1938: District Of Columbia

District of Columbia, a political entity comprising 69 sq. mi. of land and 10 sq. mi. of water surface, located on the Potomac River, 40 mi. southwest of Baltimore. It was originally surveyed by Major Andrew Ellicott, and it then included 30¾ sq. mi. ceded from the state of Virginia which in 1846 was ceded back to that state. Pop. 1920, 437,571; 1930, 480,800; recent estimates by the census: 1931, 509,000; 1932, 526,000; 1933, 543,000; 1934, 560,000; 1935, 594,000; 1936, 610,000; 1937, 627,000. Births in 1937: total 12,343 (white male 4,288, white female 3,980, Negro male 2,931, Negro female 2,931). Deaths in 1937: total 8,727 (white male 3,082, white female 2,374, Negro male 1,710, Negro female 1,541). Infant and maternal mortality have decreased; tuberculosis has decreased; but cancer and motor vehicle accidents have increased.

The District of Columbia government consists of the following officers: commissioner, Melvin C. Hazen (president of the board); commissioner, George E. Allen; engineer commissioner, Col. Daniel I. Sultan; assessor, Fred D. Allen; collector of taxes, C. M. Towers; coroner, Dr. A. Magruder MacDonald; municipal architect, Nathan C. Wyeth; sanitary engineer, J. B. Gordon; major and superintendent of metropolitan police, Ernest W. Brown; postmaster, Vincent C. Burke.

The District of Columbia has enjoyed an era of rapid growth and prosperity under the New Deal. Recently-inaugurated bureaus of government work have attracted more than one hundred thousand new residents to the nation's Capital. From a population of 486,869 reported by the Bureau of the Census for 1930, there has been a rapid increase to an estimated total of 650,000 in 1938 (the Board of Trade estimates Greater Washington to have 850,000).

An extensive building program has been carried forward, the most notable achievement of which has been the completion of the beautiful white marble Annex of the Library of Congress on Capitol Hill, which is intended to accommodate ten million volumes on its shelves and a stock of 350,000,000 printed cards in its workrooms. The building of an elaborate Jefferson Memorial to be located at the Tidal Basin south of the Mall, has also been authorized by the United States Congress. Ground for this was broken Dec. 15, 1938.

The rapid increase in population has caused an unprecedented demand for new school buildings in the city; and it is noticeable that the need for office workers has resulted in a marked increase in the teaching of typewriting in the high schools. As a great many Government workers going to Washington bring with them families of half-grown children, it happens that the primary grades are relatively poorly attended, whilst the advanced classes are greatly overcrowded as compared with other cities of about the same size.

Owing to the fact that conventions frequently choose Washington as their place of meeting, and that many sightseers and other transients come to the Capital, this city has more hotels than any other place in the United States except New York; and in the number of automobiles per capita it is surpassed only by Detroit.

Certain street-car tracks in outlying districts have been abandoned and bus lines substituted for trolley service. The building of a new bridge over the Anacostia River is also being agitated, and a new boulevard between Washington and Baltimore has been projected which will avoid many of the intervening small towns and villages. By so doing it will speed up traffic between these two large cities. The same speeding-up result is expected within the city by the construction of underpasses at some of the intersections of streets carrying exceptionally heavy traffic.

The ever-increasing overflow of population into nearby Maryland and Virginia naturally brings up the question of a possible annexation of adjacent territory to the District of Columbia at some time in the future.