THE ARLINGTON MEMORIAL BRIDGE
The Arlington Memorial Bridge was built under the supervision of the Arlington Memorial Bridge Commission, of which the President is chairman. The Commission of Fine Arts was consulted and advised as to the plans.
The project of building the Arlington Memorial Bridge has been before Congress since 1884. Previous to that time Daniel Webster, in an address on July 4, 1851, at the laying of the corner stone for enlarging the United States Capitol, referred to it as follows:
Before us is the broad and beautiful river, separating two of the original thirteen States, which a late President, a man of determined purpose and inflexible will, but patriotic heart, desired to span with arches of ever-enduring granite, symbolical of the firmly established union of the North and the South. That President was General Jackson.
ARLINGTON MEMORIAL BRIDGE, ARCHITECTS’ DESIGN
The need of a bridge direct to Arlington National Cemetery was most urgently felt on Armistice Day, November 11, 1921, when the remains of the Unknown Soldier were entombed. Led by President Harding and officials of this Government and of many foreign countries, thousands of people who made the trip to Arlington did so under most difficult circumstances, because of the crowded traffic conditions. The Commission of Fine Arts was in session at the time, and at once recommended to Congress the preparation of plans for an Arlington Memorial Bridge, with an initial appropriation of $25,000. Congress responded quickly and made the appropriation available for expenditure by the Arlington Memorial Bridge Commission, by act approved June 12, 1922. On April 22, 1924, the commission submitted to Congress a comprehensive report on the subject and a set of approved plans that contemplated an expenditure of $14,750,000 for the project. Congress adopted the report and plans and has made the necessary funds available for the construction work as fast as the project developed. The architects of the bridge are McKim, Mead & White, of New York City, who are noted for the many great and beautiful classical structures they have built throughout the United States, as the Boston Public Library, the library at Columbia University, the Pennsylvania Railroad Station in New York City, and the McKinley Memorial at Niles, Ohio. This firm also had charge of the building of additions to the White House during the administration of President Roosevelt.
EAGLE SURMOUNTING PYLONS
BISON HEAD
The bridge extends from the Lincoln Memorial to Columbia Island, has a length of 2,138 feet, and is 90 feet wide, the width of Fifth Avenue in New York City. The bridge has been built as low as possible, consistent with good proportions, in order not to interfere with the view of the Lincoln Memorial from Columbia Island. There are 6 lanes on the bridge, each 10 feet wide, and 2 sidewalks, each 15 feet wide. The balustrade is 4 feet high. Suitable lighting is also provided.
Courtesy of Horydczak
ARLINGTON MEMORIAL BRIDGE
The bridge has 9 segmental arches of 166-foot span at the ends of the bridge and spreading gradually to 184 feet at the center. The terminal arches rise to a point 28 feet above average water height, increasing gradually to 35 feet in the central arch. The piers are 32 feet wide and are firmly embedded in rock 35 feet below water. The superstructure is built of North Carolina granite.
EAGLE AND FASCES
At the entrance to the bridge at the Lincoln Memorial there will be two large sculptural groups, each 16 feet high. The pylons at the Columbia Island end of the bridge, which are 35 feet high, are surmounted by eagles 8 feet high, each cut out of a solid block of granite, according to the design of C. Paul Jennewein, sculptor.
At the sides of the bridge appear large sculptured disks, each 12 feet in diameter, and at the keystone of the arches there are buffalo heads 6 feet in height. These were also designed by Mr. Jennewein.
The two sculptural groups at the entrance to the bridge will be symbolic of War. They were designed by Leo Friedlander, sculptor. At the entrance to the Rock Creek Parkway there will be two sculptural groups symbolic of Peace and the arts of Peace, designed by James E. Fraser, sculptor. There will be appropriate inscriptions carved on the bridge.
COLUMBIA ISLAND PLAZA AND MEMORIAL AVENUE TO ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
THE ARLINGTON MEMORIAL BRIDGE DEVELOPMENT, LOOKING TOWARDS THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL
At the center of the bridge is a drawspan, each leaf of which has a length of 92 feet, the height of an 8-story building. One minute is required for opening and closing the drawspan, which is operated by electricity. Each leaf weighs 6,000 tons. It is in itself an interesting achievement in bridge engineering.
