The Twentieth Century IVashington 
THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL AND THE CANAL 
the peristyle of this memorial, charming in 
its refinement and simplicity, one may look 
eastward over the canal and the formal gar¬ 
den past the Monument to the dome of the 
Capitol two and a half miles distant. In the 
other direction the eye follows the Memorial 
Bridge (whose axis starts from the point where 
one stands) to the pediment of the old Ar¬ 
lington mansion on the hills of Virginia. 
The plan of L’Enfant located a monument 
at the intersection of the north and south axis 
of the White House and the east and west axis 
of the Capitol, but the present shaft was reared, 
for unknown reasons, about seventy-five 
feet south of the Capitol axis and about five 
hundred feet east of the center of the White 
H ouse. The Commission has boldly fixed 
the center line of the contemplated improve¬ 
ment on this axis, as they found it, of the 
Monument and Capitol. The inaccurate posi- 
LOOKING WESTWARD FROM THE MONUMENT 
5° 
