bridge at the little falls: Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s original plan for the Federal City called for a bridge over the Potomac River at Little Falls and one over the Eastern Branch (Anacostia River). In 1791 the Georgetown Bridge Company was chartered and subscriptions taken. On 1 July 1795 the company’s books were opened for 400 shares at $200 per share. Timothy Palmer was to undertake the erection of the bridge at Little Falls. The bridge, which opened for use on 3 July 1797, was a “wooden roofed-in structure” with high stone and iron abutments (BRYAN description begins Wilhelmus Bogart Bryan. A History of the National Capital: From Its Foundation through the Period of the Adoption of the Organic Act. 2 vols. New York, 1914–16. description ends , 1:243, 491–92; National Intelligencer [Washington], 16 Mar. 1808; Columbian Mirror [Alexandria], 12 Aug. 1797).