Washington
consists of territory on the Potomac River ceded to the federal government
by the states of Maryland and Virginia in 1788 and 1789. Designed
by Pierre L'Enfant, Washington became
the capital of the United States in 1800. In the War of 1812 it was
captured by the British and most of the public buildings were destroyed.
The main buildings had to be rebuilt including the White House (1817).
Washington consists of an area of 61.4 square miles and houses a population
of 529,000 (1997). It is now the legislative, administrative and judicial
centre of the United States.
(1)
Carl Schurz first visited Washington
in 1854. He described the city in his autobiography published in 1906.
My first impressions of the political capital of the great American
Republic were rather dismal. Washington looked at that period like
a big, sprawling village, consisting of scattered groups of houses
which were overtopped by a few public buildings - the Capitol, only
what is now the central part was occupied, as the two great wings
in which the Senate and the House of Representatives now sit were
still in the process of construction; the Treasury, the two wings
of which were still lacking; the White House; and the Patent Office,
which also harbored the Department of the Interior. The departments
of State, of War, and of the Navy were quartered in small, very insignificant
looking houses which might have been the dwelling of some well-to-do
shopkeepers. There was not one solidly built-up street in the whole
city - scarcely a block without gaps of dreary emptiness.
(2)
In 1862 Henry Villard visited
Washington. He wrote about the city in his Memoirs: Journalist
and Financier (1904)
Washington had changed greatly since I last saw it in August, 1861.
Owing to the increase of the regular Givernment officials by many
thousands, because of the vast growth of the public business in connection
with the war, the population had nearly doubled. At the time of my
departure, dozens of stores on the business thoroughfares and hundreds
of residences were to rent for a mere song. Now, not a building of
either class was unoccupied, and a high rents were asked and readily
obtained.
(3)
Jessica Mitford, Hons
and Rebels (1960)
We were told that Washington, like New York, is very
untypical of American cities. Yet we couldn't help feeling that much
of what was best in America was concentrated here in the capital and
was represented by this bright, sincere group of liberals. They had
little of the automatic cynicism, the inevitable wisecrack come-back
of the New Yorkers; at the same time, they were far from being the
dreamy-eyed, muddle-headed idealists portrayed by almost all the press.
They were
doers of deeds, planners of projects, and above all translators of
their country's principles and ideals into real life.
(4)
Rosalind
Franklin, letter to her parents
(August 1954)
It is beautifully laid out, with vast green spaces, trees
lining most streets,
no skyscrapers, and a high standard of architecture. There is a large
district, Georgetown, reminiscent of the best of old Hampstead, with
the difference that the buildings are bright and clean, built on a
hill above the Potomac river, in a good pinkish-red brick, with white
plaster. Immediately outside Washington and even running nearly into
the centre, also, are extensive woods in their natural state open
to all.
Available
from Amazon Books (order below)