From Columbia Island westward there is the boundary channel bridge. From there to the Arlington National Cemetery is a memorial parkway 240 feet wide, 2,200 feet in length, lighted, lined with planting, and providing space at intervals for memorials.
At Arlington National Cemetery there is a large memorial entrance, from which walks and driveways lead to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Memorial Amphitheater and to Arlington House.
PLAN FOR DEVELOPMENT OF GREATER ARLINGTON
Not only was the Arlington Memorial Bridge built in a period of 7 years, but one of the finest compositions in city planning has been carried out in connection with it. In addition to the treatment on Columbia Island Plaza and the approach to Arlington National Cemetery, there is also the great plaza at the approach to the bridge at the Lincoln Memorial, a sea wall for the Riverside Drive leading to it, and the water gate—steps of granite 215 feet wide—nearby.
The bridge was dedicated and opened for travel in 1932.
Chapter XIX
THE PARKS OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
The park system of the National Capital is under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service, Department of the Interior.
Since 1871 in many ways, particularly municipal affairs, the National Capital has been in the lead among American cities. Having begun with a logical and well-thought-out plan for the original city, the new Federal City was provided with an ample system of public reservations and parks.
However, in the early days of the city there was so much unoccupied land that it was hard to believe there would ever be any necessity for parks and open spaces developed and maintained at public expense. For three-quarters of a century Washington was so spread out within the borders of the original plan that the street rights-of-way and public grounds reserved by the L’Enfant plan seemed to be entirely out of scale with the needs of the city and were looked upon by some as a burden rather than as a benefit. It was not until the increase in population, which has continued steadily since the Civil War, and the congestion of the streets in recent years with automobiles and a great volume of traffic, that the building lots have been occupied with structures and the full width of the streets needed for traffic, so that the public reservations have become the only refuge for the play of children and the recreation of older people.
It is, therefore, easy to understand the lack of appreciation of the city park system during the first half of the nineteenth century. A few far-sighted individuals only realized the necessity for preserving these reservations until they would be needed as breathing spaces in a thickly settled city, and they had to wage a persistent and hard-fought campaign through the years against those who constantly wanted to sell off the public reservations for building development of some kind or other, or to have the Government itself use them for buildings. In the two or three cases in which the latter was done we now have reason to regret it; in a few cases in which the reservations were sold the Government is now having to buy them back at considerable cost. It was not a matter of little importance which led President Thomas Jefferson to exclaim: “How I wish that I possessed the power of a despot.” The company at the table stared at a declaration so opposed to his disposition and principles. “Yes,” continued he, in reply to their inquiring looks, “I wish I was a despot, that I might save the noble, the beautiful trees that are daily falling sacrifices to the cupidity of their owners, or the necessity of the poor.” “And have you not authority to save those on the public grounds?” asked one of the company. “No,” answered Mr. Jefferson, “only an armed guard could save them. The unnecessary felling of a tree, perhaps the growth of centuries, seems to me a crime little short of murder; it pains me to an unspeakable degree.”
NEW HAMPSHIRE AVENUE, NORTHWEST
The same desire to cut down trees in order to make room for more concrete and masonry persists to this day and can only be controlled by constant vigilance. The importance of open spaces and city parks, developed into beauty spots by the art of the landscape architect, should be evident to all.
As a matter of fact, perhaps the most unusual and original feature of the L’Enfant plan was the idea of building the city about two coordinate axes of parks—one a park system nearly a third of a mile wide, leading from the Capitol westward to the Potomac River, and the other the same width, leading from the White House south to the river, with the Washington Monument at their intersection. This was an innovation and a departure from the usual development of a city about a commercial street—a main street or a market street. Provision was made in the plan for such a great commercial street on the diagonal of the triangle, the avenue joining the Capitol with the White House, and named Pennsylvania Avenue, for the State in which the Federal Government had up to then spent the greater part of its life.
Much of the Mall leading westward from the Capitol was unfortunately taken up by the estuary of Tiber Creek, which overflowed at high tide. It was the intention of Major L’Enfant and his urgent recommendation that this creek be confined to a canal which he proposed to construct along the northern part of the proposed park. This canal would not only afford water transportation for heavy and bulky materials to and from the business part of the city but at the same time would be a water feature of the proposed park. Unfortunately, while the canal was built, Tiber Creek was not entirely confined to it, and its estuary was allowed to continue to overflow the Mall area and thus delay its development.
