HISTORY70 - Washington, D.C.

When our Spring 2023 Mississippi River cruise was cancelled, Pat and I quickly arranged a trip to Washington, D.C.  As regular readers know, I have recently written articles about Washington, D.C.’s presidential memorials (September 8, 2022 and September 16, 2022) and Military Memorials (October 3, 2022).  Now Pat and I will be able to visit the places I wrote about.

 

So, to prepare for our visit, this article will cover the history of Washington, D.C.  After a short introduction, I will discuss the area’s early settlement; the founding and establishment of Washington, D.C. in 1791; the burning of Washington, D.C. during the War of 1812; the pre-Civil War period; the Civil War; the post-Civil War period; Washington, D.C. since 1900; and will finish with a discussion of tourism opportunities.

My principal sources include AIA Guide to the Architecture of Washington, D.C., fifth edition, G. Martin Moeller, Jr.; “Washington, D.C.,” “The History of Washington D.C,” “National Mall,” and “Timeline of Washington, D.C.,” Wikipedia; “Washington D.C,” Britannica.com; “Washington, D.C.  History,” history.com; “The first printing of the first map of Washington D.C,” bostonraremaps.com; “History of the District of Columbia,” anc6e.org; “Washington, D.C, and the Quest for a Perfectly Square City,” atlasobscura.com; “Population of the 100 Largest Cities and Other Urban Places in the United States:  1790 to 1990,” census.gov; and numerous other online sources. 

Introduction

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia, is the capital city of the United States.  It is located on the east bank of the Potomac River, which forms its southwestern border with Virginia, and it shares a land border with Maryland on its other sides.  (Today, the city of Washington’s boundary is identical to that of the District of Columbia, the federal district in which it resides.  See below.)  The city was named for George Washington, a Founding Father and the first President of the United States.  The federal district was named after Columbia, the female personification of the nation at its founding.

As the seat of the U.S. federal government and several international organizations, the city is an important world political capital.  It is one of the most visited cities in the U.S., with over 20 million annual visitors.

Washington is home to many national monuments and museums, primarily situated on or around the National Mall.  The city hosts 177 foreign embassies, as well as the headquarters of many international organizations, trade unions, non-profits, lobbying groups, and professional associations.

Note:  From here on, I’m going to use the word “District” (capitalized) interchangeably with “District of Columbia.”

A locally elected mayor and a 13-member council govern the District.  Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws.  The District of Columbia does not have representation in Congress, although D.C. residents elect a single at-large congressional delegate, who has no vote, to the House of Representatives.  District voters choose three presidential electors. 

In 2022, Washington, D.C. had an (estimated) population of 671,803, which makes it the 23^rd most populous city in the U.S.  Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the city's daytime population to more than one million during the workweek.

The city has a total area of 68.34 square miles, of which about 21% is owned by the U.S. government and managed by the National Park Service.

 

Modern map of the Washington, D.C. area.

Early Settlement

Archaeological evidence indicates that a succession of indigenous peoples began to occupy the Chesapeake and tidewater region about 3,000 to 10,000 years ago.  By the AD 1500s, the region was home to more than a dozen tribal nations.  Washington, D.C. would be built upon the ancestral lands of the Nacotchtank peoples.

The river-and-tidewater land was rich in natural resources.  Fish were plentiful.  The surrounding wilderness provided plenty of wild game such as turkey, quail, geese, ducks, deer, elk, bear, and bison.  The native people also grew corn, squash, beans, and potatoes in small cleared areas on the fertile floodplains.  They quarried stone in nearby stream valleys and used it for tools.

Local Native Americans also traded with native people from distant regions, exchanging resources and materials from a wide area.

In 1608, Captain John Smith was the first European documented to reach present day Washington, D.C. by sailing up the Potomac River 140 miles from Chesapeake Bay.  Smith’s explorations (and subsequent explorations by others) led to several contacts with Native Americans, some friendly, some in outright conflict, and ultimately resulted in European take-over and settlement of the land, and the virtual displacement of the local Native Americans.

In the 1650s, the English Province of Maryland began to experience an economic boom with the great popularity and demand of one of its cash crops, tobacco.  This necessitated vast areas of land being turned into tobacco plantations as the demand was exceedingly high.

