LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES 



overcome by retaining only cross streets for 

 traffic, and turning them into transverse roads 

 of ample width, screened by embankments of 

 earth surmounted by trees on each side, and con- 

 nected, at the center of the park and in the exact 

 line of the vista, by bridges arching twenty feet 

 above the present roadbed. 



In this scheme most of the pleasure movement 

 would cross the park by slightly curved but toler- 

 ably direct drives located close to the transverse 

 roads, and nearly parallel with them, thus carry- 

 ing out more completely the generally elliptical 

 scheme of the park. This plan, whenever it can 

 be used conveniently, has special artistic value, 

 particularly when, as in this case, a blending veil 

 of shade trees can be made to diversify the slightly 

 formal appearance of the oft-repeated ovals. 



This arrangement of drives and masked , trans- 

 verse roads, and bridges kept in close relations 

 with the vistas, it will be readily seen, will naturally 

 force the main scheme of park development into 

 a series of ovals, commencing at the Capitol and 

 extending to the White House, where the same 

 idea is repeated in the already constructed ellipses 

 of the White Lot and the adjacent public territory. 

 It is a fortunate circumstance that the positions of 

 the transverse roads cause the ovals steadily to 

 diminish in size, dropping progressively to lower 

 and lower grades as they approach the Washington 

 Monument. Thus in the widening spread of 

 territory they impart to the landscape a finished 

 and consistent perspective, a harmonious cadence 



[40] 



