Travel 2: The wonders of Washington DC - The seat of Government (v1.0)

To me Washington DC is a fascinating place. It is the beating heart of a powerful nation, and you feel the power and energy of this capital. To any student of US government and US history, the must-see places in the federal district there are the National Park Services’ the National Mall and Memorial Parks, the White House, Capitol Hill, the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress, and the National Archives. I will explore each, one by one, and primarily focus on its purpose, when it was built, who built it, and the historical context. Some of the memorials in the National Mall and Memorial Parks I will briefly touch on are the Lincoln Memorial, The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, The WWII Memorial, The Korean War Veterans Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr Memorial, FDR Memorial, the Washington Monument, and Jefferson Memorial.

There are many other places to see including historical houses, cabinet department buildings (the most interesting of which to visit are the bureau of engraving and printing and the FBI). great Museums and art galleries and performing arts and cultural establishments including the renowned Kennedy center of performing arts. The National Mall proper contains within it several great Museums and art galleries. These museums and art galleries, along with other museums like the Holocaust Museum, will be covered in a separate essay. These include the National Museum of American History (1064), The National Museum of Natural History (1910), The National Gallery of Art (1999), National Museum of American Indian (2004), National Air and Space Museum (1976), Hirschhorn Museum (1974), Arts and Industry Building (1881), Smithsonian Institution Building (1849), Freer Gallery of Art (1923), Arthur M Sackler Gallery (1987), and The National Museum of African Art (1987). The National Portrait Gallery is also worth a visit. 

The federal district (District of Columbia) is on the east bank of the Potomac River which forms its southwestern and southern border with Virginia, and it has a land border on the rest of the sides with Maryland. The Maryland Border form straight edges with a diamond shape with the points pointing north, east, and south and the edges about 10 miles. The Residence Act on July 16, 1790, approved the creation of the district at this location. As defined in the Constitution, the district is under the exclusive authority of congress and not part of any state (although there have been attempts to make it into a state). It is the capital of the US and sees over 20 million visitors per year. The Pentagon and Arlington cemetery is on the west side of the river in Arlington, Virginia. The CIA headquarters is also across the river in Langley, Virginia. The city is divided into quadrants centered on the Capital Building and there are as many as 131 neighborhoods. According to the 2020 Census, it has a population of 689,545 although during a normal federal workday it swells to a million. The city hosts 177 foreign Embassies as well as the headquarters of many international organizations, trade unions, non-profits, lobbying groups, and professional associations, including the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States, AARP, National Geographic Society, Human Rights Campaign, International Finance Corporation, and American Red Cross.

The National Mall is a landscaped park, and its surroundings are the heart of the district. The boundaries of the National Mall proper are Constitution and Pennsylvania Avenue on the north, 1st Street NW on the east, Independence and Maryland Avenues on the south, and 14^th Street NW on the West with the river beyond. It is about 3 Kilometers in length. The width is about 483 meters. The capital sits on one end, and the Lincoln Memorial is on the other end with the river beyond. In 1791 shortly after DC was picked as the site of the capital, Pierre Charles L’Enfant put together the plan for the city. It envisioned a garden lined “grand Avenue” for the National Mall. But it was never constructed. In the 1850’s, Andrew Jackson Downing designed a landscape plan for the mall. In 1902, The McMillan commission plan called for a radical redesign of the plan to focus on open spaces with lawn grass. Four rows of American elm trees planted fifty feet apart between two paths which would line each side of the vista. Buildings housing cultural and educational institutions constructed in the Beaux-Arts style would line each outer path, on the opposite side of the path from the elms. This plan was largely followed.  The Lincoln Memoria Reflection Pool is the largest of the many reflection pools in Washington DC. It is a long and large rectangular pool located on the National Mall, directly east of the Lincoln Memorial, with the Washington Monument to the east of the reflecting pool. 

The Washington Monument is an obelisk within the National Mall built to commemorate George Washington. Located almost due east of the Reflection Pool and the Lincoln Memorial, the monument, made of marble and granite and bluestone gneiss is both the world's tallest predominantly stone structure and the world's tallest obelisk, standing 554 feet 7+¹¹⁄₃₂ inches tall. It is the tallest monumental column in the world if all are measured above their pedestrian entrances. Construction began in 1848 and was halted and then resumed and then the stone structure was completed in 1884. Internal ironwork, the knoll, and installation of memorial stones were not completed until 1888. A difference in shading of the marble, visible approximately 150 feet or 27% up, shows where construction was halted and later resumed with marble from a different source. The original design was by Robert Mills.

The Lincoln Memorial is a stately memorial honoring Abraham Lincoln the 16^th president. The structure was constructed on reclaimed swampland by the Potomac River at the west end of the national mall. The cornerstone was laid in 1915 and completed in 1922. The building is in the form of a Greek Doric temple. The seated statue of Lincoln is 19 feet tall. Henry Bacon architected the memorial. The designer of the statue was Daniel Chester French.

