Evening star., 1937-09-21
MEMORIAL PLAN
REQUIRES TUNNEL
UNDER POTOMAC
Elimination of Tracks on
Boundary of Parks Is
Considered.
EXPENSE OF PROJECT
PUT AT $25,0OO,000
Parks Commission Secretly Dis
eussed Entire Program at Meet
ing Last Week.

on the boundary of East and West
Potomac Parks, to make way for the
Thomas Jefferson Memorial in a new
location south of the Tidal Basin, on
the axis of the White House, is now
under consideration as one solution
OF the long -drawn-out battle, it was
learned today. The cost of construct
ing tunnel under the Potomac River,
TO serve the railroads and abolish the
railroad bridge, is placed at $685.
100000.
The National Capital Parks and
Planning Commission, at its meeting
last week, is known to have consid-
cred secretly the entire Thomas JET
ferson Memorial situation, now that
Congress failed to appropriate funds
for starting work Immediately. Spokes-
men for the Thomas Jefferson Memo
rial Commission, which is headed by
Representative Boylan, Democrat, Of
New York, appeared privately before
the planners and discussed the sub
ject. No official announcement Of
the discussion of the memorial came
either from the director of planning,
John Nolen, jr., who usually announces
programs on the eve Of a meeting, or
. from Thomas S. Settle, the commits
xion's secretary, who dissemlnates
news while the sessions are in prog
reSs.
The planners met behind closed
doors. They were much exercised over
the storm of protest that arose over
the threatened chopping down of the
famed Japanese cherry trees around
Tidal Basin, said to be one of the re-
suits of the architectural plans for
the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, as
originally drawn by John Russell Pope,
the New York architect. who died re-
Gently. The planners are convinced,
1t is said, the public will not permit
destruction Of the cherry trees or any
interference with the present contour
OF the Tidal Basin.
Cammerer Out of City.
Arno B. Cammerer, director of the
National Park Service. who is also
executive officer of the National Capt.
tai Park and Planning Commission,
Is out of the city on an inspection trip
to parks in the Southwest. Cam
merer, who also Is executive officer
of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial
Commission, took an active part in
last weeks discussions.
One of the stoutest advocates for
the construction of the Thomas Jeffer-
son Memorial on the south side of the
Tidal Basin, as brought out at last
weeks sessions of the planners, is DR..
Fiske Kimball, director of the Penn
sylvania Museum of Art at Philadel-
phia He is the author of Jefferson
and the First Monument of the Classi-
cal Revival and also of Thomas
jefferson. Architect" Likewise, ne
restored Monticello, the famous home
OF Jefferson near Charlottesville, Va.
He is q member of the Jefferson Me-
mortal Commission.
Removal Of the railroad tracks south
OF the Tidal Basin would eliminate
the objection that the Tidal Basin
would be altered in construction of a
Jefferson memorial. The National
Capital Park and Planning Commits
sion carries on its plans future de-
velopment that would take the rail-
road tracks through tunnel, under
East Potomac Park. Abolition of the
Railroad Bridge, and presumably the
Highway Bridge, would open up the
view down the Potomac River from
the White House-one of the conSid-
erations that led L'Enfant to place the
Executive Mansion at its present To-
cation.
Payment for Tunnel.
Just who would pay for the railroad
tunnel remains to be seen. Govern
ment officials recall that the late
Alexander j. Cassatt, president of the
Pennsylvania Railroad, made possible
the realization of the plan of 1901
for the development of the city, by
removing his railroad tracks from the
Mall The late William Wallace At
terbury, also president of the Penn
sylvania Railroad, which controls the
tracks in question, as we'll as the rail-
road bridge across the Potomac River,
was quoted as saying that from rail-
road viewpoint tunnel at that point
would be feasible. The Pennsylvania
Railroad recently electrified its lines
ever the river.
DR.. Charles Moore, chairman of the
Fine Arts Commission, before the
Thomas Jefferson Memorial question
st-uction Of railroad tunnel to obviate
the necessity Of bringing the freight
rA1ns through the City Of Washington,
routing them through tunnel from
Anacostia to the Virginia shore. DR..
Moore now is vacationing on the
West Coast.
Meanwhile as discussion OF the fate
Of the Jefferson Memorial goes on
behind closed doors, the commission
set up by Congress TO select a site
and erect the structure is proceeding
on skimpy appropriation, doing little
on the surface. A so called "modi-
ned plan" for the memorial was to
have been prepared by Pope to meet
objections raised against his classical
design at the south side of the Tidal
Basin. Now that Pope is dead, his
ofdce apparently will continue with
the preparation Of the plans to place
the memorial farther to the south.
But this scheme, in the opinion of
some observers, would put the me-
mortal too close to the railroad en-
bankment in Potomac Park, and to
eliminate this the railroad tunnel is
now being discussed.
While the controversy was raging
over his memorial, Pope came to
Washington and took house in
Georgetown. Until his death he had
worked on the modified plan for the
memorial to Jefferson and had con.
ferred with Frederic A. Delano, the
Planning Commissions chairman, at