Washington D.C

The idea of a national capital city seems to have originated at a meeting of the Congress in June 1783 in the Old City Hall in Philadelphia.

Several locations were considered over the next six years, but Northern and Southern disagreements prevented decision until 1790.Although the decision to locate the capital on the Potomac was largely a political compromise, selection of the exact site for the city was left to the newly elected president, George Washington. The chosen district, or territory as it was first called, was 10 miles square.

Washington negotiated with Pierre-Charles L'Enfant to lay out a plan for the new city. A volunteer in the Revolution whose democratic idealism was unquestioned, a well-trained engineer, and an artist who had designed the setting for the President's inaugural ceremonies in New York City, L'Enfant was highly respected and admired. Apparently sensing the historic significance of his appointment, he conceived his plan on a grand scale.The Capitol's cornerstone was laid by Washington in September 1793, and construction was begun on the White House, designed by an Irishman, James Hoban.

Before the Civil War Washington grew very slowly and for a long time was more like a provincial town.After 1865, however, business and commerce started developing on a larger scale and the population increased rapidly. Streets were improved, trees planted, government buildings and monuments built. Within the second half of the 19^th and the first half of the 20^th century Washington D.C. acquired its present-day grandeur.

Only two major economic activities provide virtually all of the income to the city and its residents. The federal civil service is by far the largest single employer in the metropolitan area. Tourism is second in economic importance. Manufacturing and other commercial activities occupy only a minor place in the economic structure.

Being the seat of the national government and the site of many of the nation's most significant monuments, Washington attracts millions of tourists each year.

Washington is one of the few capital cities of the world founded expressly as a seat of government and as a centre for international representation. The expansive designs for the city were to symbolize the ideals of the freedom so dear to the nation.

The modern city holds the nation's most sacred monuments and the most meaningful artifacts of its history, the embassies of foreign nations, and an impressive collection of the national art treasures. Nearly every significant national organization has its headquarters or a major branch in the District.

Washington skyline is dominated by the Capitol, the meeting place of the U.S. Congress and one of the nation's most familiar landmarks. It is situated on Capitol Hill. To its west lies the Mall, and to its east the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress. Various Congressional (House and Senate) office buildings adjoin it to the north and south. The building also served as the meeting place of the Supreme Court until its own building was completed (in 1935). The building contains about 540 rooms and stands in a 131-acre (53-hectare) park.

The Library of Congress is probably the largest national library, and its collection of modern books is particularly extensive. It was founded in 1800 but lost many books by fire during a bombardment of the Capitol by British troops in 1814. These losses were to some extent compensated for by the purchase of Thomas Jefferson's library. The library remained a strictly congressional library for many years, but, as the collections were notably enlarged, the library became and remains--in effect, although not in law--the national library of the United States. The public has access to many of the collections.

The other major official building in Washington D.C. is the charming, essentially modest White House, which has been judged by many as among the finest and most appropriate residences of state in the world.

The White House is the official residence of the president of the United States. The White House and its landscaped grounds occupy 18 acres (7.2 hectares) of ground. The main building has been the home of every U.S. president since John Adams and is the oldest federal building in the capital.In 1791 a public competition was held to choose the most suitable design for a presidential residence. Thomas Jefferson and others submitted drawings, but the Irish-American architect James Hoban of Philadelphia won the commission (and a $500 prize) with his plan for a Georgian mansion in the Palladian style. This structure was to have three floors and more than 100 rooms, and would be built in pale grey sandstone. The cornerstone was laid on Oct. 13, 1792, and President John Adams and his wife, Abigail, became the newly completed mansion's first occupants in 1800. By 1809 it was already called the "White House" because its white-grey sandstone contrasted strikingly with the red brick of nearby buildings. (President Theodore Roosevelt adopted "White House" as the building's official name in 1902.) The White House was burned during the British invasion of 1814, but it was rebuilt and enlarged afterwards.

During the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, the mansion's second-floor rooms were converted from presidential offices to living quarters for his family, and the West Wing was constructed to provide greater office space for the president and his growing staff. More office space was made available with the building of the East Wing in 1942.

The last major alterations to the White House were made in the 1960s by Jacqueline Kennedy, who collected items of historic and artistic value with which to decorate its rooms.The White House building complex has a total of more than 130 rooms. The main building still contains the presidential family's living quarters and various reception rooms, all decorated in styles of the 18th and 19th centuries. Parts of the main building are open to guided tours. The north portico is the public entrance to the main building, while the south portico is a private entrance reserved for the presidential family. The west terrace contains a swimming pool and gym, while the east terrace contains a movie theatre. The West Wing contains the presidential office (the Oval Office), the Cabinet room, and the press rooms, while the East Wing contains other offices.Over the years the White House has become a major American shrine, and its public areas are toured by about 1,500,000 people every year.

One of the imposing biuldings on the Mall is the central building of the Smithsonian Institution, a red-stone building with numerous turrets and battlements in medieval style.This is a research institution founded by the bequest of the English scientist James Smithson. The mission of the Smithsonian Institution is the “increase and diffusion of knowledge among men”. Today it is a huge research and museum complex which includes a library, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the National Air and Space Museum, the National Gallery of Art, the National Museum of American Art, the National Museum of History and Technology, the National Museum of Natural History, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Zoological Park, the Science Information Exchange, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, etc.