When the Washington Monument was located, instead of being placed at the exact intersection of the two park axes, it was placed on a natural hill near by which was safely above tide level. The idea of an avenue from the Capitol to the Washington Monument seems to have been abandoned for many years, and when the Smithsonian Institution was built in the Mall the plan made by A. J. Downing was adopted for the entire Mall, superseding that of L’Enfant. These were the days when the so-called naturalistic park development was in vogue, and everything had to be consciously picturesque. No road or path could be straight, and no regularity in planting or plan was tolerated. The L’Enfant plan was again disregarded in laying out the Department of Agriculture grounds in 1867. With the avenue of the Mall out of the picture, there was no reason apparent to those in authority for refusing permission to the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. to run its tracks across the Mall and build its passenger station in the Mall itself, at Sixth Street.
It was this station, however, which brought about the restudy of the plan of Washington and the return to the Mall development in accordance with L’Enfant’s principles, for Col. Theodore A. Bingham, then in charge of Public Buildings and Grounds, on hearing that legislation was about to be passed authorizing the railroad to build a viaduct across the Mall to this station, and realizing that this expensive structure would probably make the carrying out of L’Enfant’s plan impossible, got the plan out of the files and started a campaign to prevent the legislation from passing and to rehabilitate the authority of the L’Enfant plan. He was fortunate in finding those among his superiors who appreciated the situation, and in securing the very wise and effective help of Senator McMillan and of the American Institute of Architects.
Indeed, the interest in the National Capital, excited in this way and more or less focused upon it by the centenary of its occupation as the seat of the Federal Government, resulted in the McMillan Park Commission of 1901 and its very valuable recommendations for the development and beautification of the National Capital. In recent years the development of the Mall in accordance with the plan of 1901 has been authorized by Congress and is being carried on step by step as it becomes possible in connection with the public-buildings program.
The smaller reservations and parks suffered neglect equally, as was to be expected. In making his plan L’Enfant had located public reservations at various important street and avenue intersections. Where more than two streets crossed at one point, a circle or square to take up and distribute the traffic among the various streets was almost necessary, or at least would be necessary to-day, and it is fortunate that what L’Enfant did for appearance should now be proving to have real utilitarian value. His own ideas about the purpose and function of these squares are expressed in his report, as follows:
The center of each Square will admit of Statues, Columns, Obelisks, or any other ornament such as the different States may choose to erect: to perpetuate not only the memory of such individuals whose counsels or Military achievements were conspicuous in giving liberty and independence to this Country; but also those whose usefulness hath rendered them worthy of general imitation, to invite the youth of succeeding generations to tread in the paths of those sages, or heroes whom their country has thought proper to celebrate.
The situation of these Squares is such that they are the most advantageously and reciprocally seen from each other and as equally distributed over the whole City district, and connected by spacious avenues round the grand Federal Improvements and as contiguous to them, and at the same time as equally distant from each other, as circumstances would admit. The Settlements round those Squares must soon become connected.
This mode of taking possession of and improving the whole district at first must leave to posterity a grand idea of the patriotic interest which prompted it.
While Lafayette Park, in front of and north of the White House, was graded as early as 1826, it was not planted and really developed as a park for some time after that. In 1853 the Clark Mills statue of Jackson was placed in it as its central feature.
Similarly, the equestrian statue of Washington brought about the improvement of Washington Circle at the westerly end of Pennsylvania Avenue. Garfield Park, now one of the most beautiful parks in the city, was graded and to some extent improved in 1838, in connection with its use as a nursery for trees to ornament the public grounds and Pennsylvania Avenue.
A botanic garden, which had been talked about from the very first, and was finally brought to a head by the necessity for providing for the botanic collection of the Smithsonian Institution, was gradually established at the east end of the Mall between First and Third Streets. It did not become a really important feature of public benefit to the city until 1852, when it was placed in the hands of William R. Smith, who had had experience in Kew Gardens in England and made sufficient progress for the Botanic Garden to be described in 1859 “as a pleasant place to visit, with gravel walks, bordered with box, rare plants, and trees.”