In 1663, Cecil Calvert, the second Lord of Baltimore, granted Thomas Dent an 850-acre tract of land on the Potomac River, which bordered the principal Nacotchtank village.  The colony, in such close proximity to the Nacotchtank, now had the strong incentive to begin encroaching on Nacotchtank territory.  Additionally, with the two groups now close to one another and in constant contact, the Europeans from Maryland introduced to the area a number of Eurasian infectious diseases to which the Nacotchtank had no immunity, including measles, cholera, and smallpox.  

By the late-1600s, the population of local Native Americans was only one-quarter of that in 1608.  Many of the Nacotchtanks and other natives died from diseases introduced by the Europeans and in wars.

The first colonial landowners in the present-day District of Columbia were George Thompson and Thomas Gerrard, who were granted several tracts of land in 1662 - 1670.

Other European settlers soon arrived, and they clashed with the Native Americans over grazing rights.  In 1697, Maryland authorities built a fort within what is now the District of Columbia.  In that same year, natives in the area began to move west.

In the 1740s, farmers in Fairfax County Virginia desperately needed a trading place where they could gather their crops for export and could buy manufactured merchandise from abroad.  At the opening of the Virginia Colony’s 1748-49 legislative session, a petition was submitted in the House of Burgesses recommending that a town be established in Fairfax County Virginia on the Potomac River.  Local settler Captain Philip Alexander II gave land to assist in the development of the town Alexandria, which was founded in 1749, and named after the land donor’s family.

Georgetown was established along the Potomac River in 1751 when the Maryland General Assembly purchased 60 acres of land for the town from local settlers.   Georgetown was the farthest point upstream to which oceangoing boats could navigate the Potomac River from Chesapeake Bay.  The strong flow of the Potomac kept a navigable channel clear year-round; and, the daily tidal lift of Chesapeake Bay, raised the Potomac's elevation in its lower reach; such that fully laden ocean-going ships could navigate easily, all the way to the Bay.  A tobacco inspection house along the Potomac was constructed in approximately 1745. Warehouses, wharves, and other buildings were added, and the settlement rapidly grew.  It did not take long before Georgetown grew into a thriving port, facilitating trade and shipments of tobacco and other goods from colonial Maryland.  With the economic and population growth of Georgetown, also came the founding of Georgetown University in 1789.

The Old Stone House, in Georgetown, built in 1765, is the oldest standing building in the District of Columbia.

 

In 1783, the new United States Congress was forced by an anti-government mutiny of nearly 400 soldiers of the Continental Army to move from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to  Princeton, New Jersey. Congress began looking for a permanent residence.  Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts moved that: "buildings for the use of Congress be erected on the banks of the Delaware near Trenton, or of the Potomac, near Georgetown, provided a suitable district can be procured on one of the rivers as aforesaid, for a federal town.”

In his Federalist No. 43, published January 23, 1788, James Madison argued that the new federal government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance and safety.  The Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, had emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security.

Article One, Section Eight, of the U.S. Constitution permitted the establishment of a "District (not exceeding ten miles square [100 square miles], as may, by cession [of land] of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States.”  However, the Constitution did not specify a location for the capital. 

In what is now known as the Compromise of 1790, Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson agreed that the federal government would pay each state's remaining Revolutionary War debts in exchange for establishing the new national capital in the Southern United States.

Founding and Establishment

Washington, D.C. was established as the U.S. capital following seven years of negotiation by members of the U.S. Congress as they tried to define the concept of a “federal enclave.”  On July 17, 1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which authorized a permanent seat for the federal government.  George Washington, the country’s first president (served 1789-97), chose the site, on the Potomac River’s navigation head (the furthest inland point navigable by oceangoing ships), and near two well-established colonial port cities, Georgetown, Maryland and Alexandria, Virginia.   This location bridged the Northern and Southern states, but Washington called it “the gateway to the interior.”

Note:  George Washington was very familiar with this site, because his home, Mount Vernon, a large estate and plantation, was located along the Potomac River, only 15 miles south of the center of the selected site, eight miles south of Alexandria, Virginia.

On January 24, 1791, President Washington, by Federal District Proclamation, announced that the new federal district would be a diamond-shaped tract, 10 miles per side, totaling 100 square miles, roughly centered on the confluence of the Potomac and Eastern Branch (now called the Anacostia) Rivers. 

On September 9, 1791, the federal district was named "The Territory of Columbia," and the federal city as the "City of Washington.”

 

The federal district set aside for a permanent capital city for the new United States. Note the future positions of the White House and U.S. Capitol.

