The chief alteration shown in Ellicott’s engraved plan is the straightening of what is now Massachusetts Avenue. The suppression of the eastern portion leading to the upper bridgehead made it end at what is now known as Lincoln Square, the drawbridge over Eastern Branch being reached by what is now Kentucky Avenue.
By moving the marine hospital site north some distance and ignoring the Rock Creek Ford at the other end, Ellicott was enabled to run Massachusetts Avenue in nearly a direct line; the western end reached the road to Frederick, as it did in L’Enfant’s plan.
The settlement of this section of the city was at that date problematical, and no serious attention was given to the change in plan. The area was marshy and was a popular place for hunting snipe. This fact explains the meandering of Florida Avenue to the northwestern boundary line of the old city.
THE ELLICOTT PLAN
TRANSCRIPTION OF NOTES INSCRIBED ON ELLICOTT PLAN
In an overlay of the two plans of L’Enfant and Ellicott, prepared with great accuracy by the hydrographic section of the Navy, only the main east-west and north-south axes of the Capitol and White House coincide. An examination of this drawing shows that the art of surveying had not at that period reached present-day accuracy.
