Evening star., 1898-10-27
Submitted at the Session of Municip-
al Improvement Society.
srREFi BzFBBrIoN PLAN
Assistant Engineer Richards Reads
Two Interesting Articles.
CITY's TREE PLANTING

| city. Acting upon the advice of Can't
| Beach, Engineer Commissioner of the Dis
| trict, they did not go in body, but formed
| a number of parties to visit such places as
| they preferred. Quite a number of the
| members went to the new Congressional
Library building. and from there visited
the other public buildings of the city.
A small party visited Cabin John bridge,
while others drove through the Soldiers
| home grounds and to Rock Creek Park.
-, me afternoon session was not begun IN
| III after 2:3O O'clock when several papers
of considerable ntel est were read.
WIN. +. richards assistant engineer in
| the engineer department of the District
read paper entitled "A Street Extension
ian Tor the Entire District OF Columbia"
1t is as follows:
"A street system executed far in ad-
vance OF its actual need is TO novelty in
| the growth of modern cities. Philadelphia
ailo New York at certain times have pushed
tEelr plans Tar Into the future, and the
| present admirable plan of New York be-
tV cen lst street and the Harlem was
cc1 sidered, when fiji ished in 1896, as suf-
Icltnt Tor three centuries of city growth.
Many of our western cities have in like
manner extended their boundaries and
streets before individual enterprises have
placed a barrier in front of such efforts.
on the other hand, cities that have
grown IN haphazard way have. at great
expense. remodeed their plan or wilencd
their streets either for artistic effect or
commercial needs. The infusion of new life
IN farls during the reign of Napoleon III
by radical changes in its ground plan is a
well Known event. London has widened
rany of her thorougkfares for commercial
purposes: Boston has spent millions to the
Same end, the great fire of 1872 affording
portul ity to regulate some of the OLD
highways in the heart of the city. New
York, with her marvellous growth of re-
cent years, has found it advisable to eX
to 10 ctr tr,i.r
lem river. The plan below Harlem that
was deemed sufficient for three centuries
was filled in less than one. and find
today north of the city great unsym
metrical system of highways too well i'm
proved to allow radical changes and re-
sulting in a makeshift plan in the twenty
third and twenty-fourth wards.
The Total Area Covered.
"In the light of such events and urged
by its own experience, Washington has
been imDelled, to-. extend its plan to the
limits Of the District The total area COW
red by existing ARD proposed highways is
sixty square miles. About fifteen square
miles are included in the settled portions
of the District, leaving forty-five square
miles covered by paper plan. The origin,
development, characteristics and extent of
the plan of Washington should be reviewed
in order to APPRECIATE the reason for gen
eral and specific features of the extended
plan
An act of, Congress passed on the 19tn
day Of july. 1880, Established the perma-
nent seat of 'goverDm Mt on the banks Of
the Potomac and authorized President
Washington to appoint. three commission
ers TO have charge of the work connected
with the foundation of the federal city.
The bounds of-tha District were marked by
Andrew EIicoft in the spring of 1871 ard
Major l. Enfa ant. q French engineer, was
directed by Washington to prepare a plan
for the future city. L'Enfant came to this
country in 1717, and served with distinction
in tie revolutionary war He had written
to Washington during the agitation in Con-
sress over the selection of a permanent
seat, asking for "a share in the undertake
ing and adding that no nation, perhaps,
had ever before the opportunity offered ii
of iberately deciding on the spot where
| their capital city should be fixed, and al
though the means now within the power Of
the country are not such as to pursue tie
design to any great extent, it viii be OBJ
vious that the plan should be drawn on
ST ch scale as to lsave room for that as
erandizement and establishment which the
increase of the wealth Of the nation will
permit it to pursue at any period, how
ever remote
'LEnfant began his labors with unusual
zeal, and both Washington and Jefferson
took a great interest in the work. Jeffer-
son sent to LEnfant rs collection of maps
of the principal European cities and ex-
pressed his opinion that none of them were
comparable to the plan of old Babylon, r.
vived and exempIified in Philadelphia
I4'Enfant accepted this idea for his street
plan, but the avenues were essentially
triangular system US ID at that time IN parts
of France. and applied more particularly
to the treatment of great parks.
L'Enfnnt and ElIicott.
"a map of the proposed city finished
in 1731 and laid by Washington before Con-
gress, where its plan was greatly admired,
but was criticised by sorle as b4ing too ex-
trava giant, although Washington afterward
wrote of the plan as meeting with universal
applause.
During the following year u792) Len
fant, on account of constant friction with
the commissioners, retired from the field,
taking all his manuscript with him.
The authorities were, for a time, in a
dilemma, but Andrew Ellicott, who had as
sisted LEnfant in his work, was able to
draw up a similar Plan, which COM
pleted and engraved in October, 1882, and
which is the plan Of today.
"L' Enfants map has since been recovered
and engraved, and the numerous notes and
explanations upon it show the genius and
enthusiasm of the man. He had the grand
est conception of artistic development; he
selected commanding points for great edi-
fic es, and planned for statues, columns,
obelfsks, fountains. parks and public walks.
An outline of his plan is given on his
map in three observations:
Il. The position for the grand edifices
ard grand squares were determined on the
most advantageous ground. commanding
the most extensive prospects.
80 Lines and avenues of direct commit
ricaton were devised TO connect the sepa-
rate and most distant objects with the prin-
cipal and to preserve through the whole
reciprocity of sight
- North and south lines intersected by
others running duerGast and west make the
distribution ofethe city into streets. squares,
etc. at
Every grand avenue was made 100 feet
wide; streets fdeadiRg to the public build
irgs OF markets We're 130 feet wide; all
others were 80, or 40 feet wide
Some of the best artistic features con-
ceived by this proud genius have never
been developed, PARTLY because they were
located in marshes and low ground This
it seems, vast considered no obstacle. and
an intense faith s-in the city's future
prompted the, following bit of speculation
written on January 5. 1795, inscribed in a
book in the surveyors office and designated
as 'ProphecyHH
A Prophecy.
THE time will come when this wide
waste of mofass and thicket open plain
and wooded dell WIFI resound with the busy
hum of Industry and be redolent with the
glow of action and the thrill of life. The
swamps along the Tiber, teeming, as they
do now with all the varieties of animal ,nd