Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-04-01
The Mt. Vernon Boulevard.
be Editor of The Evening Starr

To the Editor Of The Evening Start
Recognizing the great interest taken by
The Evening Star in all things pertaining
to the improvement and betterment of con-
d.tions affecting the capital city, attention
is called through its columns, in connection
with the prospective memorial bridge to
the following extract from the exhaustive
Report of the Virginia Board of Visitors to
Mount Vernon 1901" prepared by James
b. Sener, In his perspicuous, scholarly style:
There is a projected road from Wash
1ngton, d. c., the capital of the nation, to
Mount Vernon that ought to be constructed
anc which, no doubt, in time will be built
Preliminary steps looking to the construc-
ton of such road have been taken by the
state Of Virginia and the Congress of the
United States. The action of Virginia is
embodied in laws approved February IS,
1888, and March 5, 1888. The first act au-
thoriZes and contemplates subscriptions
from the states and territories of the Union
ana from private parties, and from the
counties of Alexandria and Fairfax and the
city of Alexandria. The association has
authority to acquire right of way for the
avenue 200 feet in width by condemnation,
donation or purchase, to construct adorn
ana beautffy the same, and to keep it in
repair. The last act transferred to this
Mount Vernon Avenue Association claim
of the state of Virginia against the United
States for s120,OOO and interest for moneys
advanced by the state in 1890 for the COM
pietlon Of public buildings in Washington,
D. c..
Congress. by an act passed February %.
1899, directed the Secretary Of War to de-
tail engineer officers of the United States
army to make a survey for a national road
from a point in Alexandria county at or
near the Virginia end of the Aoueduct
bridge, and thence through the counties
of Alexandria and Fairfax to Mount Ver-
non, and to report the same. together with
the necessary cost of building such a road,
to the Secretary of War, to be by him
transmitted to Congress
Col. Peter G. Hams the very efficient
engineer officer to whom this survey was
committed, executed his task with elaborate
fidelity, as his report to the first session of
the Ffty-frst Congress, ex document No.
lo6, shows. The report is illustrated with
full maps and drawings, and the cost of
such a road, eleven different routes and in
tersecting routes for which are set forth in
it, is estimated at from little more than
81 .00000 to approximately $2OO0,0OO.
1t IS probably safe to say that the
Mount Vernon Avenue Association, charter
ed by the state of Virginia, will never be
able, unaided by Congress, to build the
road, and since the 18th of January, 1890,
when Col. Hams report was presented to
the House of Representatives and ordered
printed, period of twelve years. nothing
has been accomplished in the way of building
the road That it ought to be built probably
90 per cent of the people of the United
state would declare, II they were cdtegorl-
cal1y and individually questioned. Let us
hope that early in the twentieth century
this road may be constructed by act of
Congress. as a direct thoroughfare from the
capital of the land whose Independence
Washington was the central figure in
achieving to the shrine where his life
was spent and where his ashes rest.
LAS Col. Hams well said in his report
transmitting his estima tes:
The object (of this avenue) is to COM
memorate the virtues of the grandest char
acter in American history. 1t is to satisfy
the craving of a patriotic sentiment, to
honor the name of Washington and the
question Of cost should be one Of second
airy consequence
such a road, when built will be for all
time the Appian way of the republic the
queen road of the nation. Col. Hams in
this report speaks of It as the National
road"
The construction Of the memorial bridge
and this projected National way to Mount
Vernon should be accomplished at the same
time, as a tribute of love and esteem to
the honored. patriotic dead, and bequest
to future generations melting love of coun-
try, purity Of life and manliness of char
acter. W. y.