How little these parks were needed then to give the requisite touch of nature in urban surroundings and to what extent the National Capital still retained its character of a few scattered settlements in the midst of farm land is shown by the fact that the one or two which had been improved had to be fenced in to protect their young trees and shrubs against the cattle, goats, and sheep that roamed the streets. As late as 1870 the danger to pedestrians from the domestic animals allowed at large was the subject of protest in formal speeches in Congress. During the Civil War many of the public reservations were used for camps, hospitals, and drill grounds, which use naturally did not help their appearance.
While the parks and reservations not used by the Federal Government remained relatively unimproved and in the condition of unsightly village commons, the grounds around the public buildings of the Federal Government were given a little more attention and were gradually improved. The north grounds of the White House were fixed up in Jefferson’s administration and rearranged from time to time subsequently, but so little importance was attached to appearances that the south grounds of the White House remained unimproved through the first half of the century. It was not until after the Civil War that real importance was attached to the beautification of the grounds and the systematic planting of trees in the streets. The public buildings and grounds were turned over to the Chief of Engineers in 1867, and since that time have received a great deal more attention than ever before. In 1898 the municipal parks were transferred from the city government to the Chief of Engineers and have been systematically improved since.
With the street trees and the improved city parks scattered about the central part of the city, Washington has acquired a characteristic appearance of its own and offers the charm and amenities which other American cities were not wise enough to provide for themselves.
As the city grew outside of the original plan, a few projects for large and extensive parks were adopted. The beautiful Rock Creek Valley was purchased for a park and for the Zoological Garden under the act approved September 27, 1890; and provision was made by the act approved August 2, 1882, for the filling in of the Potomac tidal flats. This latter project has developed nearly 1,000 acres of reclaimed park land extensively used for recreation of all kinds. It also extended the axis of the Mall about three-fourths of a mile beyond what was originally planned, thus affording a suitable terminal in the site for the Lincoln Memorial.
In 1893 the evils of new, rapidly growing subdivisions outside the limits of the L’Enfant plan—laid out without any regard to the latter—were sufficiently recognized to bring about the passage of legislation for making a highway or street plan of the entire District of Columbia. This law was further amended in 1898 and resulted in a street layout followed ever since, with modifications from time to time. But this, being a street plan, made no provision for the extension of the system of city parks into the new territory, nor for merging the newly authorized major park projects with the street system. Hence one of the major duties with which the McMillan Commission was charged in 1901 was the design of appropriate parks outside of the L’Enfant plan.
The high talents and national reputation of the members of this commission insured that their recommendations for the beautification and development of the Capital would really be a new, grand, basic plan. After mature study, in the light of the finest examples the world had produced, this commission reinstated the authority of the L’Enfant plan and carried it to its logical conclusions in new territory. This action reflected credit not only on the genius of L’Enfant but also on the commission itself, which had the wisdom to recognize the supreme merit of the original plan and the good sense, and modesty, to build upon it.
However, the 1901 commission’s plan never received general legislative sanction, and approval of some of its individual major projects was obtained only after great effort and much urging by the executive authorities and some far-sighted Members of the Congress. First, the railroads arranged for a Union Station (1903), and the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. removed its tracks and station from the Mall, so that to-day the traveler by rail enters the city through a great monumental portal and finds himself in sight of the Capitol. In 1913 the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway was authorized, to connect the Rock Creek Valley with the Potomac Park system. In 1911 the Lincoln Memorial and the development of the Mall between it and the Washington Monument were provided for. A law approved in 1901 provided for construction of the General Grant Memorial at the east end of the Mall at the base of Capitol Hill, while a memorial to Gen. George G. Meade, located in relation to the Grant Memorial, was subsequently (1926) accepted from the State of Pennsylvania. In 1924 the Arlington Memorial Bridge was approved.
PARK AREAS ACQUIRED TO JULY 1, 1938
In 1910 the National Commission of Fine Arts was set up to—
advise upon the location of statues, fountains, and monuments in the public squares, streets, and parks in the District of Columbia, and upon the selection of models for statues, fountains, and monuments erected under the authority of the United States and upon the selection of the artists for the execution of the same.
