Civics
17
George Washington shaped many aspects of the nation's capital by championing its placement along the Potomac River, personally selecting the site, and choosing architect Pierre L'Enfant to design the city. L'Enfant envisioned a capital with symbolically placed key buildings, a cross-grid street system with intersections for future commemorative sites, and at its center a grand space known as the Mall, with the houses of government on its edges and a monument to George Washington at its cross-axis. The basic concepts of L'Enfant's design still can be seen today. In 1836 the Washington National Monument Society held a contest to design the monument, and architect Robert Mills proposed a stone pillar, or obelisk, rising from a low building surrounded by columns, a design later simplified into the clean lines seen today.
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Washington, District of Columbia · United States
