On the east side of 15th Street, beginning at E Street, is the Commerce
Department building, which was constructed of limestone in the 1930’s.
This building is part of the Federal Triangle, a cluster of Federal
office buildings in the area bounded by Pennsylvania Avenue,
Constitution Avenue, and 15th Street, built primarily during the New
Deal administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Some sculptures
on the buildings were done by participants in the WPA program. These
buildings were cleaned in the 1960’s, probably by sandblasting. Look for
fossils in relief and alteration crusts in some sheltered places on the
carved work. Some of the blackening on this building is from dirt and
organic material trapped or growing in the rough surface of the stone.
[Illustration: All of the Federal buildings that form the Federal
Triangle (between Pennsylvania Avenue, Constitution Avenue, and 15th
Street) are made of limestone.]
Continue south on 15th Street to Constitution Avenue. From the corner
of 15th Street and Constitution, follow some of the foot paths half a
kilometer (three tenths of a mile) to the Washington Monument.