WASHINGTON'S BEGINNING, GROWTH, AND FUTURE 283 



GREAT AMOUNT OF WORK TO BE) DONi; 



No one can read the report of the 

 Park Commission, however, without real- 

 izing the great amount of work that 

 remains to be done. Of this, part of it 

 ought to be done at once — the sooner the 

 better. The great addition to the L'En- 

 fant plan made by the Park Commission 

 was the development of the park system 

 of Washington outside of its original 

 limits. The heat of Washington in the 

 summer was a circumstance that figured 

 much in the deliberations of the Com- 

 mission. They thought that the high 

 ridges and hills all about the city had not 

 been sufficiently improved as places of 

 summer resort. They sought to impress 

 upon Congress the necessity for the ac- 

 quisition of these tracts for park purposes 

 now, when the land could be bought at a 

 comparatively cheap price. They wished 

 to secure a circular zone running clear 

 from the hills overlooking the upper Po- 

 tomac beyond the Tennallytown pike, and 

 following a line of abandoned, but pic- 

 turesque and historically interesting, fort- 

 ifications erected during the Civil War 

 for the defense of Washington, extending 

 southeastwardl}'- clear around to the hills 

 above Anacostia and reaching down to 

 the Potomac below the Eastern Branch 

 (see map on page 245). 



I am very hopeful that some executive 

 agency will be given power to act and 

 to acquire this park zone bordering the 

 perimeter of the District from the hills 

 that command the beautiful Virginia 

 Palisades of the Potomac around to the 

 Anacostia hills that look across toward 

 the home of Washington at Mount Ver- ' 

 non. The connection between Rock Creek 

 Park and the Soldiers' Home and the 

 grounds of the Capitol and the Mall is, 

 of course, of the highest importance, but 

 is so plain a necessity that I think we may 

 safely count on its being carried out in 

 the near future. While Rock Creek is 

 beautiful and while the Potomac Park is 

 beautiful, the extent of the drives in 

 Washington is somewhat limited ; but this 

 outer park zone was developed, with its 

 entrancing views and vistas, so as to make 

 them noteworthy in the urban scenery of 

 the world. The Commission has pointed 



out that the park area of the city of 

 Washington is much smaller in propor- 

 tion to the population than the park area 

 of many of the great cities of the world. 



VIRGINIA AND the; DISTRICT 



The injury to Washington inflicted by 

 the retrocession of the Virginia part of 

 the District was serious, and one of the 

 questions that we ought to meet promptly 

 is whether we cannot retrieve some of 

 the ground lost by that egregious blun- 

 der. While I was in the White House 

 I conferred with the Representatives of 

 Virginia in the House and Senate to see 

 whether we might not procure some leg- 

 islation by the State of Virginia tender- 

 ing back all or a part of that which had 

 been retroceded. I found that since Al- 

 exandria had grown into a prosperous 

 city Virginia would never willingly part 

 with it, but that jurisdiction of the re- 

 mainder of the district, a considerable 

 part of which the United States already 

 owns — ^in the Arlington estate, in the ag- 

 ricultural experiment station on the Po- 

 tomac, and in Fort Myer — ^Virginia might 

 be willing to cede again to the govern- 

 ment if the government would acquire by 

 condemnation the beautiful Palisades and 

 the country back of it. In this way the 

 limits of Washington may be extended 

 across the Potomac and brought within 

 the improving influence of the govern- 

 ment treasury. 



The construction of the Memorial 

 Bridge, which has already been projected, 

 over to Arlington from the foot of the 

 Lincoln Memorial will doubtless greatly 

 facilitate some such arrangement ; and 

 then if Congress would build the ]\Iemo- 

 rial Bridge and a great broad boulevard 

 from the Memorial Bridge to ]\Iount 

 Vernon, as recommended by the Park 

 Commission, A'irginia would doubtless be- 

 come more amenable. We might thus 

 procure from Virginia and Maryland ces- 

 sion to the United States of the Great 

 Falls of the Potomac, which now lie be- 

 tween Maryland and A^irginia. but Avhich 

 ought to be a government reservation. 

 They are the most beautiful water falls 

 on the eastern side of the Appalachians, 

 within easy distance of Washington, and 

 should be incorporated in its park svstem. 