Note:  The name “Columbia” was a female personification of “Columbus.”  It was a term that was used to refer to the original thirteen colonies and the entirety of the United States up to that time.

Meanwhile, in 1790, French-born American engineer and designer Pierre Charles L’Enfant was chosen to plan the new capital city.  Andrew Ellicott surveyed the 100-square-mile territory, made up of the two sections of land that had been ceded by Maryland, and Virginia.

The Residence Act directed that the capital city should provide “suitable buildings for the accommodation of Congress, and of the President, and for public offices of the government.”  The only significant limitation made by the law was that the sites for the public buildings should be upon the eastern or Maryland side of the Potomac River.

The new capital was to be built in a topographic bowl.  The bottom of the bowl (where the White House and Capitol are now located) is in the floodplain of the Potomac River.  Extending out from the floodplain is a series of rising river terraces, nearly surrounding the city.  The highest of these terraces is 200 feet above sea level.

L’Enfant’s first layout of the city was a grid centered on the United States Capitol.  North-south, and east-west streets formed the grid.  Wider diagonal "grand avenues," later named after the states of the union crossed the grid.  Where these "grand avenues" crossed each other, L'Enfant placed open spaces in circles and plazas that were later named after notable Americans.

L'Enfant's broadest "grand avenue" was a 400-foot-wide garden-lined esplanade, which he expected to extend about one mile along an east-west axis in the center of an area that the National Mall now occupies.  A narrower avenue (Pennsylvania Avenue) connected the "Congress house" (the Capitol) with the "President's house" (the White House). 

Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s layout for Washington, D.C.

 

L'Enfant subsequently had a number of conflicts with officials involved in the enterprise, and was replaced with surveyor Andrew Ellicott, who made minor changes to the city's layout.  The version of the layout printed in March 1792, was the first Washington City plan that received wide circulation.

The new federal city was then constructed on the eastern bank of the Potomac.

Construction of the Capitol building, the presidential palace (now the White House), and several other government buildings was almost complete when Congress moved from the temporary capital Philadelphia to Washington in December 1800.  At the time of the 1800 census, the population the new capital of “Washington City” was 3,210.

While still under construction, the United States Capitol held its first session of Congress on November 17, 1800. On March 4, 1801, Thomas Jefferson became the first president to be inaugurated in Washington, within the Senate chamber of the Capitol.  At the time, there were few finished dwellings and even fewer amenities in Washington, making the first several years rather unpleasant for the new residents. 

George Washington oversaw construction of the White House, but never lived in it.  John and Abigail Adams became the first occupants of the unfinished presidential mansion on November 1, 1800.

Meanwhile, on February 27, 1801, the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801 placed the District under the jurisdiction of Congress. The act also organized the unincorporated territory within the District into two counties: the County of Washington on the northeast bank of the Potomac and the County of Alexandria on the southwest bank.  After the passage of this Act, citizens living in the District were no longer considered residents of Maryland or Virginia, which therefore ended their representation in Congress.

On May 3, 1802, the City of Washington was granted a municipal government consisting of a mayor appointed by the President of the United States.

War of 1812

During the War of 1812, the British Army conducted an expedition between August 19 and 29, 1814, that captured and burned Washington, D.C.  In the Battle of Bladensburg on August 24, the British routed an American militia, which had gathered at Bladensburg, Maryland to protect the capital. The militia then abandoned Washington without a fight. President James Madison and the remainder of the U.S. government fled the capital shortly before the British arrived.

The British then entered and burned the city (still largely under construction) during the most notably destructive raid of the war.  British troops set fire to the capital's most important public buildings, including the White House, the United States Capitol, the Arsenal, the Navy Yard, the Treasury Building, and the War Office, as well as the north end of the Long Bridge, which crossed the Potomac River into Virginia.  The British, however, spared the Patent Office and the Marine Barracks.  Dolley Madison, the first lady, or perhaps members of the house staff, rescued the Lansdowne Portrait, a full-length painting of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart, as the British approached the Mansion. Structural damage was extensive, and the morale of the local citizens sank. 

The U.S. Capitol building after being torched on August 24, 1814 by the British during the War of 1812.

 

The aftermath of the war kicked off a mild crisis, with many northerners pushing for a relocation of the capitol, with a vote brought to the floor of Congress proposing the removal of the government to Philadelphia.  It was defeated 83 to 74 votes, and the seat of government remained in Washington, D.C.

