New Britain herald., 1916-05-11
THE NEW WASHINGTON.
\ Comparison of the Nations Capital
 Today and Fifty Years Ago.
Springfield Republican,

Springfield Republican,
 In these critical days the eyes of ! the country are to an unWonted de-
 gree turned toward Washington. The
 time is there appropriate to direct 1 attention to the surroundings amid ] which the president and the members l of Congress are facing their respon-
 abilities. For there could be no l greater contrast to thoughts and l scenes of possible war than the beauty
 of Washington in the spring. 1 Year after year as the carefully
 mapped plans for the citys develop 1 ment% harmonizing with the original
 designs of Maj. L'Enfant, are fol- ] lowed, Washington progresses toward l becoming what any American may be pardoned for thinking the most beau
 tiful capital city in the world. Yet l the first review which greets the wis
 itor from the North, on emerging from the splendid Union. station,
 hardly supports that clafffrsAlthough 1 the capitol, the congressional library ] and the white marble office buildings l of the Senate and the House Of Rep- l resentatives,- stand at a, com parative.y l short distance, there lie before them
 open squares which Washington resi- 1 dents have been waiting for. years to
 see developed with green park sur- l faces but which still are more sug- 1 gestive of the sand lots upon which 1 young America traditionally learns ] the national game. *>A
 The first aview is not inappropriate
 in so far as it suggests that Wash i. ington has been passing through a ! transition. The city has changed 1 greatly in the last 5 years. Many new government buildings have been added and many commercial blocks i of impressive character; there has been much development of domestic architecture. Fifteen years ago Washington, as a whole, with public buildings that were already venerable and with it's many rows of unpre- tentious dwellings, seemed in striking harmony with the little brick house near Ford's theater in which Lincoln died and which has been maintained as a, Lincoln museum
 In those days numerous veterans of the northern and southern armies were conspicuous in Congress and the city itself in its architecture and it's atmosphere was in many ways remi- | niscent of the civil war period It 1 seemed stage so set that scenes of 1 the war time might have been en- acted again. Even the old Long Bridge over which the frightened rabble poured after Bull Run still spanned the Potomac. An era in he political life of the nation and in ! the physical development of the city
 was drawing to a close.
 Today Washington offers a vivid contrast to the Washington of only l these few years ago. The Potomac river front, once consisting of dump heaps and unsightly sWamps has
 gradually been transformed into a spacious and beautiful park which is becoming a true public playground and an object lesson to municipa lities throughout the country and to none more than to Spring gfeld-of the manner in which a river front may be improved. There in .ho park close to the river bank, the Lincoln memorial of white marble is being erected. In it's unfinished state it is impressive even now, as it raises its
 massive bulk above an artificial hill
 that will cause its temple-like out
 lines to stand vivid to the distant
 view. Eventually the long awaited
 mem orial bridge across the Potomac
 to the green slopes of the national
 cemetery at Arlington, will have it's
 approaches near the Lincoln memorial
 and will serve as the most fitting em-
 blem of the reunion of North and
 South. The bridge has been an l1n-
 realized dream for many years. but both necessity and the rare suita bil- ity of the plan assure it.
 Whether the Lincoln memorial in
 it's final beauty and inlpressivenoss will rank as one of the great memo rials of the world, is a question the answer to which must wait upon it's completion. Today the unfinished structure suggests great dignity, and those who in the studio of Daniel c. French have seen ,he modnl of the statue which Is to be it's chief feature report that also to be 4 very ] notable work of art Yet the scale on which this memorial, costing 1 S2,000,OO0, has been conceived, l prompts the thought how strange it l and the rest of the transformed city
 would seem to Lincoln himself if. in l the quiet coo1ness of a spring night 1 Tn these portentous time, a tall. l shawl-clad figure could be imangined wandering up and down, a spirit an- x1ously breeding over the turn which our national destinies may take.