By John Kelly
Wednesday, July 19, 2006; B03

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to Silver Spring . . . there it was: a shark.

A great white, with a head 50 feet long and three stories high, a double row of leering triangular teeth and lifeless black eyes -- like a doll's eyes -- hanging off the side of the Discovery Communications building.

Yesterday, Yimer Bekele, Agnes Krofah and Darryll Flammer looked up at the massive shark while waiting at the Metro station for the S2 bus downtown.

"It's very nice," said Yimer, 65, of the shark, which consists of five blimplike appendages on the building's sides and roof: a head, a tail, a dorsal fin and two pectoral fins.

We were standing in the shark's path, roughly where a hopeful fisherman might ladle out a line of chum. If that huge shark were real, I pointed out, we would make a very tasty morsel.

"Then again, if it was real, it would be dead, wouldn't it?" said Agnes, 27, not unreasonably, given that:

a) The shark was out of water.

b) The shark was not in constant motion.

c) The shark looked as if it had been stuffed into a cat carrier two sizes too small.

Still, the effect was impressive.

"That's Discovery," said Darryll, 39. "They do grand things like that."

The giant inflatable shark is in honor of the cable channel's 19th annual Shark Week, which starts July 30. It's the centerpiece of a feeding frenzy of sharkocentric activity. The AFI Silver Theatre is showing Steven Spielberg's "Jaws" through Friday. Bars and restaurants are mixing up such cocktails as the Sharktini, the Sharkbite and the Land Shark.

Yesterday, the shark's handlers were admiring their handiwork, which was a year in the planning. A California company called CMEANN Productions Inc. began by building a scale model of the Discovery headquarters and then crafting shark bits out of cardboard and clay.

More than six miles of vinyl-coated nylon fabric were stitched together and airbrushed with the gray-white patterns of a Carcharodon carcharias . Then the shark was packed on a truck and sent east.

Two dozen workers from Hutchinson/United Rigging spent the weekend installing the shark with the help of a 230-foot crane. They used ropes and wires to attach the flaccid fish to anchors on the roof used by window washers.

To passersby it might have looked at first as if giant gray Hefty bags were being lashed to the building. Then the air pumps were turned on -- two run constantly for each part -- and the shark took shape.

"It was perfect weather for putting up an inflatable," said Ann Wawer , CMEANN's vice chairman. Not much wind. No rain.

"They're calling for our first storm tonight," Bradd Meadows , the Discovery building's engineer, pointed out yesterday.

Not a problem, said Ann. Even gusts of 40 mph shouldn't dislodge the shark. And if things got really bad, they would just slit the vinyl, let the air out and then repair and reinflate it later.

The prospect of a fully inflated shark's head torn from its moorings and plunging toward the street below, its gleaming white teeth swallowing up a hapless pedestrian, is just too horrible to contemplate. The only thing worse would be a flaming shark's head plunging toward the street below. Fortunately, Ann said, the fabric is flame-retardant.

"So he's a safe shark," said Gil Cowley , Discovery's vice president of exhibits and events, who's dreamed of doing something like this ever since 1983, when he saw a 10-story inflatable King Kong hanging from the Empire State Building.

The shark will come down Aug. 4. Discovery wouldn't say how much it cost, but if you want your own, you can probably get a deal. Ann said she still has the pattern.

Has all this talk of sharks gotten you hungry for some seafood? Then visit any area McCormick & Schmick 's today and order the popcorn Gulf shrimp appetizer with two dipping sauces. Or go to an M&S Grill and get the bacon-wrapped shrimp with chili lime vinaigrette appetizer. Proceeds will benefit Send a Kid to Camp, our annual campaign to raise money for a summer camp for at-risk youngsters.

To make your tax-deductible contribution: Make a check or money order payable to "Send a Kid to Camp" and mail it to P.O. Box 96237, Washington, D.C. 20090-6237.

To contribute online , go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/johnkelly . Click where it says "make a donation."

To donate using MasterCard or Visa by phone , call 202-334-5100 and follow the instructions on our taped message.

Our goal by July 28: $450,000 . Our total as of yesterday: $328,519.85 .