By 1817, a newly reconstructed White House welcomed President James Monroe (served 1817-25), and Congress reconvened in the newly built Capitol in 1819, after having spent five years in the temporary Old Brick Capitol Building, which had been erected on the site of the present-day Supreme Court Building.

Pre -Civil War Period

Growth and Change.  Between 1830 and 1860, tremendous changes occurred in Washington, D.C., beginning with the arrival of President Andrew Jackson (served 1829-37), who brought with him a retinue of new civil servants - beneficiaries of the “spoils system” who introduced democratizing social changes to the workplace and the community.  Challenges were plentiful: the local economy was unstable; silt in the Potomac River restricted navigation; and epidemics were common. 

When the railroad reached the city from Baltimore in the 1835, a flood of tourists came with them, as did a proliferation of congressional spouses, who forever changed Washington’s social scene.  Major construction projects for three federal buildings located just blocks apart in downtown Washington (the Department of the Treasury, the General Post Office, and the Patent Office [the last is now part of the Smithsonian Institution]) also began in the 1830s.

By 1840, the population of Washington, D.C. was 23,364, while the population of the District of Columbia was 43,712.

Growth continued.  Here are a few milestones and important events: 

In 1842, the United States Naval Observatory was established, and in 1844, the Baltimore-Washington telegraph began operating. 

Meanwhile, the U.S. Capitol and the White House had been rebuilt.

United States Capitol building in 1846, with a copper-colored wooden dome.

 

The White House in 1846, externally complete with north and south porticos.

 

In 1846, the National Smithsonian Institution was established and in 1848, the Washington Gas Light Company was formed. 

In 1848, construction began on the Washington Monument.  By 1854, the monument had reached a height of 156 feet (of its planned 555 feet) above ground, but construction stalled when funds dried up as attentions turned toward the country’s growing sectional crises, then the Civil War.  (Construction would not resume until 1876.)

Work stopped on the Washington Monument in 1854.

 

Railroad passenger traffic had increased so much by the 1850s that a large station was built in 1851 on New Jersey Avenue NW, just north of the Capitol. 

In 1851, construction began on north and south wings for the Capitol building, to accommodate the increasing number of Senators and Representatives, as the U.S. increased the number of states of the union.  These additions would more than double the length of the Capitol.  Realizing that the old wooden dome would no longer be in proportion with the increased size of the building, officials decided to replace it with the cast iron-iron dome that stands today.

In 1855, the Smithsonian Institution Building (The Castle) was completed.

In 1859, a portion of the Washington Aqueduct, built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, opened to provide drinking water to city residents, and reduced their dependence on well water.  Full operation was achieved in 1864.

By 1860, the population of the city of Washington, D.C. was 61,122.

Retrocession.  In the 1830s, the District of Columbia’s southern territory of Alexandria went into economic decline. The federal capital hadn’t been a boom to commerce like the people had expected on the south side.   The people felt that the government was ignoring them.  Also, the city of Alexandria was a major market in the domestic slave trade, and pro-slavery residents feared that abolitionists in Congress would end slavery in the District, further depressing the local economy.   Alexandria's citizens petitioned Virginia to take back the land it had donated to form the District, through a process known as retrocession.

The Virginia General Assembly voted in February 1846 to accept the return of Alexandria.   On July 9, 1846, Congress agreed to return all the territory that Virginia had ceded.  Therefore, the District's area consists only of the portion originally donated by Maryland, reducing the size of the District by about a third.  

Confirming the fears of pro-slavery Alexandrians, the Compromise of 1850 outlawed the slave trade in the District of Columbia, although not slavery itself.

The Civil War

In the summer of 1861, Washington had only a few thousand residents, virtually deserted during the summertime, until the outbreak of the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln created the Army of the Potomac to defend the federal capital, and thousands of soldiers came to the area.  The significant expansion of the federal government to administer the war - and its legacies, such as veterans' pensions - led to notable growth in the city's population - from 61,122 in 1860 in 1860 to 109,199 in 1870.

President Lincoln insisted that construction on the U.S. Capitol continue during the Civil War.  In 1863, the work to expand the capitol and replace the dome was completed.

 

Union soldiers stand at attention in front of the Capitol, where they drilled, ate and camped at the start of the Civil War.  Note the new south wing and larger dome under construction on the capitol building.

Slavery was abolished throughout the District of Columbia on April 16, 1862, freeing 3,100 slaves - eight months before Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.  The city became a popular place for freed slaves to congregate.

