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Visit a section of river between Rock Creek and Alexandria...
Rock Creek
Aqueduct Bridge Site
Roosevelt Island
Arlington National Cemetery
Anacostia River
Alexandria, Va.
Blue Plains Wastewater Treatment Plant |
The City of Washington is one of the great planned cities of the world. It is not the product of a single plan, although the early plan did have a significant effect. Rather, the present city along the river has evolved through nearly 200 years of planning, growth, changing styles, and unforeseen developments.
One factor remains constant: the Potomac. Although the character of the river changes daily, its presence has been the single overriding influence on planners and builders alike.
On December 5, 1791, George Washington wrote to Arthur Young regarding his thoughts on the location of a capital for the new nation of the United States. Washington reviewed the states from New Hampshire to Georgia, and found that he was biased in favor of the Potomac.
"Potomac River then, is the center of the Union," Washington wrote. "It is between the extremes of heat and cold. It is not so far to the south as to be unfriendly to grass, nor so far north as to have the produce of the Summer consumed in the length, and severity of the winter....It is the river, more than any other, in my opinion, which must, in the natural progress of things connect by its inland navigation...the Atlantic States with the vast region which is populating to the Westward of it."
George Washington was, indeed, biased. He was born on the river, spent many of his early years surveying its watershed, lived, and died along the Potomac. Washington-the man-is everywhere along the Potomac. In the city of Washington, the Potomac is the focal point of the "grand plan" established early in the city's development.
The confluence of the Potomac and the Eastern Branch (now called the Anacostia River) was chosen for several reasons. The first was the location at the head of navigation, between two existing port communities, Alexandria, Va., and Georgetown, then a part of Frederick County, Maryland.
The second reason for choosing the site was the natural "cradle" formed by the Potomac and the Eastern Branch, ideal for the formal plan for the city that was developed by Pierre L'Enfant. The temperamental French planner sketched out a plan that would run from the Potomac to the Eastern Branch, including a formal canal from the old Tiber Creek which flowed from the present Capitol building. Tiber Creek still flows, but it runs underground. The creek's valley was long ago filled in by L'Enfant's successors.
The canal was built, but it was hardly the Venice-style waterway envisioned by L'Enfant. Built in a swamp, the canal became filled with sewage and thoroughly unattractive as well as unhealthy. As the canal era flourished upstream with construction of the C&O Canal in the 1850s, the Mall area remained a swamp. After the Civil War, the canal was filled in and converted into a street. Later planners proposed a mall on the Potomac flats between the old canal and the Potomac. At the same time, a reliable water system was being introduced to the city, which was migrating to the healthier sections of the city such as Georgetown and upriver. The mall area became more monumental with the construction of the giant obelisk known as the Washington Monument from 1855 to 1875.
In 1900, the Potomac waterfront was at a turning point. As the federal city celebrated its first century, a new effort was launched to make the city more beautiful. Senator James McMillan, chairman of the Senate District Committee, established a commission to design a comprehensive park system.
McMillan's plan, as the commission's work became known, led to the dredging of the main channel of the Potomac at Washington. The dredged material added land to the west of the Washington Monument, which became the site of a memorial to President Lincoln. It allowed creation of a decorative canal-the reflecting pool. Vast new lands south of the mall became recreational and park spaces. The best known park developers of the day, Frederick Law Olmstead and Charles Eliot, suggested people-oriented parks, with playing fields, bathing beaches, and boating. A parkway connecting the city with Washington's home at Mount Vernon took shape. And the old railroad tracks that once ran across the mall area were moved to today's Union Station.
The McMillan plan was not accomplished overnight, but it provided an important framework for actions in Washington during the early decades of the 20th century. In 1924, Congress created the National Capital Planning Commission to coordinate the city's park development. In 1930, the Mount Vernon Highway was expanded to include the entire Potomac waterfront from Mount Vernon to Great Falls. A regional park system began to take shape in Maryland and Virginia.
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