HIGHWAY PLAN OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
The street-planning process has experienced several stages of
development.
1. The narrow streets of Georgetown are typical of the first stage.
2. The wide avenues and streets of the area included in the L’Enfant
plan are appropriately referred to as outstanding proof of the value
of proper planning. The merit of this generous street plan was never
more widely appreciated than at present, when other cities are spending
millions of dollars to have their streets widened to meet traffic
requirements.
3. The dark days of the National Capital, as far as its circulation
system is concerned, were those during which, outside the city
planned by L’Enfant, streets were dedicated without reference to any
comprehensive plan. This period was from about 1866 to 1893. The lack
of authority to enforce a plan allowed land-owners, insensible to the
superior qualities of the L’Enfant scheme, to do as they pleased.
Prior to 1893 no city plan existed beyond the original city limits.
Streets could be created entirely at the will of the subdivider by
the simple recording of a plat, for there was no authority to control
or coordinate subdivisions. Sixteenth Street was blocked at Florida
Avenue, just as Seventeenth Street is today. Vermont, Connecticut,
New Jersey, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Tennessee Avenues were
ignored. Widths of important streets were reduced, and a method of land
subdivision came into vogue wholly out of keeping with a capital city.
4. The reaction brought the so-called highway plan outside of the
original city limits of Washington and Georgetown. It was in effect
an extension of the plan of the original city to apply to all parts
of the District of Columbia, with such changes as were influenced
by the topography. All subdivisions subsequent to 1893 conform, by
requirement of law, to this official plan. This highway plan, first
made effective in 1898, was a belated but praiseworthy effort to extend
the L’Enfant plan with its scheme of streets and avenues beyond the old
city. Considering the period in which it was prepared, and the state
of city-planning science at the time, it was a notable achievement.
The work was done by a board on street extensions, with a membership
entirely ex officio, known as the Highway Commission, established by
the act of Congress of 1893.
[Illustration: _Courtesy Army Air Corps_
WASHINGTON, LOOKING NORTH FROM THE WHITE HOUSE]
[Illustration: _Courtesy Army Air Corps_
WASHINGTON, LOOKING SOUTH FROM SIXTEENTH STREET AND COLUMBIA ROAD]
5. Since then the Surveyor’s Office of the District of Columbia and
the National Capital Park and Planning Commission, which superseded
the Highway Commission of 1893, have made an intensive study of the
highway problems of the District of Columbia, including street railroad
problems. This has required a differentiation of street functions, and
an application of the best methods of modern land subdivision to the
remaining undeveloped areas; also an attempt to restate the L’Enfant
ideal in the terms of a motor age. The results achieved appear in the
changes in the highway plan already approved by the Commission or being
recommended to the Commissioners of the District of Columbia from time
to time. Many changes in the highway plan have thus been made, each
case having required careful study of effects on topography, trees,
drainage, lot depths and sizes, etc. The acts of Congress of 1914
and 1925 authorized additional changes in the Highway Plan. The act
approved December 15, 1932 (Public, No. 307, 72d Cong.), authorizes
the Commissioners of the District of Columbia “to readjust and close
streets, roads, highways, or alleys in the District of Columbia
rendered useless or unnecessary.” The desirability of discontinuing
streets which have never been opened and which exist only on a map and
only part of which are in public ownership, when a better and cheaper
way of giving the same traffic connection can be found, seems so
manifest as to require no further justification.
[Illustration: GATEHOUSE BY BULFINCH WHICH FORMERLY STOOD NEAR THE
CAPITOL]
With a view to creating direct arteries in which the vital traffic
flow of the community may freely move, a major thoroughfare scheme,
extending into the metropolitan area of Washington, has also
been studied. The District Commissioners have an interesting map
illustrating the Highway Plan. The Highway Department of the District
of Columbia has charge of upkeep and maintenance of highways in the
District of Columbia. Out of 1,020 miles of streets in the District of
Columbia 855 miles are paved.