WASHINGTON 



6194 



WASHINGTON 



Washington is coextensive with the District 

 of Columbia, the whole consisting of a tract 

 abou square miles in area, of which 



ten square in: map of Dis- 



trict and city, page 1810). The Potomac, here 

 nearly a mile wide, extends along the south- 

 rn border of the city ami is entered by 

 the Anacostia River and Rock Creek. The city 

 proper occupies the land between Rock Creek 

 and the Anacostia, but the former town of 

 Georgetown and various suburban districts, 

 though called by distinctive names, are for all 

 purposes a part of Washington. The land 

 slopes gradually from the low Potomac shore, 

 ami surrounding hills rise to heights of 300 to 

 400 feet. 



General Description. Unlike most American 

 cities, the national capital has been built ac- 

 cording to a systematic plan, conceived by the 

 nation's first President and carried out by a 

 French engineer, Pierre Charles L' Enfant. In 

 a general way this scheme has been applied to 

 both the city and the District. In 1902 an 

 elaborate city improvement plan was inaugu- 

 rated by the Senate Park Commission, con- 

 sisting of architects Daniel H. Burnham, 

 Charles F. McKim and Frederick Law Olm- 

 sted, and sculptor Augustus Saint Gaudens. As 

 a result of their labors Washington has been 

 greatly beautified and improved, and it can 

 justly lay claim to being one of the most ar- 

 tistic municipalities in the country. 



According to the original plan, the Capitol 

 building is the center of the street system. 

 Three streets, known as North Capitol, East 

 Capitol and South Capitol, and the Mall radi- 

 ate from it in straight lines and divide the city 

 into four sections designated as Northeast, 

 Southeast, Northwest and Southwest. The 

 Mall, an area occupied by parks, gardens and 

 grounds of various buildings, stretches west- 

 ward from the Capitol to the Washington 

 Monument. Were East Capitol Street con- 

 tinued as West Capitol, it would extend 

 through the center of the Mall. The names of 

 the four city sections are usually abbreviated 

 to read N. E., S. E., N. W. and S. W. Streets 

 running due north and south in these districts 

 are designated by numbers, and those which 

 intersect them at right angles are named by 

 letters. The exact location of a street is indi- 

 cated by the section abbreviation, as D St., 

 N. W., and K St., S. E. All of the houses in 

 any one section have their own set of numbers, 

 and there are one hundred numbers to a block, 

 the series increasing as the numbers recede 



from a Capitol Street. Besides the numbered 

 and lettered streets there are other thorough- 

 fares which radiate from special centers and 

 cross the straight streets diagonally. Tli 

 named for states of the Union, the central one 

 for Pennsylvania, the "Keystone State." 



Pennsylvania Avenue, the "backbone" of 

 Washington, is a beautiful and spacious thor- 

 oughfare which has become the great parade 

 ground* of the 

 city. It is four 

 and one-half 

 miles long, and 

 extends in a 

 northwesterly di- 

 rection, but not 

 continuously, for 

 it is broken by 

 the Capitol 

 grounds and by 

 those of the 

 Treasury and the 

 White House (see 

 map). In various 

 places where it is 

 intersected by 

 other streets it 

 opens into beau- 

 tiful open spaces 

 and small parks. 

 Washing- 

 ton's streets as a 

 rule are wide, ex- 

 cellently paved 

 and lined pro- 

 fusely with trees, 

 and they are not 

 surpassed in 

 beauty and spa- 

 ci ousness by 

 those of any 

 other city in the "FREEDOM" 



This bronze statue, crown- 

 country. ing the dome of the Capitol, 

 Important stands nineteen feet six 

 inches high and weighs 12,985 



Buildings. From pounds. It was modeled by 

 all parts of the Crawford (see page 1 

 city the most conspicuous object is the white 

 dome of the Capitol, crowned by a colossal 

 statue of Freedom. The building rests on a 

 plateau about eighty-eight feet above the level 

 of the Potomac, and faces the east. This im- 

 pressive structure is almost the first object that 

 greets the eye of the traveler as he emerges 

 from the Union Station, a few blocks to the 

 northeast, and it dominates that portion of the 

 city. The present edifice is the result of a 



