US Presidency
1927

It included his plan of the waterway to the West, through the Potomac, the Monongahela, and the Ohio Rivers, which he used to speak of as the channel of commerce to the extensive and valuable trade of a rising Empire. He, of course, could not foresee the development of railway transportation and the great ocean-going vessels, because of which the seat of our Government became separated from active contact with commerce and was left to develop as the cultural and intellectual center of the Nation. Due to the genius of committees. I, the great engineer, this city from the first has had a magnificient plan of development. Its adoption was due in no small degree to the engineering foresight and executive ability of Washington. By 1932 we shall have made much progress toward perfecting the ideal city planned by him in the closing days of the eighteenth century. Washington had the ability to translate ideals into the practical affairs of life. He was interested in what he believed contributed to the betterment of every-day existence.