This is, understandably, a new perennial question:
“Dear PoPville,
I made an interesting observation a few weeks ago while commuting home from work. I was stopped in traffic at the top of 395 where the tunnel ends and I noticed the large storage door open next to the northbound lanes. Just inside the door sits a very large statue of a lion. It seemed like a very surprising thing to be stored in there. I’d be interested to know if anyone has the backstory on why it’s in there and where it came from. Feel like a weird DC secret.”
We’ve previously learned that:
“They’re the old statues from the Taft Bridge, which are made of concrete and were deteriorating so were replaced. That space (under the Capitol Crossing development) is a city storage depot/warehouse.
Fun fact – the Taft Bridge supporting structures (the arches) are the largest unreinforced concrete structures in the world.”