architects and ordnance experts had had in mind. It became necessary to make a new front for the Capitol out of what had been intended to be its rear; and this accounts for the terraced approach from the west, which makes the structure so completely fulfil the ideal of an architectural "pile."
Washington’s development has been marked by an interesting series of these ac- cidents which enforced deviations from the original plans. The selection of the de- sign and location of the Lincoln Memorial, however, presents one case of adherence to a scheme laid out long in advance; and it is certain to have a very important bearing upon the future beautification of the city.
Following generally the ideas of Wash- ington and L’Enfant, the capital grew in rather a haphazard fashion during its early decades. There is a characteristic story that tells how Andrew Jackson located the Treasury Building where it is.
The Congressional and other authorities had squabbled interminably over the prob- lem, until Jackson, disgusted with the whole performance, set out one morning to decide the thing himself. He picked his way among the gullies and tree-stumps of Pennsylvania Avenue until he found a place that satisfied his notion of a proper site. Perhaps having in mind the acri- monious debate over the relations of the Treasury to the"“money power," he thought it would be well to have the nation’s finan- cial office where the White House could always keep a sharp eye on it. At any rate, Old Hickory is credited with placing the Treasury where it is to-day, and where it necessitated a huge and unsightly "jog" in the splendid sweep of Pennsylvania Avenue.
THE WORK OF THE PARK COMMISSION
These various accidents and interferences had so far distorted the general scheme from the original design that about a dozen years ago Congress was induced to create a Park Commission. This body was di- rected to study the whole problem of the city’s plan and development, with the pur- pose of laying out a general and consistent project by which the location of parks, boulevards, avenues, public buildings, bridges, and the like should be guided in the future.
The head of this commission was the late Daniel H. Burnham, who laid out the splendid scheme of grounds and buildings for the Columbian Exposition at Chicago, and to whose genius is due a world’s verdict that in its conception and execu- tion was achieved the world’s masterwork of landscape design and architectural adornment.
Volumes have been written about the noble project for an ideal capital which finally came from the work of the Burn- ham commission. In a sentence, it may be said that the commission rescued the original plans from the obsolescence in which unguided development was fast burying them, and fitted them to the possi- bilities of the present and the needs of the future.
The sweeping ground-plan of Washing- ton that is now accepted as the general guide for future work represents the ideas of General Washington, of L’Enfant, and of Burnham, as modified by various acci- dents of municipal growth and Congres- sional legislation. Its basic feature is the Mall, a splendid public park lying between Pennsylvania Avenue on the north and the Potomac River on the south and extend- ing from the Capitol at its eastern end to the Lincoln Memorial at its western. On the east and west axis of the Mall will stand the Grant Monument, at the foot of Capitol Hill; the Washington Monument, about a mile west of this, and practically midway of the park; and finally the Lin- coln Memorial, another mile farther west, on the bank of the Potomac.
Thus from the west front of the Capitol one will get a vista of the nation’s memori- als to Grant, Washington, and Lincoln, planted in the generous expanse of the Mall’s two miles of trees, turf, shrubs, and winding pathways. Beyond all this, the splendid Memorial Bridge just authorized by Congress will stretch away across the blue Potomac to beautiful Arlington Ceme- tery, linking the Mall and its memorials to the glorious green hills of Virginia and the last resting-place of the thousands of the nation’s soldiers who there lie buried. In the outworking of this plan, various splendid public buildings will be erected in or facing the Mall. This open space is to be connected at either end with a great en- circling series of boulevards and parks that will sweep around and through the city. Rock Creek Park will be one link in this chain, and the beautiful grounds of the Soldier’s Home another. Some of the sec- tions have but recently been authorized by
