Parks.— The park systetn of Washington is an imposing one of certain unique and indi vidual features. The parlcs of the city separate, roughly, into large and small parks. In the first group are Rock Creek Park of 1,609 acres, a tract of great natural beauty lying to the west of the city. Adjoining it on the southwest is Zoological Park with 166 acres. Potomac Park of 723 acres borders the river from Georgetown to the Eastern branch. The Mall, containing 306 acres, issues, so to speak, out of the beautiful 50-acre park surrounding the Capitol and, running west in a narrow line, meets the Potomac River a mile and a.balf away, where it joins Potomac Park. Between this point of juncture and the southern bound ary of Rock Creek Park are 162 acres which wid, finally, serve to bring into complete exist ence a splendid continuous parkway that will sweep the entire western and southern borders of the city. The Mall connects the Capitol with this great parlcway. In process of con struction is a beautiful plaza connecting the Capitol with the new and imposing Union Station, a symbolic connection, also, with the federated States of which the capitol itself is the focal point. To the north of Washington is the Soldiers' Horne in the midst of 600 acres of beautifully planned and matured grounds. Adjoining Soldiers' Home to the south is a parklike area of 29 acres. This contains, in picturesque arrangement, the city filtration plant. At a point about 15 niiies above the city, its water suPply is drawn from the Poto mac through aqueducts into large storage reser voirs from which it passes into the filtration plant. The water supply with everything re lating to it is under the charge of the United States government, a sufficient water rent be ing oharged consumers. • In the second group of parks are the scores of smaller reservations that are scattered throughout the city. In their source these go bacic to the original city plan of imposing a system of radiating avenues upon a system of parallel streets. Intersections between these two systems cut put and left over, as it were, many areas ranging in size from mere plots to the equivalent of several city blocks. These triangles, squares and circles were taken over by the geneml government and converted into parks and park spaces. Among the most familiar of these are the White Lot, lying di rectly south of the White House and touching the Mall; Lafayette square, facing the White House to the north; Lmcoln Park at I 1th and East Capitol streets; Washington Circle at 22d and Pennsylvania avenue; and Meridian Hill Parlc, facing upon I6th street in the northern section of the city. A park commission, ap pointed by Congress in 1902, has, through the services of landscape architects and experts in city planning, converted this multitude of separate parks into a system that functions in many recreative ways as an organic part of the civic life. Meridian Hill Park stands as a model of the modern conception of an urban reservation, in its combination of beauty and utility. Washington possesses 392 parks and reservations.
Buildings.— Of all the city buildings, those belonging to the general government stand pre eminent in interest. Tbe C.apitol, the Library of Congress, the White House, the Treasury arid the State, War and Navy Building lead this group. South of these, occupying points upon the Mall, are Lincoln Memorial, Wash ington Monument, Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Bureaus of Agriculture, Smithsonian Institution and National Museum. North of Pennsylvania avenue and quite within the busi ness section of the cib' are the government post office, patent office, pension office and the government printing office, which is the largest and most complete printing establishinent in the world. The Capitol is the crown of die city's architecture. Seated upon a plateau 88 feet above the river it commands the city and its environs. The dome of the Capitol is from every outlying quarter the first intimation of one's approach to the Fedeml city. Expressed in figures this building covers 153,112 square feet, with a length of 751 feet, a depth of 350 feet and a height from base to summit of 288 feet. Its cost was $14,000,000. Architecturally it consists of an. original central structure crowned by a lofty dome, with long extensions or wings stretching to north and south. Its
position, its approaches, the material and design of its architecture make this one of the most magnificent of the public buildings of the world. The law-making centre of the federated States, it possesses two grand legislative halls, that to the north devoted to the use of the Senate, the one to the south to the House of Representatives. The United States Supreme Court also has itS COMICii chambers in the Capitol. In September 1793 George Washing ton laid the cornerstone of the onginal central building. This is of sandstone quarried on Aquia Creek, Va., a few miles below the capitaL In 1814 this building was practically destroyed by the British. By 1827 the Capitol had cost $2,433,844. On Jaidependence DaY, 1851, President Fillmore laid the cornerstone of the two extensions, Daniel Webster officiat ing as orator. Next to the Capitol itself the Library of Congress is the most notably beauti ful and impressive structure in Washington. This, at a cost of $6,347,000, was completed in 1897. It contains the great national library; 45 miles of shelving furnish • a capacity of 2,200,000 octavo voltraies. In addition to the 1,625,318 books, pamphlets and prints that it contains the library has 218,324 other articles deposited for copyright purposes. The White House, so called by reason of the white surface applied to its freestone foundation, is a simple and dignified structure whose historic associa tions give it a general personal interest sur Passing that attached to any other of the public buildings save the Capitol alone. The Treasury, a freestone and granite building erected at a cost of $7,000,000, die oldest of the departmental buildings, is the one example of pure Greek architecture in the city. The State, War and Navy Building, a conunodious structure occupy ing four and a half acres of land, erected at a cost of $11,000,000, is a composite Greelc and Roman architecture. The Lincoln Memorial is as truly one of the world's architectuml gems as is the Eastern Taj Mahal. For this Con gress appropriated $2,595,000. To the east it is joined with Washington Monument by the high est art of landscape architecture. Washington Monument, a shaft 555 feet in height, is built of marble to which almost every country on the face of the earth contributed a stone. An ele vator leads to the top of this shaft where a wide view of the chy and its environs may be obtained. Since its completion in 1888, 4,479,745 have made this ascent The new Bureau of Engraving and Printing, situated on the river front to the east of the monument, is counted by experts as a model of industrial archi tecture. A group of commodious and hand some buildings for the use of the Agricultural Department is in process of construction, two of them having been already completed. The Smithsonian Institution, an impressive building of red sandstcme, was built with funds be queathed for this purpose by an English scien tist, James Smithson. Ile new National Museum, situated on the edge of the Mall to the north of the old museum, was built in 1905 at a cost of $4,000,000. Other important Federal structures are the Naval Observatory and the Bureau of Standards, the latter a very complete plant to die northwest of the city. Notable buildings outside of this government group are the Municipal Building, erected in 1905 at a cost of $1,M0,000, as the administrative centre of the District government; Washington Public Library, the V00,000 gift of Andrew Carnegie; Corcoran Art Gallery; the new building of the American National Red Cross; Continental Hall, erected by the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Pan-American Union. The last four are situated on the stretch of 17th street lying between Pennsylvania avenue, N. W., and the Mall. The Union Station be longs to this group, as does the new City Po.st Office, situated beside it. The former was built at a cost of $5,000,000, with an additional $11,000,000 for the construction of its ap proaches. The buildings of The Evening Star, The Washington Times, The Washington Post; that of the Southern Railway; the New Wil lard, Raleigh and Shoreham hotels; the Masonic Temple and Scottish Rite Supreme Council; Carnegie Institution, and the new Central High School command attention.