Why Washington’s Most Magnificent Landmarks Are Barely on the Map

In 1791, Pierre L’Enfant drew the President’s plans George Washington who spearheaded the development of Washington as it stands today. Modified more than a century later through Congress’s McMillan Plan, L’Enfant’s architectural genius formed the basis for some of the nation’s most recognized monuments, including the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Jefferson Memorial.

However, these structures, which now benefit so many, were only completed after overcoming major obstacles.

The Washington Monument

L’Enfant’s original setting for Washington was largely ignored for decades, with the neighborhood remaining in a state of undeveloped chaos in the late 19th century.

It was not until the early 1830s that serious planning began for the Washington Monument, Washington’s first major memorial, which owed its origins to L’Enfant’s drawings. After the groundbreaking ceremony in 1848, the project quickly ran into problems that further delayed its completion for decades.

Funding was limited, as the project relied heavily on public funding for most of the construction period.

The two main political groups of the time, the Federalists and the Jeffersonian Republicans, argued over the details of the memorial. Jeffersonian Republicans held animosity toward Alexander Hamilton, one of Washington’s key allies who formed the Federalist Party, and long-standing resentments between the two entities carried over into the monument debate.

Meanwhile, various groups vying for control of the Washington National Monument Society have halted work on the memorial. Then, between 1856 and 1876, with the Civil War, construction was largely halted.

Problems threatened Washington’s monumental legacy, even after the war ended.

In the nation’s centennial year of 1876, legislators were driven by a wave of patriotism to appropriate the funds they desperately needed for the monument’s completion. A congressional committee also tasked engineers with evaluating whether the foundations would be strong enough to support the 555-foot memorial. In 1877, when the memorial was already nearly half a football field in its planned height, engineers reported that the base could not support the weight of the final structure. Fortunately, workers were able to remedy the problem by replacing the base and foundations under the monument with concrete.

It was worth it when the monument was finally unveiled in 1885. That year, the proud country celebrated the impressive obelisk as the tallest structure in the world.

The Lincoln Memorial

At the turn of the 20th century, lawmakers took seriously the desire to make Washington something more than an unseemly swamp on the banks of the Potomac.

Fueled by the City Beautiful movement, a large-scale “beautification” project that drew inspiration from the elegant neoclassical style of the then-Sen. James McMillan led the Senate Parks Commission and brought L’Enfant’s plans to life.

But key elements of the McMillan Plan of 1901-1902 hit a wall when Joe Cannon, the Speaker of the House, opposed the expansion of the National Mall, thereby blocking construction of the Lincoln Memorial.

The proposed location for the monument did not make sense to Cannon, a practical man who could not imagine a magnificent Greek monument in a location that was, at the time, remote.

Instead, Cannon suggested building a new federal agricultural building on the Mall and later fought to place the Lincoln Memorial near Union Station.

“As long as I live, I will never let a memorial to Abraham Lincoln be erected in this damn swamp,” Cannon said. according to a 2008 report from the Washington Post.

Plans to move forward with construction of the elegant memorial in its modern location on the banks of the Potomac did not move forward until after Cannon was ousted as president in 1910.

The Jefferson Memorial

Serious planning for the Jefferson Memorial did not begin until the 1930s, when then-President Franklin Roosevelt, an ardent admirer of the nation’s third president, decided it would be appropriate to dedicate a national monument to the founding father .

But Roosevelt’s dream quickly turned into a nightmare. The Washington press waged all-out war against the idea, ultimately leading Roosevelt to condemn their “total deception of the public”. This dark media coverage was led by the Washington Posta powerful publication run by Republican sympathizer Eugene Meyer, who opposed Roosevelt’s New Deal and seemed to generate opposition based on ideological divisions. On one side were the Democrats, led by Roosevelt. On the other side were Republicans who, as descendants of Lincoln’s party, feared that Jefferson’s memorial would overshadow the Lincoln Memorial.

Critics also ridiculed the government for spending resources to build a monument while millions were struggling with poverty during the Great Depression. Others were unhappy that an architect was hired to create the monument instead of holding an open design competition. Yet others have castigated the classic conception of the memorial.

But the final hurdle came when the “Cherry Blossom Rebellion” broke out. The protest erupted in the late 1930s and concerned thousands of cherry trees that Japan had gifted to the United States in the early 20th century and which the crusaders believed would be threatened by the latest memorial.

“All Tidal Basin Cherry Trees Doomed by Jefferson Memorial Commission Plans,” a 1937 headline from the Washington Post read.

As officials pledged to plant more cherry blossoms, anti-Roosevelt activists who wanted the originals preserved became increasingly angry. In November of the following year, powerful Washington newspaper owner Eleanor “Cissy” Patterson led a small army of women to protest the White House and chain their bodies to trees along the Tidal Basin.

Roosevelt remained impassive.

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“The public has been subjected, by the newspaper owner, to the worst case of ‘flimflamming’ that Washington has seen in a long time,” he said, according to the newspaper. The Washington Post report of the incident.

With Roosevelt refusing to give in, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Jefferson Memorial took place in December 1938. It was completed in 1943, just a few years before Roosevelt’s death.