The decision to establish the
national capital at this spot
had much to do with the fact
that it lies midway between the
rural South and the northern
cities of Boston, New York and
Philadelphia (the last, the
previous capital, was thought
too exciting for a seat of
government). It was also
accessible from the sea, via the
Potomac River - a bit too easily
so, as demonstrated by the
burning and ransacking of the
city by the British during the
War of 1812. Best of all, the
land was cheap - the state of
Maryland ceded sovereignty to
the federal government, which
had to pay only for the
individual sites it chose for
its buildings. Though the
baroque plan of the city was
laid out in 1791 - by a
Frenchman,
Pierre L'Enfant
, assisted by the black American
scientist
Benjamin Banneker
- few buildings were put up,
apart from the actual houses of
government, until near the end
of the century. Charles Dickens,
visiting in 1842, found
"spacious avenues that
begin in nothing and lead
nowhere."
After the Civil War,
thousands of Southern blacks
arrived in search of a sanctuary
from racial oppression; to some
extent, they found one.
Segregation was banned in public
places, and Howard University
, the only US institution of
higher learning that enrolled
black people, was set up in
1867. By the 1870s
African-Americans made up more
than a third of the 150,000
population, but economic
resources were soon stretched to
the breaking point. As poverty
and squalor worsened, official segregation
was reintroduced in 1920. Blacks
were banned from government
buildings - including, in an
ironic twist, the Lincoln
Memorial - and the jobs they had
come to find.
After World War II, the
city's economy and population
boomed. Although segregation of
public facilities was declared
illegal in the 1950s, civil
rights protests divided the city
during the 1960s - culminating
in the destructive downtown
riots of 1968. The city's
problems have changed little
since: DC has one of the
country's highest murder rates,
as well as appalling levels of
unemployment, illiteracy and
drug abuse. After years of
mismanagement by city leaders, a
control board appointed by
Congress took charge of the
city's finances in 1995, in an
attempt to turn around the
massive budget deficit (which
was due in part to a
middle-class flight to the
suburbs). The city rebounded
under the board, which by virtue
of its success put itself out of
a job in 2001. Power was
restored to the mayor, Anthony
Williams , and the city
council. The city's rising
fortunes can be seen in lower
crime rates, newly paved roads
and a revitalized downtown,
where restaurants, cultural
happenings and sports events
have begun to attract visitors
to areas once overrun by drug
dealers.
However, just as things
seemed to be getting back on
track, terror struck the
capital. On September 11, 2001,
terrorists hijacked a United
Airlines jet and crashed it into
the Pentagon, killing nearly 200
people, including those on the
plane. Security throughout the
capital was tightened in the
aftermath of the attack.
Government leaders and city
officials then began to grapple
with their next challenge:
balancing the openness demanded
of a democratic capital with the
vital needs of public and
national security, an issue
likely to be at the forefront of
the city's concerns for some
time.
