Pierre Goes to the Mall

Here is my darling bride and I sitting on a wall in front of the United States Capitol Building. Behind us you can see the National Mall. The Washington Monument is 1.1 miles behind us, and the Lincoln Memorial is .8 miles behind that. Any of my avid blog readers will know that I got pretty excited when I discovered that many of the notable buildings and monuments in Paris are arranged in a straight line known as "Le Axe Historique". The same can be said for the buildings in Washington DC. This is most likely because at the same time some French guy was planning out the streets of Paris, some other French guy was planning out the streets of Washington DC. The French guy in Washington was named Pierre Charles L'Enfant, who earned himself enough of a bookmark in US history to merit lying in state under the rotunda of the capitol building after his death. Pierre was born in France and actually studied at the Royal Acadamy (located in the Louvre) before enlisting in the French navy and coming across the Atlantic to aid the Americans during our revolution. He decided to stick around and served as Major of Engineers for General George Washington. Washington asked him to lay out a plan for the new capitol city in 1791 (during the French Revolution), which he did. Later, L'enfant got all upset with the civil leaders, who ended up not paying him for his work, and dismissed him from the project. Washington kept a copy of the plans, and they were later brought to life in the form of what we now call the National Mall.

It might have been the time of year we were there, but I was surprised to see that the place wasn't all that well landscaped, especially in contrast to the beauty of the buildings that surround the open grass...if you can even call it grass. Don't get me wrong though, we loved the Mall, and can't wait to get back. I really could have spent a few more days just going to the museums. Make it a point not to die before you've toured our nation's capitol.