Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1896-06-19
A GIGANTIC RELIEF MAP.
How Uncle Sam Proposes TO Teach
His Guests Geography.
Regular Correspondence of the standard.

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Regular Correspondence Of the Standard.
When the Federal City was estab-
lished on the banks of the Potomac
there was large marsh in the river,
which was covered at high tide but ex-
posed at low tide to the sun, and the
inhabitants were constant sufferers
from malarial diseases.
Some fifteen years ago the work OF
retaining this land began. Ordinary
scoop dredges first built entertainments
enclosing large tracts of the marsh,
and then hydraulic dredges of enor-
nous size pumped mud from the bot
tom OF the stream and forced it
through pipes two feet in diameter,
and sometimes half mile long, far
within the enclosure. In this way
seven hundred acres have been built
up so as to be six or eight feet above
tide level, and the Government owns
remarkably fine park.
Several would-be "settlers" have
tried to pre-empt quarter-sections, and
have made applications to the Land
Office for patents to the land, but, of
course, without success.
Several schemes have been proposed
for utilizing this tract of land. The
latest, that proposed by Congressman
Cannon, is now attracting considerable
attention. He proposes that the up
per part of the park be turned into an
enormous relief map of the United
States on the scale of one foot to the
mile. This would require eighty acres
of land.
AS surveyed. the Washington Mon
ument would stand off the Atlantic
Coast, and enable the observers from
its top to take in the whole country
from Bunker Hill Monument to the
Presidio. The plan is to change the
outline of the interior lake, or tidal
reservoir" as it is called, so as to con-
form to the shape of the Gulf of Mex
leo. On this map would be indicated
every river, railroad, canal and post
office in the country, so that visitors
could, by mornings walk, look over
the "estate" in which every citizen
has an interest, and could form a
much better idea Of the general lay of
the land than he could By long studies
of biographies.
OF course it would be necessary to
adopt a different scale for vertical
measurements than that used for hor-
izontal, because we would not want a
foreigner, especially subject of her
excellent majesty, the Queen, to step
over our loftiest mountain ranges. If
the vertical scale were made one foot
to the hundred, the highest noun.
tain peak would run up nearly one
hundred and seventy feet high.
The scale adopted, or proposed
rather, OF one foot to the mile for the
horizontal or plan scale, gives each
State as many square feet as it con.
tains square miles. Texas, the larg-
est State of all. would be allotted
about six acre to reproduce its vast
grazing prairies, and here could be
collected the tramp horses that are
now seen feeding about the unde.
veloped parts.
The upper part of Delaware would
be so narrow that one OF our college
athletes could take run along Mason
and Dixon's line and jump clear across
into New Jersey.
To make permanent work on such
a scale, that is one where it would not
be necessary to dig the Rocky Mount
aims out of the Gulf of Mexico and re-
place them after every freshet, would
be an expensive affair, but would GER
tainly have its educational advantages.
JESS.