Washington DC History Resources

Washington’s first bicycle craze — ‘Cycling in the 1880s and 1890s

A daredevil bicyclist riding his enormous two-wheeler down the Capitol’s House-side east front steps — it’s a famous image everyone recognizes. Any work even casually mentioning bicycles in Washington will refer to it; it’s been on the cover of books about Washington, but there’s much more to the story — of the photograph itself, of the event, of the 1890s bicycle craze in Washington it represented.