ghosts of DC
My great-grandfather, John Ashton Garrett, the “boy mayor” of Glen Echo, apparently went to the mat against the State Department defending one of his marshals, Charles P. Collins, who had the habit of firing his revolver (however inaccurately) in the direction of speeders unwilling to obey his orders, shouted from a moving bicycle, to stop.
This is back when the speed limit on MacArthur Avenue was 6 miles per hour. Later it went up to 12. You have to think that cops probably tended to side with cyclists back when they all rode bikes.
Check out the accompanying photo.
Even more interesting: the fine for speeding was set from $5 or $25. $25 in 1905 was about $1400...
Posted by: oboe | December 16, 2013 at 10:28 AM