Evening star., 1950-01-01
Looking Back From 1000

A story that begins on the first page Of
today's Star attempts to reconstruct for
the reader some of the things that journal
lists, historians, diarists and personal cor
respondents were writing about the Wash
tngton of 1900. There are also interesting
"reminiscences by such alert chroniclers as
Robert Lincoln OBrien and others recall
ing the Washington of fifty years ago.
And The Stars Pictorial Magazine recounts
in photographs few of the events that
marked the past half century of the
Capitals growth.
What will Star writer's be telling for their
readers on January /, 1000? A Jules Verne
or a Bellamy, looking backward, might
choose other fields for their speculative
crystal-gazing. But The Star believes its
writer's of fifty years hence will assuredly
comfort their readers with the observa-
don that If thev think they have troubles
now, remember what the Washingtonian
OF January /, 1850, had to contend with!
In those days, the reader will be told,
there were only four bridges across the
Potomac River and only three across the
Anacostia There were actually arguments
about whether one additional bridge over
the Anacostia should be built on the line
OF Massachusetts, avenue or East Capitol
street-as if one would suffice! There was
not even one bridge crossing the river from
Washington to Alexandria.
Once the river crossing was achieved,
however, the motorist of 1850 had difficult
time getting to downtown Washington, as
1t was then called. The Whitehurst Free
way only recently had been opened-the
only one of its kind! There were no other
elevated or depressed highways. There
were not even the freeways and parkways
we know today that encircle the congested
sections of the city. Motorists were per-
mitted to park on the public streets, thus
adding to the congestion of too many au-
tomobiles.
As for air traffic, Washington was still
trying to struggle along with one airport
at Gravelly Point. The big terminals we
know today, located thirty and forty miles
from the center of the city, were only being
talked about. Right across the river from
the National Airport were separate airports
for the Air Force and the Navy, which in
those days were more or less Independent,
in spite of a recently authorized merger
"at the top" as jokingly described.
It is still bit difficult to realize that
what was known in 1850 as Greater Wash
ington contained many politically inde-
pendent but overlapping communities,
without any positive, over rail- means of
coordination. There was no Metropolitan
Area Public Utilities Commission nor Public
Works Authority to handle such matters
as public utility regulation, policing, fire
protection or the construction of bridges
and highways for the Washington region
as whole.
Looking back upon these disadvantages
faced by the Washingtonian of 1850, our
respect increases for the far-sighted plan
ners and builders of the last half of the
twentieth century, whose efforts have pro-
duced the great Capital Of January /, 1000.
Their record should inspire us to greater
efforts for the solution of our own prob
lems. We need still more bridges! Let us
burrow further underground for parking
spaced Let us have three-deck highways
instead OF rerely two-decks! Let us have
more econt ny. but higher appropriations