Prohibition in Washington, D.C.

Even in the city where the Eighteenth Amendment was passed, the party went on—a history of bootleggers and speakeasies in the nation’s capital. Despite the passage of the Volstead Act, it was estimated that in 1929, bootleggers brought twenty-two thousand gallons of whiskey, moonshine, and other spirits into Washington, DC’s speakeasies—every week. The bathtub gin-swilling capital dwellers made the most of Prohibition. This rollicking history brims with stories of vice—topped off with vintage co