During the Civil War, the city was never far from the front lines, if only because Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital, was so close.  Throughout the war, Washington was defended by a ring of Union Army forts that mostly deterred the Confederate army from attacking.  One notable exception was the Battle of Fort Stevens in July 1864, only four miles from the White House, in which Union soldiers repelled troops under the command of Confederate General Jubal A. Early.  This battle was only the second time a U.S. President came under enemy fire during wartime when Lincoln visited the fort to observe the fighting.  (The first had been James Madison during the War of 1812.)  Meanwhile, over 20,000 sick and injured Union soldiers were treated in various permanent and temporary hospitals in the capital.

On April 14, 1865, just days after the end of the war, President Lincoln was shot in Ford's Theater by John Wilkes Booth during the play Our American Cousin.  The next morning, at 7:22 am, President Lincoln died in the Petersen House across the street from the theater.

Following Lincoln’s assassination, Washington was plunged into a state of unprecedented desperation and despair.

Post-Civil War

In 1867, Congress granted black males the right to vote in local District elections, and Howard University was founded.

In 1871, self-government was granted for the first time to Washingtonians.  Congress passed the Organic Act of 1871, which repealed the individual charters of the cities of Washington and Georgetown, abolished Washington County, and created a new territorial government for the entire District of Columbia by combining the governments of Georgetown, the City of Washington, and the County of Washington.

Note:  From 1871 on, the city of Washington and the District of Columbia have the same extent; future population numbers therefore are identical for both entities, with Washington, D.C., or simply Washington, being the most common references.

After some difficulties in implementing an effective new government, an additional act of Congress in 1878 made a presidentially-appointed three-member Board of Commissioners the permanent government of the District of Columbia. The act also had the effect of eliminating any remaining local institutions such as the boards on schools, health, and police. (The District would maintain this form of government until 1967.)

During these years of government change, numerous city improvement projects were undertaken: modern schools and markets were erected, streets were paved, outdoor lighting was installed, sewers were built, and more than 50,000 trees were planted.  Also, the Washington Post began publication in 1877, and the first telephones began operating in 1878.

Inauguration of President Rutherford B. Hayes in front of the Capitol, March 1877.

 

In 1881, there was a disastrous flood of the Potomac River that devastated the District so severely that much of the southern part of the city was accessible only by boat.  (At that time, the Washington Monument marked the eastern shoreline of the Potomac River.)  After the flood, in 1882, the Army Corps of Engineers started dredging the Potomac River to deepen it, and used sediment from the dredged silt to fill in the tidal wetlands to the west of the Washington Monument that are now West and East Potomac Park.  In 1887, engineers installed gates at the entrance and exit of a newly formed pond (now the Tidal Basin) to harness the power of tides in the Potomac River.  (The work continued until 1911, creating 628 new acres of land.  Kutz Bridge over the Tidal Basin and the seawall were completed in the 1940s.)

Washington’s character improved significantly with the completion of the Washington Monument in 1884, the Library of Congress in 1897, and, beginning in the late 1890s, the proliferation of social organizations, private clubs, and formal societies for the arts.

One of the most important Washington architects of this period was the German immigrant Adolf Cluss.   From the 1860s to the 1890s, he constructed over 80 public and private buildings throughout the city, including the National Museum, the Agriculture Department, and the Sumner and Franklin schools.

The first motorized streetcars in the District began service in 1888, and spurred growth in areas beyond the City of Washington's original boundaries. The city's streets were extended throughout the District starting in 1893.  A law passed in 1895 mandated that Washington formally absorb Georgetown (which until then had maintained a nominal separate identity), and renamed its streets to conform with those in the City of Washington.  With a consolidated government and the transformation of suburban areas within the District into urban neighborhoods, the entire city eventually took on the name Washington, D.C.

By 1900, the population of Washington, D.C. had grown to 278,718.

Map of Washington, D.C., circa 1900.  Within the District of Columbia, the original layout of the City of Washington is shown in light red color.

 

Washington Since 1900

The first half of the 20^th century was an explosive time in the capital city - socially, economically, and culturally - and Washington began to gain worldwide attention. Grand homes for embassies were constructed on 16^th Street, north of the White House, and later along Massachusetts Avenue, a strip that is now known as Embassy Row.

In 1901, the Senate Park Commission (also known as the McMillan Commission) offered comprehensive recommendations for revitalizing and beautifying Washington, including the redesign of the National Mall.  The new plans were stunning, but years would pass before any of them could be realized.

