The Federal dream: Washington

and sewage systems, together with an organic planning of public urban green areas, are the palimpsest on which Paris’ urban space is still based today. Edmondo De Amicis’ brief account93 94 of his trip to Paris for the Universal Exhibition of 1878, clearly reveals his wonder and amazement the city he described as immense and majestic, with its wide boulevards lined with double rows of trees, the large irregular square of the Bastille ‘spectacular and tumultuous’, theatres and elegant cafés, splendid shops, colourful kiosks, and gaudy ornaments.

The Federal dream: Washington

The Commander in Chief of the victorious Continental Army, then first President of the United States of America, George Washington, had himself been a land surveryor from the age of 16: it was a useful and profitable profession as the colonies expanded to what was then ‘the west’, and vast landed properties, including that of Washington himself, were formed. The choice of a site for the capital of the new Republic was highly contentious and in the end was decided by the desire of southern landowners to avoid Northern states whose laws might interfere with slave-holding. Washington was designated by Congress to choose the precise site within a 65 miles stretch of the Potomac river, which at the time was seen as a future path to western expansion.

93 De Amicis E. 1879, Ricordi di Parigi, Treves Milano. 94 Edmondo De Amicis (1846 - 1908) Italian writer and journalist known for the educational-pedagogical novel Cuore.

Fig. 17 Andrew Ellicott’s plan for Washington depicting the Washington City Canal that connected the Potomac River, Tiber Brook and C&O Canal to the East Branch (Anacostia River) Source: Library of Congress, Andrew Ellicott's initial Plan of the City.

Washington named a three man commission to carry out the plans for the new city. He also chose Pierre Charles L’Enfant, a French painter and engineer, to work under the commission to design the federal capital. The objective was to develop a completely new city that would not be a part of the territory of any existing state, but rather a special area for the Federal government. The designated zone or Federal District, of 100 square miles (a square with sides of 10 miles), became the present day District of Columbia, named Washington D.C. in honour of the first President. The commission entrusted the survey of the marshy area, which presented evident hydrological challenges,

to Andrew Ellicott, who also drew up a plan (Fig. 17). L’Enfant intended to create a grandiose scenario for the new capital, inspired by maps of major European cities sent to him by Thomas Jefferson. He refused, however, to publish his own plan and demanded complete control over construction. Washington dismissed him and Ellicott, with the commission, took over. As the city eventually developed it had two broad axes: East-West, where today the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress, the Capitol, the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial are located, and NorthSouth, where the Old Executive Office Building, the White House, the Treasury Building and the Jefferson Memorial are now located. Construction was slow, and the city as we know it only took shape during the 19th and 20th centuries. A network of orthogonal streets was supplemented by diagonal avenues, named after single states and a system of squares. By law the city remains ‘low-rise’ so that its public buildings and monuments will not be obscured. As a result the necessary residential areas are now largely in the neighbouring states, rather than in the District itself 95 .

95 Chernow R. 2010, Washington. A Life, Penguin, New York, pp. 6625, 794; Minta A. 2009, Planning a National Pantheon: Monuments in Washington D.C. and the Creation of Symbolic Space, in Benesch K., Meikle J.L. 2009, Public Space and Ideology of Place in American Culture, Editions Rodopi B.V. Amsterdam-New York, pp. 21-50.