THE CAPITAL OF THE UNITED STATES.*

WASHINGTON CITY, the capital of the United States of America, and the seat of the Federal Government since 1800, is situated on the eastern bank of the Potomac River, 106 miles above its mouth, and 105 miles in a straight line west of the Atlantic Ocean, in 38° 53′ 39′′ N. lat., and 77° 2′ 48′′ long. W. of Greenwich. The population of the city in 1875 was 125,000 (estimated).

Washington is almost alone among the capitals of great nations of modern times in the fact of its creation for the sole purpose of a seat of government, apart from any questions of commercial greatness or population. While London, Paris, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Vienna, and Madrid are respectively the commercial capitals and the most populous cities of the nations they represent, Washing-. ton never was, and probably will never be, the leading city of the United States, or the great metropolis of a commercial and a manufacturing population. In trade and manufactures it is overshadowed, no doubt permanently, by the neighboring great commercial capitals of Baltimore and Philadelphia, from which it is distant only 39 and 137 miles respectively, while New York is but 227 miles distant by railway. There are those who maintain that superior advantages result to Washington as a pleasant, salubrious, and perennially attractive residence, from the absence of all manufacturing establishments, so fruitful in smoke and other drawbacks to health and comfort.

The history of the selection of Washington as the seat of government shows that there was a protracted conflict in the Congress of the Republic over the claims of rival localities, and that the confluence of the Potomac and Anacostia was finally selected as a compromise. After the cession to the United States by Maryland in 1788, and Virginia in 1789, of a Federal district ten miles square, the site of the city and the location of the public squares and buildings were selected by President Washington in person on the Maryland side of the Potomac, in accordance with the act of Congress of March 30, 1791. At the time of this location, the city was almost

* From Johnson's New Universal Cyclopædia, 1877.

precisely in the geographical centre between the northern and the southern limits of the Union. On April 15th, 1791, the corner-stone of the Federal territory was laid by three commissioners appointed by the President, together with the officials of Alexandria, Va.; and in the following year the lines of boundary directed by the President's proclamation were permanently marked by square milestones. The place was called "the Federal City" by Washington, and in the records of the time, until September 9, 1791, when the commissioners directed that the Federal district should be called 66 the Territory of Columbia," and the Federal city" the City of Washington." Major L'Enfant, a French engineer, prepared the topographical plan of Washington City, under the direction of President Washington and Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State. L'Enfant took as a basis for his design the topography of Versailles, the seat of the government of France, and introduced the scheme of broad transverse avenues intersecting the main streets of the city, with constantly recurring squares, circles, and triangular reservations, which form at this day the main features of the plan of the city. Having determined upon the location of the capitol as the initial point, a true meridian line was drawn through it, crossed by another due east and west line, by the accurate measurement of which the acute angles were determined, and the avenues and streets laid down by strict measurement. The ideas of the founders of the city proposed a seat of government of ample territorial proportions, and provided for the future wants of a swarming population, as well as for the embellishment of the fine natural features of the city by the aid of art. The grand scope of the superficial design, contrasted with the poverty of the results achieved in the shape of public improvements for many years, led to the proverbial designation of Washington as the " city of magnificent distances." Thus, the public streets throughout were projected on the scale of 160 feet down to 70, no street in the city being less than the latter width. The aggregate length of the streets and avenues is 264 miles, and they are wider than those of any other city in the world. There are 21 avenues in all, which bear the names of various States in the Union. Pennsylvania Avenue, the principal street of Washington, is a magnificent thoroughfare, 160 feet wide (just double the width of Broadway, New York), running from the Capitol to the Treasury Department, where it is deflected to the north, and continued past the President's house westward to Georgetown, at the width of 130 feet. On the other side of the Capitol it runs 160 feet wide to the Anacostia River. This avenue was originally laid out in three roadways, with a double row of Lombardy poplars, planted at the instance of Mr. Jefferson, between the central or main street and that on each side. These trees were cut down in 1832, and the avenue thrown into one broad thoroughfare, now (1877) paved with smooth concrete, consti

tuting the most splendid and attractive corso or driveway in the country. Massachusetts Avenue is over four and a half miles long, running in an unbroken course 160 feet in width, from the north west boundary of Washington at Twenty-second Street to the Anacostia, beyond Lincoln Park. The other avenues are named-Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana. To these must be added the newly laid out Executive Avenue, which starts from Pennsylvania Avenue at the President's House,' and follows a serpentine course through the Washington Monument grounds, in full view of the Potomac, till it reaches the grounds of the Department of Agriculture, whence it passes through the Smithsonian reservation and the Mall to the Botanic Garden at the foot of the Capitol. Executive Avenue affords a fine drive about two miles in length, and will soon be adorned with shade-trees through its whole extent, as it now is in the grounds of the Smithsonian Institution. The Mall, through which the drive runs, was originally covered with majestic oaks, which were cut down about 1820, under an unwise agreement of the commissioners of Washington with the proprietors, that they should be entitled to all the wood on the lands reserved by the United States. East Capitol Street, running at a uniform breadth of 160 feet from the east front of the Capitol to Lincoln Park, was originally designed to be the chief street of the city, and has recently become one of the most attractive, many fine residences having been located upon it. K Street, 148 feet wide, extending from Rock Creek, the Georgetown boundary, to the Anacostia, is one of the most splendid thoroughfares of the city. Sixteenth Street, 160 feet wide, runs from Lafayette Square, opposite the President's house, due north to the boundary, where it climbs the heights towards Columbian College, presenting a fine view of the city and environs. Boundary Street, running along the northern limit of the city, is also a fine driveway or boulevard.

Every grand transverse avenue was laid out 160 feet wide. The crossings of the streets and avenues created opportunity for frequent parks or reservations as centres of attraction, interspersed with business blocks and dwelling-houses. Besides these fractional reservations, there were set apart more extensive parks or squares, including the following: The Capitol grounds, 52 acres; President's grounds, 20 acres; Lafayette Square, 7 acres; the Park, or Mall (not yet fully opened), about 100 acres; Judiciary Square, 19 acres; the Arsenal grounds, 44 acres; the Navy Yard, 27 acres; Farragut Square, 1 acres; McPherson Square, 1 acres; Franklin Square, 4 acres; Rawlins Square, 1 acres; Lincoln Park, Capitol Hill, 6 acres; Stanton Place, Capitol Hill, 31 acres. Besides these are numerous smaller squares and several circular plots of ground,