The McMillan Plan for the National Mall, 1901.

In 1910, anticipating future building construction, to prevent our principle federal monuments from being overshadowed by commercial construction, Congress passed the Height of Buildings Act that limited the height buildings on commercial streets to 130 feet, on residential streets to 90 feet, and on parts of Pennsylvania Avenue to 160 feet.

In 1912, cherry trees were planted around the Tidal Basin.  (The National Cherry Blossom Festival began in 1935).

President Woodrow Wilson gave Washington a voice in world affairs through the country’s entry into World War I in 1917 and through his work to establish the League of Nations, an organization promoting international cooperation.  

After the war, civic pride and culture flooded the city.  Art galleries, museums, concert halls, and the Lincoln Memorial were built.  (The Lincoln Memorial was built on land reclaimed after the 1881 flood.) The Commission of Fine Arts was established to advise city planners on the appropriate design and placement of memorials and federal buildings.

At the same time, however, run-down buildings were multiplying in Washington’s back alleys, and neglected neighborhoods only became worse during the Great Depression years of the 1930s. 

The New Deal programs of President Franklin D. Roosevelt provided employment to thousands of workers in Washington, not only in existing government offices but also in the construction of new federal buildings, including the Supreme Court and the Federal Triangle buildings, and new memorials and museums. 

The U.S. Supreme Court building, constructed 1932-1935.

 

World War II (1939 - 1945) further increased government activity, adding to the number of federal employees in the capital; by 1950, the Washington’s population reached its peak of 802,178 residents.  In 1941, Washington National Airport (later renamed Reagan National Airport) was built, and less than two years later the Pentagon was completed, establishing the capital city as the military command center of the country.

During the second half of the 20^th century, Washington experienced an exodus of the middle class, both European American and African American, as they fled to the developing suburbs of nearby Maryland and Virginia. 

Nonetheless, Washington continued to develop into a modern city, becoming unrecognizable to those who had known it prior to World War II.  Many former Washington neighborhoods were ravaged, and in their place huge, impersonal federal agency buildings were constructed.  Public housing complexes were erected in poorer areas of the city for those who could not afford to move elsewhere.  Modern highway plans for Washington were bitterly opposed by both Black and white communities across the city, but they were only partially successful in preventing highway expansion through the older neighborhoods.  The 64-mile Capital Beltway, surrounding Washington, was completed in 1961.

The neglected beauty of the city was finally recognized, and with the aid of President John F. Kennedy (served 1961-63) and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, an interest in historical preservation ensued.  

But  protests and race riots occurring in Washington throughout the 1960s deterred people from moving into the city.  (See below.)

The construction of the metro system, beginning in the late 1970s, however, made the city more accessible and awakened a renewed interest in various parts of Washington.

A real-estate boom in the 1980s began the revitalization of many of the city’s deteriorating areas.

With the advent of the 21^st century, a renewed interest in city living brought revitalization and new housing to formerly neglected localities and sections of Northwest and Northeast D.C. that were razed during the 1968 riots. 

Bicycle routes wear added to many major streets, a fleet of low-fare crosstown buses was created, and “street ambassadors” were hired to welcome and direct tourists.

Since its peak in 1950, Washington’s population has overall declined to an estimated population of 671,803 in 2022.

Washingtonians have also begun to take pride in the city’s many diverse neighborhoods, and tourism beyond the traditional National Mall area has increased.   L’Enfant’s plan, with all its later interpretations, is a shared vision that continues to give guidance and positive direction to the city’s development.

Civil Rights.  In 1957, Washington became the first major city in the nation with a majority African-American population.  Like many cities, it had received thousands of black people from the South starting during World War I and accelerating in the 1940s and 1950s. 

On August 28, 1963, Washington took center stage in the Civil Rights Movement, with the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famed "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial. 

Martin Luther King making his “I have a dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Washington’s National Mall, August 28, 1963.

 

Following King's assassination on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, Washington was devastated by riots.  The civil unrest drove many whites and middle-class blacks to move out of the city core.  There had already been a steady movement of some residents to suburban locations, searching for newer housing and avoiding school integration.  In the late 1960s and early 1970s, many businesses left the downtown and inner-city areas, drawn to suburban malls and following residential development.

