washington d.c. – U.S. Highway 50

Route 50 in Washington, D.C.

Route 50 enters Washington, D.C. from Maryland and passes through some struggling spots. The contrast with the city’s government buildings and public areas is striking.

A homeless camp on Route 50, seven blocks from the Capitol building

Lawn care at the White House, from Route 50 (Constitution Avenue)

Near the west end of D.C., Route 50 follows Constitution Avenue next to the National Mall.

Constitution Avenue (Route 50) in Washington, D.C.

If you’re lucky, you can park right on the street (early morning is best). Walk for a minute or two into the National Mall, and here’s what you’ll see.

The city that houses these government buildings and monuments is a stand-alone federal government entity, not part of any state. The citizens who live here possess limited political powers. They have no voting representation in the U.S. Congress, and Congress can overrule decisions of local officials. How did this situation come to be?

It all started because soldiers who had served in the American army during the Revolutionary War wanted their money.

The soldiers had not been paid for their military service, so in June 1783 they sent a message to the Continental Congress (at the time called “the United States in Congress Assembled”) asking for payment. Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, ignored them.

A few days later, in what is called the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, some 400 soldiers blocked the doorways to Congress’s meeting hall and refused to let the delegates leave. The soldiers only relented when Alexander Hamilton convinced them that Congress would act on their request.

That very evening, Congress did act, but not in the way the soldiers had hoped. Instead of authorizing back pay, the delegates voted, in secret, to ask the state of Pennsylvania to protect them from any future mutinies. Further, they threatened to move out of Philadelphia, if Pennsylvania didn’t do it.

Pennsylvania not only didn’t do it, it refused outright to do it. Miffed, Congress decamped for Princeton, New Jersey, and declared Princeton, not Philadelphia, to be the provisional capitol of the United States.

Congress did do one typically Congressional thing regarding the mutiny, though. It passed a resolution calling for an investigation.

Five years later, in 1788, James Madison proposed the establishment of a national capital. It would be controlled by the federal government, so Congress wouldn’t have to rely on a state government to provide security. This time, Congress did act. It added a clause to the U.S. Constitution providing for the establishment of a federal district that would house the U.S. Government.

The Constitution, however, did not specify where that district should be. In the course of arriving at the physical location that became Washington, D.C., the federal government moved no less than five times. First to Princeton, as we have already seen, and then to Annapolis, Maryland; Trenton, New Jersey; New York City; and, once more, to Philadelphia.

Eventually, Congress decided on a district “not exceeding ten miles square” to be located on land along the Potomac River belonging to the states of Virginia and Maryland. These states resisted giving up their property at first, but relented in 1790 when the Federal government, led by Madison, Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson, offered to pay Revolutionary War debts which Virginia and Maryland still owed.

A committee (this was Congress, after all) named the new city for George Washington, and called the district in which the city lay, Columbia. Columbia is the feminine form of the name Columbus, and at the time it was often used to refer to the United States itself.

Congress moved in on November 17, 1800.

As it happened, the land occupied by the District of Columbia occupied land that included already existing towns, including Alexandria, Virginia, and Georgetown, Maryland.

But wait a minute, you say — as you cross the Potomac on Route 50, leaving D.C. and entering Virginia — Alexandria is right down the river, and it’s in Virginia.

That’s because, in an act that would boggle the minds of many Congressional observers today, in 1846 Congress gave back Virginia’s land. But it did not return Maryland’s, and a look at a map will show that D.C.’s boundary on the Virginia side is the curves of the Potomac, while on the Maryland side its boundary is the straight lines and right angles of a district that had been “ten miles square.” This is why today Georgetown is a neighborhood in Washington, D.C., while Alexandria is a town in Virginia.

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All ph0tos by the author. The map was generated using Google Maps.

The White House

Route 50 passes the White House on Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C. We tend to think of the White House as it currently exists, but of course it has evolved:

At first, White House cooks relied on an open hearth fireplace in the kitchen. In 1801, Thomas Jefferson began enjoying food cooked on a White House stove.
The British burned the White House during the war of 1812.
The six presidents who preceded Andrew Jackson did not have running water in the White House. It was installed in 1833, during Jackson’s administration.
In 1848, the first gas lamps were used in the White House. Before that, President James K. Polk and his predecessors used candles and oil lamps to read and to get about during the night.
The first White House telephone was installed in 1879. To reach President Rutherford B. Hayes, you could call his telephone number: 1.
Benjamin Harrison brought the first Christmas tree into the White House in 1889.
William Howard Taft converted the White House stables into a garage in 1909, so he would have a place to park his new official cars.

In the past, the White House hosted some big parties:

In 1829, Andrew Jackson’s inauguration party drew 6,000 people, way more than he expected. Food ran out, and to get people out of the White House, the staff mixed whiskey and orange juice in washtubs and put them outside on the back lawn. Jackson himself escaped through a window, decamping to a hotel for the night.
In 1911, William Howard Taft celebrated his 25th wedding anniversary with 8,000 of his closest friends. Several orchestras played, and electric lights in the trees made for a romantic atmosphere.

And the White House was not immune to slavery:

Enslaved persons helped build the White House before President John Adams and his wife, Abigail, moved in, in 1800.
The British burned the White House in 1814, during the War of 1812. Before that happened, President James Madison’s wife, Dolly, removed and hid Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of George Washington. At the same time, enslaved persons removed other items from the White House. They then brought them back after the war.
Enslaved persons are known to have slept in the White House, including during Andrew Jackson’s tenure.
During James Buchanan’s presidency (1857 – 1861), his administration included both Northerners and Southerners. During White House dinners, the two sides had violent arguments over abolition. As a result, and not from a noble impulse, Buchanan removed enslaved persons from the White House.

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Photo by the author.

Washington, D.C. — The Vietnam Veterans Memorial

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a short walk from Route 50 (Constitution Avenue) in Washington, D.C.

Designed by Maya Lin, it was controversial when it was completed in 1982, but it is still powerful today. As you walk down a sloping walkway, the names of those who died in the war rise before your eyes.

The photo above shows a group of tourists who visited one summer morning. They are listening to a docent, a veteran of the war, who is explaining how additional names are occasionally added to the wall, even now.

The surface of the wall is polished, and you might see your reflection among the names of the dead.

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Photos by the author.