- One man thought the noise was a sonic boom.
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- Another guessed he was hearing rolling thunder.
-
- When a woman feared it was a bomb or an earthquake, she
called the police. But they had no answers, either.
-
- No one in the Massachusetts Avenue Heights neighborhood
of Northwest Washington knows what is going on at the house of their neighbor,
the vice president of the United States.
-
- But one thing is certain: They're tired of the daily
blasting at the Naval Observatory that has shaken houses, rattled windows
and knocked mirrors off the walls.
-
- "None of the neighbors object to any construction
that is necessary in the Navy's view," said Nancy Nord, a community
activist who lives on Observatory Circle. "What we do object to is
that there is no sense of the magnitude, no warning about something so
intrusive to our lives and no clear sense how long this is going to go
or when it's going to stop."
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- The blasts, which last three to five seconds apiece,
have been going off two or three times a day -- as early as 7 a.m. and
as late as 11 p.m. -- for nearly two months, residents say. But neighbors
have received so little information from government officials about the
top-secret project that speculation is running wild.
-
- The leading theory: A security bunker is being built
for Vice President Cheney. The second most-popular guess: The government
is digging tunnels to spy on nearby embassies. In third place: A helicopter
hangar is under construction.
-
- As the government roots out terrorists around the globe
and gears up for a possible military confrontation with Iraq, nothing is
out of the realm of possibility, neighbors say.
-
- "After 9/11, when you hear a big blast for the first
time, you wonder what is going on," said Iza Warner, who had a mirror
fall off the wall of her home on Davis Street, a few blocks away from the
construction site. Warner called the police after guests at a dinner party
became frightened by the racket.
-
- "One guest said, 'Oh, my God, what is going on --
an earthquake?' " Warner recalled. "She said it sounded just
awful. I called the police, and they looked around but they couldn't tell
us anything."
-
- Thus far, the federal government's only response to the
residents has been a three-page letter that the observatory's superintendent,
David W. Gillard, sent to the advisory neighborhood commissioner, Rosalyn
P. Doggett, on Nov. 20.
-
- The blasting could last eight more months, Gillard said
in the letter, but the Navy has attempted to limit noise by silencing backup
alerts on trucks and removing most diesel-powered electric generators from
the construction site.
-
- He did not disclose the nature of the project, however.
"Due to its sensitive nature in support of national security and homeland
defense, project specific information is classified and cannot be released,"
Gillard wrote. "In addition, please understand we are severely constrained
by operation requirements to perform this project on a highly accelerated
schedule; therefore, it will not be possible to limit construction activities
to the daytime as you request."
-
- Doggett said the letter raised as many questions as it
answered. "I got back an information sheet that I thought was just
not pertinent," she said. "They do not have to tell us exactly
what is happening, but they do need to minimize the impact."
-
- The matter has alarmed D.C. Council member Kathy Patterson
(D-Ward 3), who said she has asked Deputy Mayor Margret Nedelkoff Kellems
to press White House officials to work out a resolution.
-
- "If the federal government is not being a good neighbor,
we'll elevate the issue to a level where something can be done," Patterson
said. "We want to know what we can know about what they're up to and
if they are able to be a bit more responsive."
-
- The Naval Observatory, which opened at 3450 Massachusetts
Ave. in 1893, houses many of the Navy's precious instruments used for measuring
time and astronomy. The house on its grounds was designated as the vice
president's residence in 1974.
-
- If residents' speculation is accurate and construction
workers are digging deep into the ground, the project would be going through
about 35 feet of common sand and gravel, according to federal officials
at the U.S. Geological Survey. Anything beyond that depth would hit tonalite,
an intrusive igneous rock similar to granite and common to this area.
-
- Phyllis Bonanno said her 89-year-old mother, who lives
with her on Observatory Circle, is "quite upset when the boom goes
off."
-
- "Everybody appreciates that there's always national
security issues," Bonanno said. "On the other hand, this is a
neighborhood. We're owed the courtesy of an explanation."
-
- To Davis Street resident Joe Rieser, the noise is "quite
remarkable. It's like thunder -- it rolls. The windows rattle. It's not
something I'm used to. I'm concerned whether there are cracks in my house."
-
- Navy spokeswoman Cate Mueller described the work as "infrastructure
and utility upgrades." She said that officials are continually monitoring
the project and have not discovered any physical damage to buildings on
observatory grounds. The vibrations from the blasts are below regulatory
standards for construction in the city, she added.
-
- "If people came to us with damage, we would work
with them on the claim," Mueller said. "Some neighbors are concerned.
We take that seriously. We're doing what we can to make things better."
-
- Longtime residents said they have never heard such sounds
coming from the Naval Observatory. Because they live in the nation's capital,
however, many say they are resigned to living in a secretive world.
-
- "Yeah, I'd like to know more," said Carol Hindle,
who lives on Davis Street. "But I do not trust that what I hear would
be the whole truth. This is Washington, after all."
-
- And because it's Washington, the situation also is laced
with political humor.
-
- "I just got back from Connecticut," said Warner.
"When I mentioned this to my nephew, he said maybe [Cheney] is drilling
for oil."
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- © 2002 The Washington Post Company
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