The Jefferson Memorial was built between 1939 and 1943. It is a neo classical building in the west Potomac Park adjacent to the mall. It is directly south of the white house. John Russell Pope designed it. The bronze statue of Jefferson was added in 1947.

The Vietnam war memorial honors service members who served in the Vietnam war. It is in Constitution Garden adjacent to the National Mall. The memorial wall with the names of those who died was designed by architect Maya Lin. It was completed in 1982. The adjacent three soldiers were completed in 1984. The adjacent Vietnam Women’s memorial was completed in 1993.

The World War II memorial honors the veterans of World War II. Consisting of 56 pillars, representing U.S. states and territories, and a pair of small triumphal arches for the Atlantic and Pacific theaters, surrounding an oval plaza and fountain, it sits on the National Mall at the eastern end of the reflection Pool between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. Austrian American architect Friedrich St. Florian submitted its initial design. It was opened in 2004.

The Korean War Veterans Memorial is in West Potomac Park, southeast of the Lincoln Memorial and just south of the reflection Pool on the National Mall. It memorializes those who served in the Korean war. Cooper-Lecky Architects designed it. It opened in 1995.

The Martin Luther King Jr memorial is in West Potomac Park next to the national mall. It covers 4 acres and includes the stone of Hope, a granite statue of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. Lei Yixin sculpted it. It opened in 2011.

The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial is dedicated to the memory of the 32 president and to the era he represents. Dedicated in 1997 it spreads over 7.5 acres adjacent to the southwest side of the Tidal Basin along the Cherry Tree Walk in West Potomac Park. It traces 12 years of the history through a sequence of four outdoor rooms, one for each of FDR's terms of office. Sculptures depict the 32nd president alongside his dog Fala. Lawrence Halprin designed it. 

The official home for the U.S. president was designed by Irish-born architect James Hoban in the 1790s, who modeled his building after an Anglo-Irish villa in Dublin called the Leinster House. Rebuilt after a British attack in 1814 again by Hoban, the “President’s House” evolved with the personal touches of its residents and accommodated such technological changes as the installation of electricity. The building’s South and North Porticoes were added in 1824 and 1829. The building underwent major structural changes in the early 1900s under Teddy Roosevelt, who also officially established the “White House” moniker, and again under Harry Truman after WWII. Counting the Oval Office and the Rose Garden among its famous features, it remains the only private residence of a head of state open free of charge to the public. The White House today holds 132 rooms and six floors with the floor space totaling about 55000 sq feet. 

The home of the Legislature is Capitol Hill. The U.S. Capitol was built around 1793 atop Jenkins' Hill, now often referred to as "Capitol Hill," in 1793. Since then, many improvements and many additional buildings have been constructed around this site to serve Congress. It is to the east of the National Mall. The Capitol initially housed not only the Legislature but also the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court, the district courts, and other offices. By 1892 the building had reached essentially its present size and appearance. In 1897 the library departed the Capitol for its own separate building. The Supreme Court at last found a permanent home when its own building was completed in 1935. In 2008, the last major addition to the Capitol was completed when the Capital Visitors Center opened to the public. 

Despite its role as a coequal branch of government, the Supreme Court was not provided with a building of its own until 1935, the 146th year of its existence. In 1929, Chief Justice William Howard Taft, who had been President of the United States from 1909 to 1913, persuaded Congress to authorize the construction of a permanent home for the Court. Architect Cass Gilbert was charged by Chief Justice Taft to design "a building of dignity and importance suitable for its use as the permanent home of the Supreme Court of the United States. Neither Taft nor Gilbert survived to see the Supreme Court Building completed. Construction proceeded under the direction of Chief Justice Hughes and architects Cass Gilbert, Jr., and John R. Rockart. The construction, begun in 1932, was completed in 1935, when the Court was finally able to occupy its own building which is in the classical Corinthian architectural style. 

The Library of Congress, housed in three buildings, is the research library of the U.S. Congress, and is considered the national library of the United States. It’s also the largest library in the world, with a collection of more than 170 million items. The Italian Renaissance-style Jefferson building opened in 1897, nearly a century after the library’s founding. A new Art-Deco style annex Adams building opened in 1939 to hold the library’s ever-growing collections. A third major building, named for Madison, opened in 1980, doubling the library’s size. Today’s Library of Congress boasts 21 reading rooms, including the Main Reading Room, located in the Jefferson Building. In 2016 library had more than 3,000 people on staff and more than 38 million books and 70 million manuscripts in its catalog. It has 180 miles of shelves. 

Congress established the National Archives in 1934 to preserve and care for the records of the U.S. Government. From one building on Pennsylvania Avenue, the National Archives now has over 40 facilities nationwide including field archives, Federal Records Centers, Presidential Libraries, the Office of the Federal Register, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), the National Declassification Center (NDC), and the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS).

Washington DC has a long history and more and more monuments, memorials, museums, galleries, performing arts venues, and federal buildings have been added throughout history. I don't know of any other city in the US that has more things to see and do. It is a MUST to visit.