WASHINGTON, 1816-1839
The administration of President Monroe, who served two terms
(1817-1825) is known as the “era of good feeling,” but so far as
developing the plan of Washington little was done. In 1820 the
population of Washington was 13,247.
During these years the Capitol was rebuilt and was reoccupied by
Congress. In 1820 the corner stone of the city hall on Judiciary
Square was laid. In 1824 General Lafayette made his memorable visit to
Washington.
In 1825 trees were planted on two squares of the filled lowlands
south of Pennsylvania Avenue. That year, also, the eastern portico
of the Capitol was completed; Pennsylvania Avenue was graded from
Seventeenth to Twenty-second Streets; the grounds of the White House,
as the Executive Mansion came to be known after the War of 1812, and
the grounds of the city hall were also graded. At that time there were
about 13 miles of brick paving, average width 13 feet.
Among churches that were built during this period was Foundry Methodist
Church, founded in 1816, at Fourteenth and G Streets NW. The site
was given by Henry Foxall, who operated a foundry about a mile above
Georgetown, near the site of the canal, in fulfillment of a vow that if
his foundry were spared during the attack on Washington he would make
this gift.
On January 27, 1824, the Legislature of Virginia granted a charter
to the newly organized Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Co., which was to
supersede the old Potomac Co., of which George Washington had been
first president, and which had developed commerce with the West. At
Little Falls, on the north side of the river, a canal 2¹⁄₂ miles long,
with 4 masonry locks having a total elevation of 37 feet, had been
constructed. At Great Falls, on the south side, a canal 1,200 yards
long, with 5 locks having a total difference of level of 76 feet 9
inches, was constructed. The two lower locks were cut in solid rock.
On July 4, 1828, President John Quincy Adams turned the first spadeful
of earth for the new canal, which was completed to the first feeder
at Seneca on July 4, 1831. From this place to Point of Rocks work
was delayed by a legal contest with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad
Co., which extended its first 45 miles along the same course as the
canal. That railroad company, organized in 1828 at Baltimore, was the
beginning of one of the great railroad systems of the United States
that were to revolutionize commerce and industry. To-day the Chesapeake
& Ohio Canal remains the property of the United States Government, and
is to be made into a great park.
[Illustration: THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ABOUT 1820
FROM PAINTING MADE BY SAMUEL F. B. MORSE, SHORTLY AFTER REBUILDING OF
THE CAPITOL AFTER THE FIRE OF 1814 ORIGINAL IN THE CORCORAN GALLERY OF
ART]
[Illustration: _Courtesy of National Photo Co._
SITE AND MATERIAL FOR DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY BUILDING, 1839]
Georgetown had become a great trading center. From 1815 to 1835
products to the value of $4,077,708 were exported from Georgetown to
foreign markets, and from 1826 to 1835 nearly $5,000,000 worth of
products to other American cities, including a million barrels of flour
and 5,400 hogsheads of tobacco.
[Illustration: GATEHOUSE, BUILT IN 1835, ALONG THE OLD CHESAPEAKE &
OHIO CANAL]
In the spring of 1828, shortly before what was called the corner stone
of the main line was laid, Congress enacted a law granting entrance of
a railroad line into the District. Some six years passed before the
Washington branch reached the District line. The first service began on
Monday, July 20, 1835, with two trains each way. A great celebration,
in which 1,000 passengers and 2 bands on 4 trains took part, marked the
entrance of the railroad service to the National Capital. The steam
cars passed through the city on their daily trips to the depot at the
northwest corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Second Street. October 1,
1835, it was reported that the average number of travelers per day was
200.
During this period the construction of the present Treasury Department,
Patent Office, and old Post Office Department Buildings was authorized.
They conformed to the Capitol and the White House in their fine style
of classical architecture, and emphasized the fact that Washington is
the National Capital.
Unfortunately, it was during this period that great mistakes were
made--such as giving over part of the Mall to garden purposes and in
letting Government areas, so much desired now, go for private purposes;
also in the location of certain public buildings, as erecting the
Treasury Department in the center of Pennsylvania Avenue.