This commission, which has numbered in its membership the greatest architects and artists of the country, has helped greatly not only in raising the standard of the public works of art but also in securing the adoption of important parts of the 1901 plan.
With the general paving of streets, the filling of vacant lots with houses, and the increasing automobile traffic, it became necessary to provide safe play places for children and necessary recreation facilities for adults. In response to this demand, a system of playgrounds was adopted and a playgrounds department set up in 1911.
While all these projects were good and necessary, they failed to keep pace with the needs of the rapidly growing city. Intrusted to different executive authorities, these efforts could not be properly coordinated, and occasionally were designed without the fullest consideration of other projects affected by them. The proposed system of playgrounds was not extended as intended, and even if it had been would have proved inadequate. Lands recommended for park use in 1901 were built on with expensive improvements and put to private or commercial uses.
The progress made in the quarter century 1901 to 1926 was so unsatisfactory that a Park and Planning Commission was established (1924, amended 1926)—
to develop a comprehensive, consistent, and coordinated plan for the National Capital and its environs in the States of Maryland and Virginia, to preserve the flow of water in Rock Creek, to prevent pollution of Rock Creek and the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers, to preserve forests and natural scenery in and about Washington, and to provide for the comprehensive, systematic, and continuous development of park, parkway, and playground systems of the National Capital and its environs * * *.
Besides its city-planning work, this commission recommended a complete system of city parks, playgrounds, and recreation centers, as well as a system of regional parks.
The main new city park feature is a circumferential parkway joining the old Civil War forts built to defend the city against attack, but now too near urban development to be of any military efficacy. But the sites of the forts themselves, besides the interest of the remains of the military works, are excellently suited for local parks, and because of their commanding positions afford many unique and magnificent views, while the drive joining them, besides giving opportunity for an unusually picturesque pleasure drive, will provide very much-needed cross connections of great traffic value between the radial streets entering the city.
There is to be a series of neighborhood recreation centers from 10 to 20 acres in size for each residential community, with playgrounds for small children interspersed at intervals of about half a mile. The recreation system is to comprise fields for major sports and swimming pools and constitutes a reasonable effort to meet the policy that “every child shall have a place to play.”
The regional park system contemplates the acquisition of the shores of the Potomac from Mount Vernon to and including Great Falls as a memorial park in memory of George Washington. This will include an area of unique historical and scenic value of such picturesque attractiveness as can not be found in such close proximity to any other great city, and a possible natural playground within reach of millions of the city dwellers of the Atlantic seaboard.
The new memorial highway to Mount Vernon is an important element of this project, which was completed in 1932. In the north end of the project, near Great Falls, are the remains of the Old Potomack Canal, of which George Washington himself supervised the construction, while on the Maryland shore is the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, formally initiated by President John Quincy Adams in 1828, and a most perfect example of the type of canal which brought about the development of our country in the first half of the nineteenth century. Its quiet waters and overgrown towpath and banks have unusual charm and afford a most charming and interesting contrast with the torrential river below in its rugged canyon.
As a natural terminal on the Maryland bank of the river, nearly opposite Mount Vernon, is picturesque old Fort Washington designed by Major L’Enfant after the War of 1812, and one of the best-preserved forts of this type in the South Atlantic States. From its parapet one can enjoy one of the best views of the Capital City L’Enfant so gloriously and successfully planned.
The regional park system also proposes the extension of Rock Creek Park into Maryland and various other similar connections with projects in the District of Columbia. Perhaps the most important is the opportunity for a parkway, like the Bronx Parkway, between Washington and Baltimore, following up the Anacostia Valley, Northwest Branch, and Indian Creek.
The recommendations of the National Capital Park and Planning Commission as to parks were given legislative sanction by the act approved May 29, 1930, and are being carried out as fast as funds are made available. The opportunities here for a nearly ideal park and playground system are so unusual that the entire country must be interested in seeing their early completion. Other cities can have monumental buildings, but no other large city can still have at reasonable cost the park and recreational facilities essential to the amenities of life and the raising of a new generation under conditions assuring, for poor and rich alike, a sound mind in a sound body.
LAFAYETTE PARK, SHOWING STATUE OF GEN. ANDREW JACKSON