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Washington, D.C., circa 1924. "Union Garage." The Union Building on G Street, first seen here three years ago. Peripheral points of interest include laundry sorting and 30-cent haircuts. National Photo Co. glass negative. View full size.
Family Washings OK everybody jump in the washer.
The contrasting patterns are in the metal covers over the access to the insulators for the underground conductor rails used instead of overhead trolley wires in the City of Washington. Trolley wires were used elsewhere in the District of Columbia, and when the cars continued into Maryland.
At the bottom of this photo are some trolley tracks. There appears to be an interesting pattern in the bricks at several points along each track. I wonder if there was a reason for these patterns, other than being decorative. Perhaps they were a code for the trolley driver.
Thanks to jimboylan for the explanation for this. Even though they aren't bricks, they do look quite similar.
Still in business, and they have a picture on their web site that features a truck like the one here.
Looks like Bergmann's Laundry just tosses the dirty laundry up on top of the truck!
I'd bet there's another sign, just out of view, that says, "30-Cent Haircuts Fixed, 50 Cents".
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