Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Evening Star
editorialized against “the destruction of all the noble shade
trees in the People's Park for the sake of a sixteen-hundred-feet-wide
track of desolation as arid and as hot as the Desert of the Sahara.” The
sentiment that Washington's “natural” landscape was under assault by auto-
cratic planners bent on imposing a rigidly formal artificial environment was
epitomized in a contemporary cartoon depicting axe-wielding commis-
sioners marching on Capitol Hill, while a frightened bear peered out of the
trees at a phalanx of gardeners lugging cube-shaped boxwoods.The elabo-
rate monument gardens were rejected as technically infeasible due to the
unstable nature of the underlying soils, but the broader outlines of the com-
mission's plans for a formal open Mall were eventually realized.
38
The treatment of Washington's monumental core has always generated
the most attention, but the commission also prepared a detailed plan call-
ing for a comprehensive system of parks, parkways, and playgrounds spread-
ing throughout the nation's capital. Acknowledging that the elaborate park
system it proposed was not part of L'Enfant's original plan, the commission
insisted that it reflected “the need, not recognized a hundred years ago, for
large parks to preserve artificially in our cities passages of rural or sylvan
scenery and for various spaces adapted to various forms of recreation.”
39
Warning that the rapid pace of development called for quick action, the
commission recommended the improvement of existing parks, the creation
of tree-lined parkways linking “spots of exceptional beauty,” the conversion
of the banks of the Potomac into attractive recreational areas, and the estab-
lishment of a continuous ring of parkland connecting the abandoned Civil
War forts that encircled the capital city. This extensive park system would
not only be beautiful and uplifting, it would provide demonstrable public-
health benefits.The new parks would restore polluted beaches and streams,
reclaim debris-choked valleys and industrial zones, and eliminate the
unsightly habitations and lower-class populations that tended to materialize
on these marginal lands. In the days before air-conditioning, a well-
developed park system was also seen as a palliative to Washington's oppres-
sive summer heat. Forested parks would provide soothing shade and breezy
hilltops. In addition, the cool air that settled in the preserved stream valleys
would offer a respite from hot summer temperatures.
40
One element of this broader park plan was the development of a park-
way along Rock Creek from the Potomac waterfront to Rock Creek Park.
By this time parkways were regarded as essential components of any well-
considered city plan. By providing attractive links between civic centers and
