1941: District Of Columbia

The District of Columbia, The District of Columbia is a political entity comprising 60 sq. mi. of land and 10 sq. mi. of water surface, located on the Potomac River, 40 mi. southwest of Baltimore. The population of the District in the 1940 census was 663,091, but since then a large increase has taken place owing to the steady influx of defense workers. Fast-growing suburbs in nearby counties of Maryland and Virginia have given the metropolitan area a population well over a million. This extremely rapid growth has posed many serious problems difficult of solution in relation to the varying needs of the public. The police force, water supply, fire protection, housing, office buildings, sewerage, post offices, bridges, streets, etc., all need expansion at once. Congress, the District commissioners, and government bureau chiefs, all are busy planning necessary extensions. Traffic congestion in the downtown area has become so serious that new office buildings are now being erected in the suburbs, and Capitol Hill is to be further drawn into the sphere of governmental activities by the erection of many new office structures in the residential portion long passed by in the trend towards the northwest.

Water Supply.

The extremely rapid growth of population in the southeastern corner of the District, which has followed the erection of the beautiful new bridge across the Anacostia River on Pennsylvania Avenue, has led the Water Department to lay a large new main over Capitol Hill in order to give an abundant water supply to this section.

Defense Housing.

The prospective use of Arlington County as the site of large new government office buildings has resulted in the creation of extensive housing projects in that area, close to the Potomac River. It is likely that priorities of building materials will have to be granted to private concerns to provide for the great inrush of defense workers. In the autumn of 1941, it was stated that an average of only one apartment out of every thousand in the District was still vacant. Newcomers to the city were being advised to look to the suburbs for living quarters.

Public Schools.

A large number of older pupils who attended the various schools of the city last year were forced by economic pressure to leave school in the fall in order to obtain gainful employment. The result has been that the early enrollment in the city schools in the fall of 1941 was actually less than a year ago, in spite of the decided increase in population. In the suburbs, however, the school attendance increased considerably over that of the previous year as the rapid addition of new families with children overbalanced the defections.

U. S. Post Office.

The great increase in the amount of mail handled now by the post offices in the District has called for greater facilities at Union Station, where most of the mail comes and goes by train. Five additional tracks have been laid down for the accommodation of more railway mail coaches. There has been much discussion about restricting the immense quantities of franked mail sent out by the various government agencies in ever-increasing amounts because of defense activities.

Army Medical Library.

A site on East Capitol Street, in the block adjacent to the Folger Shakespeare Library, has been finally approved for the erection of an appropriate building to house the largest medical library in the world, now assembled in cramped quarters in an old building on the south side of the Mall. It is likely that space for several million books will be provided.

Washington National Airport.

Arrivals and departures of airplanes are now in full swing at the Gravelly Point airport, although many of the projected buildings have not yet been erected. The former small commercial airport nearby has been abandoned, and the site sold to the United States Government. Other auxiliary airports on higher ground near the city are in prospect, as misty weather conditions on the low ground by the river at times prevent the immense new airport from being used.

Lincoln Park Plan.

Among other plans for the future development of the District of Columbia is one for the utilization of the eastern portion of Capitol Hill, which may well be called the Lincoln Park Plan. This would change the quiet residential section adjoining the present Lincoln Park into a busy center for new government buildings, with large apartments nearby to accommodate the additional clerks and their families.

National Art Gallery.

The beautiful building erected near the foot of Capitol Hill, in the Mall area, is now the Mecca of people interested in the art treasures of the late Secretary Mellon, and of Samuel H. Kress, and other noted art collectors. More than a million persons visited the Gallery in 1941, as it has become one of the chief attractions of the nation's capital.

Jefferson Memorial.

The classic temple erected in honor of the great Virginian, Thomas Jefferson, is now nearing completion, and is destined to become one of the national capital's major showplaces. The exterior of Vermont marble, white as snow, has enchanting beauty when reflected in the Tidal Basin, on the south shore of which the Memorial stands. It is visible from the south portico of the White House, through a long tree-walled vista which follows the line of the so-called cross-axis of the Mall. The model of the proposed full-length bronze statue of Jefferson, by Rudulph Evans, has recently been approved by the Commission, and it is hoped that the statue itself will be completed for unveiling on the bicentennial of Jefferson's birth, April 13, 1942. The statue will be eighteen feet high and will represent Jefferson in the period of the presidency, when he was about sixty years old and still in the full vigor of his flue, though slender, physique.