Ever since L'Enfant urged that Washington be lavishly equipped with "statues, columns or other ornaments" to honour the nation's greatness, a continuous effort has been made to assure that no open space in the city lacks its representative monument. Within the District of Columbia alone, more than 300 memorials and statues of varying size, purpose, and aesthetic merit have been raised--from the elegant and inspiring Lincoln and Jefferson memorials and the pure grandeur of the Washington Monument, to the statues of major and minor Civil War heroes, to memorial benches, Doric temples, and Japanese pagodas.

The Washington Monument is a memorial to George Washington, the first American president. The monument was built at intervals between 1848 and 1884 from public subscriptions and federal appropriations and was dedicated in 1885. The structure, based on a design by Robert Mills, is a granite obelisk faced with Maryland marble. It is 55 feet (16.8 m) square at the base, 555 feet 5 inches (169.3 m) high, and weighs about 91,000 tons.

The monument was the tallest man-made structure in the world from its completion in 1884 until surpassed by the newly built Eiffel Tower in 1889. It is still the world's tallest masonry structure. The top of the monument can be reached by an interior iron stairway comprising 50 landings and 898 steps; an elevator makes the ascent in about 70 seconds.

Lincoln Memorial was designed to honour President Abraham Lincoln and "the virtues of tolerance, honesty, and constancy in the human spirit." Built in the style of the Parthenon in Athens, the structure includes 36 columns of Colorado marble surrounding the building, one for each state that comprised the Union in Lincoln's time. The colossal (19-ft) seated statue of Lincoln dominates the interior and looks eastward across a reflecting pool at the Washington Monument and Capitol. On the South Wall is inscribed Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and on the North Wall his Second Inaugural Address. Above are two paintings by Jules Guerin representing "Reunion and Progress" and the "Emancipation of a Race." The cornerstone was laid in 1915 and the completed Memorial was dedicated on Memorial Day, May 30, 1922.

Jefferson Memorial, a monument to the U.S. president Thomas Jefferson, is situated in East Potomac Park. It was authorized in 1934 and dedicated on April 13, 1943, the 200th anniversary of Jefferson's birth. The circular-colonnaded structure was built in the classical style that Jefferson preferred. The pediment over the portico depicts Jefferson reading his draft of the Declaration of Independence. In the centre of the domed, marble-lined interior is a heroic bronze figure of Jefferson sculpted by Rudulph Evans; inscriptions of Jefferson's writings appear on the four interior panels.The memorial appears in its most picturesque setting in early spring when the Oriental cherry trees are in bloom.

With the increasing number of monuments of all sorts, a growing concern that Washington would soon become a quarry of stone and metal monuments dedicated to minor individuals and causes led to a movement toward "living" or "functional" memorials that attempt to translate the personality of the person being honoured. Within this context, the monument dedicated to President John F. Kennedy was designed as a cultural centre for the performing arts. John F.Kennedy Centre for the performing arts was opened in 1971 and houses three theatres for concerts, drama and opera.

Another point of general attraction in Washington D.C. is the Arlington National Cemetery. The first soldier buried there (May 13, 1864) was a Confederate prisoner who died in a local hospital. Some of the dead from every war in which the U.S. has participated, including a few officers of the American Revolution, have since been buried there. Many of the nation's military leaders and other outstanding individuals, including Pierre-Charles L'Enfant, John F. Kennedy, and Robert F. Kennedy, are buried there.The cemetery is the site of the Tomb of the Unknowns, also called the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, first established as a memorial to the dead of World War I but now considered a memorial to the dead of other wars as well.

Pentagon, a large five-sided building in Arlington county, near Washington, D.C., serves as headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense, including all three services--Army, Navy, and Air Force. Designed by George Edwin Bergstrom, it was built in 1941-43 to bring under one roof the U.S. War Department offices then housed in widely scattered buildings. On its completion it was the world's largest office building, covering 34 acres (14 hectares) and offering 3,700,000 square feet (343,730 square m) of usable floor space for as many as 25,000 persons, military and civilian. The structure has five floors, excluding the mezzanine and the basement. The building consists of five concentric pentagons, or "rings," with 10 spokelike corridors connecting the whole. Parking areas adjacent to the building can accommodate as many as 10,000 cars, and a heliport for the Pentagon was added in 1956.

The original L'Enfant plan set aside 17 areas for parks, including the Mall, the Washington Monument grounds, the Capitol Hill grounds, the White House grounds (including the present Lafayette Square), and the small plots of grass at the intersections of the major avenues. The preservation of these areas and the addition of others provides Washington with the several hundred parks and green spaces.

The traditional Cherry Blossom Festival held early each spring is the oldest of Washington's celebrations. In spite of their attraction for tourists, the festival parade and crowning of a queen tend to be less important for Washingtonians than is the explosion of blossoms around the Tidal Basin and the Jefferson Memorial that the festival marks.

Also popular is Washington's annual festival of American folk arts and crafts, held for a week each summer on the Mall. This open-air display of the arts and crafts of many regional and ethnic subcultures has become an increasingly significant cultural event.