The Buoy Yard was a landmark on Washington’s waterfront for generations. Crowds gathered on the wharves when the Holly and Jessamine , 156-foot-long sidewheel steamers, maneuvered in the stream, their wheels churning the dark water, approaching or departing government dock. There’s now nothing to mark the yard’s existence, not even one of the massive iron buoys thrown about by the 1913 hurricane. US Lighthouse Service Tender Jessamine , 1885. Photo credit: United States Light