The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1907-09-14
FIRST PLACE SURE
WILL BE WORLDS
MOST BEAUTIFUL CAPITAL.
Transformation Now Going On Is Rap
idly Bringing This About-Spten-
did Buildings of Marble and
White Granite.


White Granite.
A letter published recently in tho
Boston Transcript contains the follow
ing interesting comment on the ma
tional capital:
The Emperor Augustus, who found
Rome brick and left it marble, en-
joyed peculiar facilities for working
the transformation. The Augustus
age was not one in which it was safe
for real estate operators to build
cheaply after the emperor had limited
that his policy was to have a splendid
capital. We have no Augustus to
compel the recasting of the architec-
tural aspect of our national capital.
That is left to the operation of eco
nonlic forces, which when once man
Tested are imperial in their tenden'
cies, and to-day Washington is be-
ing enriched with many buildings, big,
impressive structures, because the
construction of such emphatically
pays. The conversion from brick to
marble on the Augustan scale has
not come and may not be coming,
but in the new great buildings of the
capital whether private or public, the
materials dominates. The local condi-
tons are peculiarly favorable to the
employment of this material.
In spite of the constant agitation of
the Washingtonians' for a better anti
smoke law, there is very little smoke
to trouble the atmosphere. On q
sunny day but feather of smoke ap-
pears here and there against "a sky
of almost italian blue. The marble
suffers little from the cause which
would make marble building in
London either monument of extrav-
agance or of those defeated.
Scenically marble is a success in
Washington, marble or it's substitute,
white granite. It's whiteness is en-
rhasized by the greenery of boscage of
the parks ana by the blueness of the
sky. In the new development of the
capital two influences have been at
work, that of the government, which
builds big because the country pays
the bills, and that of business, which
builds big because the requirements Of
trade and commerce SO demand The
great public buildings include the two
immense and classic-fronted annexes
for the senate and house, which flank
the capitol on either side, and which
when completed will, as seen from
the treasury corner, be as two broad
massive bars of white in the per-
spective The new Agricultural De-
partment building, and the new Ma
tional museum are of a dignity which
will make the Smithsonian's eccentric
architecture even more grief to the
judicious than it is now. The new
municipal building, or, as we should
call it, the city hall, is gradually de-
veloping it's substance. 1t, too, will
be classic in outline. It stands not
far from the treasury corner, around
which the most marked business de.
velopment of the city is progressing
Near the capitol the white facade of
the union station draws near compile
ton, and part of the building, which
will contain thirty tracks when fin
ished, will shortly be occupied by the
Baltimore & Ohio. The present wood
en- countrifed depot of the Baltimore
& Ohio, whose tower always appears
to wear an expression of surprise at
finding itself in city, will be swept
away in the improvement of the ap-
.proaches to the grand new terminus
which will serve all railroads enter
ing Washington, the Southern lines
obtaining access to it by tunnel I'M
der Capitol hill
Mention of the new highway
bridge" is a reminder that one of tho
most familiar landmarks, or perhaps
watermarks, of Washington is disap@
pearing as the workmen level the SUI
perstructure of the old historic Long
bridge and grub up the piling. The
railroads now cross the Potomac on
modern steel bridge, built high above
the tide. For the trolleys, for teams
and foot passengers there is the high.
way bridge paralleling that used ex
clusively by the railroads. 1t has
most excellent highway surface, ap
preached by. broad and winding ave-
nues on the Washington side. The
two bridges are not things of beauty
They are severely unitarian, which
is a pity when we consider what
noble part they might have been in
the vista of the broad Potomac
Standing on the highway bridge at
sunset one obtains a view that is al
most pathetic in it's charms, the city
on one side of the river, and on the
other the Virginia hills on which the
white front of the Arlington is a note
of attention. Washington is not yet
the most beautiful capital in the
world, though Washingtonians say it
is, but it is moving rapidly toward the
attainment of their proud character.
cation.
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