A CSX freight train derailed Friday in Southeast D.C., sending at least five cars toppling off of a bridge and into the Anacostia River.
The incident occurred around 3 p.m. The train was crossing a bridge in Anacostia Park just north of Pennsylvania Avenue when it derailed. Ten of the cars were damaged, at least five were in the water and several more were hanging off the bridge as of Friday afternoon, said Alan Etter, spokesman with the Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services.
No one was injured.
All of the cars were carrying coal, “which doesn’t really present a huge environmental threat, but they’re going to have to get it out of there,” Etter said. Some hydraulic fluid in the water was contained by a fire department boom.
Poplar Point is owned by the federal government, and the bridge is owned by CSX. The Environmental Protection Agency had been advised of the incident, and a federal investigation was expected.
A CSX spokesperson could not be immediately reached for comment.
