New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1886-09-22
VAST ington On the Outside
Washington Corr. Cleveland Leader nal
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II 4
d The people of the United States
know but little about Washington,
and OF the sixty millions which we
have now in the country, perhaps
hfty millions have never visited the
capital. It is the finest national cap
ital In the world, and travellers who
have gone the rounds OF the globe say
they have never seen anything to
equal it. 1t now contains over 21O,.
600 people, and it's citizens spend
more money proportionately than
those OF any other city IN the United
States. 1t lies in a sort of basin
on the banks OF the Potomac, which
is a mile wide where it flows by it..
Great hills surround this basin, slop-
ing almost abruptly up from Bounda-
ry street, which bounds the city on
the north, and rising upward from the
banks on the other side of the river.
Some Of these hills are wooded, and
on many OF them residences are now
being built. It is supposed that they
will in the near future form the most
fashionable parts OF the capital city.
The capitol is in the exact center OF
Washington, and all the streets are
laid out at right angles to it. The let
tered streets run one way and the
numbered another, and the number
ing OF the city is so arranged that you
can tell at a glance just where house
is located by it's number and street.
All OF the streets OF Washington
are wide, and the avenues which
cross them in g. diagonal way
are wider still. They are paved with
dark gray asphalt, and are as smooth
as floor from one end to the other.
The bicycler will be interested in
knowing that there are 279 miles of
these Washington streets, and that
they could here ride almost the dis.
lance between Cleveland and Chicago
on pavements as smooth as so many
planned boards without going over the
same ground twice. Their ride would
take them past elegant houses of as
much variety OF architecture as there
is variety OF human brains. It would
lead them about statues of the most
noted men of the nation, through
parks filled with all kinds of tropical
plants, and along into the drives Of
great reservations, by public buildings
which are modelled after the structures
OF half dozen different ages and PEG.
pie in past history. They would go
feet wide, lined for many miles
with green lawns in front Of
the houses. For the govern
ment here owns the lawns as we'll as
the streets, and it has a strip of grass
on each side of it's streets from ten to
seventy feet wide, extending through
out the city, to the edge OF which the
builder may come but no further.
Washington has the greatest area of
streets in proportion to it's size OF any
city in the world, l think. Forty-one
pei cent. of the territory Of our cap
ital is laid out in streets, whereas
only twenty-five per cent. of Paris,
twenty-six per cent. of Berlin and thir-
ty-five per cent. of Vienna is devoted
to streets and avenues.
There are.in Washington city limits
Gill acres, and more than half of
this IS public property. The govern
ment reservations, which are scatter
ed throughout the whole city, con-
tain 4O8 acres, and the most OF these
are filled with flowers and trees. The
streets and avenues are lined with
trees, and during the last ten years
there have been more than $4,000
shade trees set out by a commission
which is appointed and paid by con-
gress for this purpose. Standing on
the hills above Washington and look
over it, the city now appears like
great garden, with houses poking their
heads out Of the foliage. Ten years
from now it will be 5000 acres Of for
est, and it Will be the greatest shade
tree city of the world. Trees grow
rapidly in the Washington soil. They
are we'll taken care OF, and they are
planted about thirty feet apart all
over the city as soon as the streets
are graded. The government puts
tree boxes around them, and if one
happens to die it is at once replaced
by another. These trees are OF all
kinds Of shade trees which one finds
in the north and south They have
already materially affected the eli
mate of Washington city, and it is
cooler now by far than it was dec
AIDE ago.
The parks Of Washington are scat
tered throughout the city, and you
cannot walk more than three or four
squares without coming upon a green
spot filled with rare old trees and a
statue or fountain. There are seats
in these parks, and in the flower beds,
which you will find in most of them,
plants are kept blooming all the time.
First there are the earliest blossoms
OF the spring. Then as the year grows
older these are taken up as soon as
they cease to bloom and others are
planted in their places. An army OF
laborers is required to keep the
parks in order, and a continuous
Improvement goes on. Many of
these parks, such as Franklin
for instance, are surrounded by ele-
.paNt rnsi1anc and oo q r,,ln 1,oo,,4