A manual on the origin and development of WashingtonCaemmerer, H. Paul (Hans Paul)
History
A manual on the origin and development of Washington
Caemmerer, H. Paul (Hans Paul)
Washington (D.C.) -- Description and travel; Washington (D.C.) -- History
The south lines of the 10-mile square--the Federal district in which
the new Capital lay--were to run from the intersection of the Potomac
River and the Eastern Branch, but, as has been related, by the act
of March 3, 1791, these boundary lines were moved south to include
Alexandria and part of Virginia within the Federal territory. The
land lying within the bounds of the proposed city was given by the
proprietors to trustees appointed by the Government under an agreement
by which the Nation received the land necessary for streets without
charge, purchasing the areas for parks and building sites at the rate
of £25 per acre. The remaining land was divided equally with the
original proprietors. The first settlements were made on grants given
chiefly to retired naval officers who named their holdings after their
camps--Mexico, Jamaica, and Port Royal. There were two settlements on
the site--Carrollsburg, named after its founder, and Hamburg, an early
real-estate development near and south of Georgetown. A stream of
considerable size known originally as Goose Creek ran through the city.
It later became known as Tiber Creek, because a resident named Pope,
whose estate he facetiously called Rome, contended that if there was a
Pope in Rome, his residence should be situated on the Tiber.
As is noticed by reference to the plans, a canal extended from the
point about where the Lincoln Memorial is located, along B Street, now
Constitution Avenue, east to the Capitol; thence along James Creek,
known to-day as Canal Street. In those days Pennsylvania Avenue was a
dusty road, lined with poplar trees, and often so flooded that it was
not an uncommon sight to see boats floating on it. For a long time an
isolated group of buildings known as the Six Buildings at Twenty-first
Street and Pennsylvania Avenue stood halfway between the Capitol and
Georgetown.
[Illustration: EARLY WASHINGTON, SHOWING THE JEFFERSON POPLARS]
[Illustration: THE ELLICOTT MAP]
Washington as the infant city appeared in 1800 is best described by
John Cotton Smith, Member of Congress from Connecticut, in a letter
written by him at the time, as follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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