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For those who haven’t yet experienced the fourth you can check some video I took last year here. By the by, you can expect to see tons of fireworks beginning this week, peaking on Friday, but continuing throughout next week.
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What are the best places to see the ‘works BESIDES the Mall?
Anon – The Iwo Jima Memorial is a nice place to see the fireworks; less fighting the crowds and still a good view. The Key Bridge is a nice perspective, but you’re pretty far out and of course no grass.
Also, if you are looking to see the Mall fireworks, you can rent canoes or kayaks at the various boat houses in Georgetown, and paddle out on the river.
Alternatively, the Sherman Circle area has a heck of a show of its own – tourist-free!
Anyone been seen them from Cardozo High? That’s where I’m thinking of going this year.
Not to get everyone’s blood boiling…but I wouldn’t mind the fireworks in the neighborhood, if only everyone would pick up the trash. So annoying to pick up fireworks trash for a week. And aren’t fireworks illegal in DC? Just curious
Of course, I realize that many do not enjoy these fireworks in the neighborhood. It will be interesting to see a) how long before and after the 4th that Petworth is besieged by the fireworks, and b) if the response on PoP is any less incendiary on this topic than last year.
I hear the beginnings of this annual event last weekend. I should remember to pay some extra attention to the cats this week, as I am guessing they will be in a hidden spot come thursday night and may stay there through tuesday. Im all for fireworks and all of that, but there comes a point where it is just ridiculous and even destructive. Ive known people who have had to do some fairly major home repairs because of idiots firing roman candles and the likes at the neighborhood windows just to make people jump. And the trash that ShermanCircle mentions is just unreasonable. I dont understand the littering thing at all anyway…why do you want to mess up the place where you live? I dont understand the impulse just to throw whatever wherever. Even without thinking on the environment or the extra effort the city has to take to clean the stuff up…just for simple pride reasons…ugh…I digress. My only other issue with the fireworks is how long they can go. I mean, is it really entertaining still after 6 hours? I know that I have personally been entertained by setting em off for an hour, maybe two…but last year one nearby corner had them going pretty much at sundown past when I fell asleep ’round 3am. oh well, i do really just hope no one gets hurt or things get damaged.
I just can’t believe that those shops ONLY sell legal fireworks. My understanding was that anything that shoots, explodes, etc, is illegal. That basically leaves sparklers. Clearly they are selling more than sparklers here.
Yeah, it’s about that time of year where fireworks are rampant. There is something pretty cool about the neighborhood shows on the 4th. I just wish the kids would have the brains to stick to doing it on the 4th and at no other times.
In terms of best places to watch the downtown fireworks…get in your car and loiter around Georgetown…as soon as the fireworks start drive to Key Bridge and park on the bridge. You can see everything.
University of MD has a show and its not too far or hard to get from from Petworth. You can just park in one of their lots and sit in, on or around your car. Then you don’t have to fight traffic to get home.
These shops do only sell sparklers. Last summer, my first in DC, I spent ten bucks on what I thought were giant bottle rockets. yeah right! they were sparklers!
Sparklers sure come in a lot more varieties than they did when I was a kid.
“My understanding was that anything that shoots, explodes, etc, is illegal.”
Not after the Supreme Court ruling…
For those who want to get a jump on the season, there are fascinating shows happening already around the corner of Holmead and Oak, hosted by the Association of Neighborhood Boys age 12-15. The copious amounts of cracker jacks and other small explosives lit in the hand, then thrown at the feet of unsuspecting passersby is a Hallmark of this show.
If you’re lucky, you might catch the show on a day when this cranky neighbor lady is yelling at “you kids” to “knock it off” (reserving the right to substitute “knock it off” for “cool it!” “You’ll shoot your eye out” or other suitable and totally lame term that I promised myself I would never say when I became a grown up).
The National Cathedral is a good spot to watch the big show on the Mall. Also, if you don’t mind watching from a cemetery, Holy Rood Cemetery (I think that’s what it’s called, anyway) on Wisconsin Avenue in Glover Park (just up the hill from the Safeway) is a pretty good spot that gets fewer people than the Cathedral.
It sounds like many of you should move back to sterilized NoVA.
I say, bring it on. Street fireworks are fun to watch. Damage is minimal (unless your house is already in delapitated state) and trash? I think we can deal with if for one day of the year.
Actually, we have gotten use to trash on a daily basis..
Admittedly on a somewhat lover level, but trash nontheless. 
The only thing I don’t like about the street fireworks is that inevitably some people will get hurt – yes, they will. Even more sad is that some kids will because they do not know better. IMHO its a huge reason not to like them – heck, even ban selling them other than in a very limited and controlled way. Yeah, its the “more regulation is better than less in some cases” in me again
Hey, its not even something that has constitutional protection, or does it? Some sort of “the right of people to communicate with fire etc. shall not be infrindged” secret clause in there? 
Man, this is just like last year’s debate. That “Fourth of July” thread was hoppin’ until August, seems like.
I know! I’ve been waiting for this thread like Christmas!
I thought we would have to wait longer for the obligatory “move back to the suburbs if you don’t like noise and trash” post, but it’s already here. Because of course, all Northern Virginia suburbs are Whitebreadville, and trash and noise are fun parts of city living.
Now, who is going to bring up fire risk? That was a fun digression.
Last year’s fun:
http://www.princeofpetworth.com/?p=441
Fireworks, be they sparklers, m80s, firecrackers, or whatever,, infringe on the rights of those who chose not to participate (noise levels, injuries, police and emergency resources, threat of fire, etc.). For this reason, they should be illegal. The response to this obvious truth is always “lighten up” – like suddenly, those that normally make well-founded, cogent arguments in support of am opinion let go of their normal, respectable reasoning to force their unfounded predilection for incendiary devices upon the rest of us (the majority, actually). Please, see things for what they are.
While not defending fireworks, I don’t think that saying that everything that infringes on the “rights of those who choose not to participate” should be *illegal.* Perhaps that’s an argument for better regulation, but for straight-up illegality? That’s too broad a brush. There has to be a balance between competing rights here, including the right of people to enjoy an activity that, properly practiced, causes at the most a transitory “harm.”
ah, the fireworks.
Yesterday I drove my little zipcar by the stand on Upshur & 9th and saw a child not tall enough to reach over the counter (she was standing on her tippy toes to hand over the cash) buying fireworks. With her little sister.
Excellent.
Smoking, cookouts, candles or whatever infringe on the rights of those who chose not to participate (scent levels, injuries, police and emergency resources, threat of fire, etc.). For this reason, they should be illegal.
Cause if there’s anything more patriotic and community oriented than celebrating those who have not yet grown a frontal cortex lobbing explosives at each other, I sure don’t know what it is.
Viva 8 year olds with fireworks, and God bless America.