Home Rule. The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified in 1961, granting the District of Columbia three votes in the Electoral College for the election of president and vice president, but still no voting representation in Congress.  (The District elects a delegate to the House of Representatives, who has the usual rights of House membership, such as seniority and committee membership, except that the delegate cannot formally vote.)

In 1967, the presidentially-appointed three-commissioner system of District government, instituted in 1878, was replaced by a government headed by a single mayor-commissioner, an assistant mayor-commissioner, and a nine-member city council, all appointed by the President.

In 1973, Congress passed the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, ceding some of federal power over the city to a new, directly elected 13-member city council and mayor.   However, under the Home Rule Act, the U.S. Congress still has the right to review and approve municipal legislation as well as the city's annual operating budget.

Terrorism and Security.  There were two assassination attempts on U.S. presidents in Washington:   Harry Truman on November 1, 1950, and Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981.

The Washington area was a main target of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.  American Airlines Flight 77 was hijacked by five Islamist terrorists and flew into the Pentagon in Arlington County, just across the Potomac River from Washington, killing 125 people inside the building, as well as 64 onboard the airliner, including the five terrorists.  United Airlines Flight 93, which was also hijacked and which went down in an open field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, was supposedly intended to target either the White House or the United States Capitol Building.

Terrorist attack on Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

 

After the September 11 attacks, security was increased in Washington.  Screening devices for biological agents, metal detectors, and vehicle barriers became more commonplace at office buildings as well as government buildings.

Since September 11, 2001, several high-profile incidents and security scares have occurred in Washington.  In October 2001, anthrax attacks, involving anthrax-contaminated mail sent to numerous members of Congress, infected 31 staff members, and killed two U.S. Postal Service employees who handled the contaminated mail at the Brentwood sorting facility. 

During three weeks of October 2002, fear spread among residents of the Washington area during the Beltway Sniper attacks.  Ten apparently random victims were killed, with three others wounded.

On January 6, 2021, right-wing demonstrators, gathered at a rally in support of President Donald Trump during his attempts to overturn the United States 2020 presidential election, stormed and occupied the United States Capitol in an effort to prevent Congress from certifying the election's Electoral College results and Trump's rival Joe Biden's victory.

Right-wing demonstrators protesting the 2020 presidential election.

 

Tourism Opportunities in Washington, D.C.

With its neoclassical government buildings and broad avenues, Washington, D.C. looks its part as America’s capital.  Over 20 million tourists annually visit the city to see the many sites, including presidential monuments, war and military memorials, government buildings, museums, national libraries, art galleries, performing arts, parks, gardens, markets, festivals, and even the National Zoo.

 

Aerial view of the National Mall and the Tidal Basin, with presidential monuments (left to right) to George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Jefferson.

Readable map of tourist attractions in Washington D.C.

Unreadable map with more tourist attractions in Washington, D.C.  Source: AAA map of Washington, D.C.

I’ll conclude with a snapshot of Georgetown and Alexandria, formerly independent cities in the District of Columbia, and of Arlington County, Virginia, also formerly a part of the District of Columbia.

Georgetown is now an historic neighborhood, and commercial and entertainment district located in Northwest Washington, D.C.  Georgetown is the home of historic buildings, high-end shops, bars, restaurants, and the Georgetown Park enclosed shopping mall.  The embassies of Cameroon, France, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Mongolia, Sweden, Thailand, Ukraine and Venezuela are located in Georgetown.

The city of Alexandria, Virginia is approximately seven miles south of downtown Washington, D.C., and has been influenced by its proximity to the U.S. capital.  Today, with a population of about 160,000, it is largely populated by professionals working in the federal civil service, in the U.S. military, or for one of the many private companies which contract to provide services to the federal government.  The historic center of Alexandria is known as "Old Town.”  With its concentration of boutiques, restaurants, antique shops, and theaters, it is a major draw for all who live in Alexandria, as well for visitors.  

Arlington is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, on the west bank of the Potomac River directly across from Washington, D.C.  Although sometimes referred to as a city, Arlington is actually a county which contains no incorporated towns or cities within its boundaries.  Arlington National Cemetery, operated by the U.S. Army, was established during the U.S. Civil War in 1864 after the land the cemetery was built upon, Arlington Estate, was confiscated from the private ownership of Confederate States Army General Robert E. Lee's family following a tax dispute.  Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres.  Arlington is also the home of the Pentagon and the famous Marine Iwo Jima Memorial.

 

Now the only problem is deciding what to see on a three-day stay in Washington, D.C.