Washington Archive

Washington is an unusual place. It's a Capital City that was purpose built, and therefore hasn't the inconveniences of a layout imposed by history. New York seems to be the main destination for tourists, but we reckon Washington comes a close second.

Some people have definite ideas of what Washington's about!

Conspiracy lovers go here...

 As a result, it has wide streets, an unstressed Metro system, (compared to London) and a monumental feel to it. After all, there are enough monuments around.

This was around six in the evening.

Washington has taken up five days - yes five days, to just start exploring what it has to offer. And it has a great deal.

 

A monument behind every tree.

And so what follows is an impression of the last few days in America's Capital City.

We parked quite a way outside the city and travelled in with a combination of bus and Metro. Now we'd been warned that public transport is dire in the US, but here it works like a dream. After five days of commuting we felt like regular workers.

The Smithsonian Institutional Building was where this great museum complex started.

And what held our attention for all this time? Museums of course, lots of them. And they are mostly free.

What the place looked like in 1855. 'The Castle' is on the far left across the building site.

It's all thanks for the Smithsonian Institution. To quote their web site:

Founded in 1846, the Smithsonian is the world's largest museum and research complex, consisting of 19 museums and galleries, the National Zoological Park and nine research facilities. It was established with funds from James Smithson (1765-1829), a British scientist who left his estate to the United States to found “at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge.”

The website is here.

Note: He was British, and had never set foot in America. So the Americans do have something to thank an Englishman for - even if we did burn down the White House. I think that was a good deed too. After it was repaired it was painted white to cover the scorch marks. (So our guide told us.) If it had never happened, the President would be living in the Yellow House. Not quite so grand is it?

Wouldn't have the same gravitas would it?

The Smithsonian collection resides along the sides of the National Mall, which must give great views of the Capitol when it's not being renovated. And, unusually for America, they're free. They are:

    African American History and
    Culture Museum
    African Art Museum
    Air and Space Museum
    Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center
    American Art Museum
    American History Museum
    American Indian Museum
    American Indian Museum Heye Center
    Anacostia Community Museum
    Arts and Industries Building
    Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
    Freer Gallery of Art
    Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
    National Zoo
    Natural History Museum
    Portrait Gallery
    Postal Museum
    Renwick Gallery
    Sackler Gallery
    Smithsonian Institution Building,
    The Castle

A cute furry rock.

We reckon we could spend six months here mooching around, with weekends off for good behaviour. In five days all one can do is choose a few favourites and sally forth, although some museums which don't seem too attractive turn out to be real gems - a good example being the geology section of the Natural History Museum.

It's a brain Jim, but not as we know it...

Who'd have thought rocks could be so interesting?

The American Indian Museum covered all of the Americas. It somewhat redressed the balance in American History as the tale is not a happy one for the native populations.

The American Indian Museum's architecture tries to emulate natural forms.

A huge number of them perished even before the battle for the West was started. Diseases they had no resistance to swept across the country - in places the carnage was worse than the plague in Europe. This was followed by the settlers arriving to lay claim to the land.

This coat tells a history of contact with the settlers.

However, there was a lot of emphasis on the positive future that some tribes now feel as they adapt to survive the new order. Life is still a struggle for them though.

This weatherproof parka is made out of fish skin. Talk about ingenious.

Apart from the museums there are the monuments, scores of them. I'm not sure why the Americans need to produce monuments that rival the ones built for Egyptian Gods - but they do.

Jefferson has a large round monument...

...which frames another big tall monument...

...and rather dwarfs the statue inside.

There are towering marble edifices that dwarf the tourists, huge equestrian statues that proclaim the deeds of their generals and mighty wide boulevards that cut through the city emphasising it's grandeur. Not only that, but if a bridge is built, a road laid or a building erected, they all have the name of a great leader associated with them. Hence there is a The Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. It seems like monumental one upmanship.

Lincoln's memorial has a bigger plot...

...which he fills very well...

...and he gets a great view.

Outside the grand design of Washington stands Georgetown. It's where the commercial centre first started in the 1700's, and has a very different feel to the grandeur of downtown. It's where the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal joins the sea. (Remember it passes Harpers Ferry?)

This scene could almost be in London.

Where the canal reaches open water.

Reportedly some of the earliest houses in Washington were built here, with bricks brought over from England. The ships loaded them as a ballast which they could sell for a profit. Here the sun shines dappled through the trees lining the narrow roads, and the pace of life is a little slower. The expensive shops along these streets also attest to the wealth needed to live here.

There's something surreal about the way they glide along in a line - like ducks in water.

 So we'd recommend Washington as a tourist destination - but only if you like museums or monuments.

One of the simplest memorials of them all.

But for us, the most impressive memorial was "The Wall" or the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. It was sobering to walk past the names of more than 58,000 soldiers killed in the fighting and hear people quietly saying: "There he is" or " I've found him".

Relatives photographed each other standing in front of 'their' name, and passers by quietly waited. It was all extremely moving.

 

And there's the irony. Despite the soaring columns, despite the grand oversized statues, despite the grand vistas, the part of Washington that left the biggest impression was a simple polished granite wall, with 58,178 names on it.