The 'Twentieth Century Washington 
one existed in America at Annapolis. That 
town was based upon Sir Christopher Wren’s 
plan of London. Washington and L’Enfant 
made a careful study of the site for the 
new city and 
s e 1 e c t e ci the 
locations for 
the principal 
buildings, 
m o nu m ents 
a n d statuary. 
The plan was 
submitted t o 
Washi ngton, 
modi bed by 
him, and finally 
approved. It is 
remarkable for 
the landscape 
it provided for 
the principal 
buildings, 
affording 
efficient 
approaches t o 
them and pleas- 
ing g a r d e n 
views before their main facades, 
opportunities for vistas from one point of 
importance to another are numerous, and 
are well and carefully studied. When we 
remember that this country had then lyut a 
population of 4,600,000 and that the Capital 
City was laid out commensurate with a popu¬ 
lation of 800,000—the size of London in 
1790—we may wonder at the breadth of 
mind and courage of our city makers, 
and we may thank them for withstanding 
A VIEW OF THE CAPITOL 
showing how a vista has been marred by the unfortunate placing oj the 
new Congressional Library 
the ridicule of the timid and the sneers of 
the incredulous. 
The streets were laid out as designed, 
radiating from centers, with circular parks at 
their intersec¬ 
tions and the 
Capitol and 
White House 
were located 
on the sites 
selected for 
them. After 
Madison’s 
administration, 
the idea of the 
founders was 
apparently 
forgotten or 
ignored. The 
noble approach 
to the Capitol 
and the impos- 
in g vista 
planned from 
the Mall were 
destroyed b y 
careless plant¬ 
ing; public buildings were built haphazard,here 
and there, with no idea of an ordered or harmo¬ 
nious grouping. This neglect of L’Enfant’s 
plan has continued to the present day. The 
view from the Monument to the Capitol is 
over a tangle of trees and past a jumble of 
buildings unrelated to one another and each 
marring the other’s effect. Looking from the 
Capitol are the unsightly Botanical Gardens in 
the foreground, then the tracks of a railway 
and again a confusion of trees without system 
A VIEW OF THE PRESENT MALL 
showing the unsightly rears of buildings 
which face upon it 
l’eNFANt’s PLAN OF WASHINGTON 
(Made in I’jqi ) 
The 
40 
