BGuthrie Photos: DC Heritage Trails: Make No Little Plans: Federal Triangle Heritage Trail

DC Heritage Trails: Make No Little Plans: Federal Triangle Heritage Trail:

Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.

Recognize anyone? If you recognize specific folks (or other stuff) and I haven't labeled them, please identify them for the world. Click the little pencil icon

underneath the file name (just above the picture). Spammers need not apply.

Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

Accessing as Spider: The system has identified your IP as being a spider.
IP Address: 18.227.24.209 -- Domain: Amazon Technologies
I love well-behaved spiders! They are, in fact, how most people find my site. Unfortunately, my network has a limited bandwidth and pictures take up bandwidth. Spiders ask for lots and lots of pages and chew up lots and lots of bandwidth which slows things down considerably for regular folk. To counter this, you'll see all the text on the page but the images are being suppressed. Also, some system options like merges are being blocked for you.
Note: Permission is NOT granted for spiders, robots, etc to use the site for AI-generation purposes. I'm sure you're thrilled by your ability to make revenue from my work but there's nothing in that for my human users or for me.
If you are in fact human, please email me at guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can check if your designation was made in error. Given your number of hits, that's unlikely but what the hell.

Help? The Medium (Email) links are for screen viewing and emailing. You'll want bigger sizes for printing. [Click here for additional help]

Share: Facebook Twitter Digg
[1] TRFTRI_150617_005.JPG	[2] TRFTRI_150617_009.JPG	[3] TRFTRI_150617_015.JPG	[4] TRFTRI_150617_020.JPG	[5] TRFTRI_150617_024.JPG
[6] TRFTRI_150617_029.JPG	[7] TRFTRI_150617_032.JPG	[8] TRFTRI_150617_037.JPG	[9] TRFTRI_150617_043.JPG	[10] TRFTRI_150617_046.JPG
[11] TRFTRI_150617_049.JPG	[12] TRFTRI_150617_051.JPG	[13] TRFTRI_150617_057.JPG	[14] TRFTRI_150617_060.JPG	[15] TRFTRI_150617_065.JPG
[16] TRFTRI_150617_068.JPG	[17] TRFTRI_150617_071.JPG	[18] TRFTRI_150617_079.JPG	[19] TRFTRI_150617_082.JPG	[20] TRFTRI_150617_088.JPG
[21] TRFTRI_150617_091.JPG	[22] TRFTRI_150617_094.JPG	[23] TRFTRI_150617_097.JPG	[24] TRFTRI_150617_099.JPG	[25] TRFTRI_150617_101.JPG
[26] TRFTRI_150617_103.JPG	[27] TRFTRI_150617_107.JPG	[28] TRFTRI_150617_109.JPG	[29] TRFTRI_150617_114.JPG	[30] TRFTRI_150617_115.JPG
[31] TRFTRI_150617_117.JPG	[32] TRFTRI_150617_120.JPG	[33] TRFTRI_150617_122.JPG	[34] TRFTRI_150617_129.JPG	[35] TRFTRI_150617_132.JPG
[36] TRFTRI_150617_138.JPG	[37] TRFTRI_150617_147.JPG	[38] TRFTRI_150617_153.JPG	[39] TRFTRI_150617_160.JPG	[40] TRFTRI_150617_161.JPG
[41] TRFTRI_150617_169.JPG	[42] TRFTRI_150617_170.JPG	[43] TRFTRI_150617_174.JPG	[44] TRFTRI_150617_177.JPG	[45] TRFTRI_150617_183.JPG
[46] TRFTRI_150617_187.JPG	[47] TRFTRI_150617_197.JPG	[48] TRFTRI_150617_201.JPG	[49] TRFTRI_150617_204.JPG	[50] TRFTRI_150617_210.JPG
[51] TRFTRI_150617_213.JPG	[52] TRFTRI_150617_219.JPG	[53] TRFTRI_150617_221.JPG	[54] TRFTRI_150617_224.JPG	[55] TRFTRI_150617_227.JPG
[56] TRFTRI_150617_230.JPG	[57] TRFTRI_150617_233.JPG	[58] TRFTRI_150617_236.JPG	[59] TRFTRI_150617_246.JPG	[60] TRFTRI_150617_248.JPG
[61] TRFTRI_150617_252.JPG	[62] TRFTRI_150617_255.JPG	[63] TRFTRI_150617_259.JPG	[64] TRFTRI_150617_262.JPG	[65] TRFTRI_150617_266.JPG
[66] TRFTRI_150617_269.JPG	[67] TRFTRI_150617_272.JPG	[68] TRFTRI_150617_275.JPG	[69] TRFTRI_150617_278.JPG	[70] TRFTRI_150617_281.JPG
[71] TRFTRI_150617_290.JPG	[72] TRFTRI_150617_291.JPG	[73] TRFTRI_150617_296.JPG	[74] TRFTRI_150617_299.JPG	[75] TRFTRI_150617_303.JPG
[76] TRFTRI_150617_312.JPG	[77] TRFTRI_150617_315.JPG	[78] TRFTRI_150617_317.JPG	[79] TRFTRI_150617_320.JPG	[80] TRFTRI_150617_323.JPG
[81] TRFTRI_150617_327.JPG	[82] TRFTRI_150617_335.JPG	[83] TRFTRI_150617_338.JPG	[84] TRFTRI_150617_342.JPG	[85] TRFTRI_150617_349.JPG
[86] TRFTRI_150617_353.JPG	[87] TRFTRI_150617_357.JPG	[88] TRFTRI_150617_360.JPG	[89] TRFTRI_150617_367.JPG	[90] TRFTRI_150617_369.JPG
[91] TRFTRI_150617_377.JPG	[92] TRFTRI_150617_379.JPG	[93] TRFTRI_150617_384.JPG	[94] TRFTRI_150617_388.JPG	[95] TRFTRI_150617_391.JPG
[96] TRFTRI_150617_392.JPG	[97] TRFTRI_150617_394.JPG	[98] TRFTRI_150617_400.JPG	[99] TRFTRI_150617_403.JPG	[100] TRFTRI_150617_405.JPG
[101] TRFTRI_150617_413.JPG	[102] TRFTRI_150617_417.JPG	[103] TRFTRI_150617_421.JPG	[104] TRFTRI_150617_429.JPG	[105] TRFTRI_150617_432.JPG
[106] TRFTRI_150617_437.JPG	[107] TRFTRI_150617_440.JPG	[108] TRFTRI_150617_444.JPG	[109] TRFTRI_150617_447.JPG	[110] TRFTRI_150617_451.JPG
[111] TRFTRI_150617_452.JPG	[112] TRFTRI_150617_456.JPG	[113] TRFTRI_150617_462.JPG	[114] TRFTRI_150617_467.JPG	[115] TRFTRI_150617_469.JPG
[116] TRFTRI_150617_471.JPG	[117] TRFTRI_150617_475.JPG	[118] TRFTRI_150617_477.JPG	[119] TRFTRI_150617_480.JPG	[120] TRFTRI_150617_484.JPG
[121] TRFTRI_150617_488.JPG	[122] TRFTRI_150617_492.JPG	[123] TRFTRI_150617_495.JPG	[124] TRFTRI_150617_501.JPG	[125] TRFTRI_150617_503.JPG
[126] TRFTRI_150617_505.JPG	[127] TRFTRI_150617_510.JPG	[128] TRFTRI_150617_515.JPG	[129] TRFTRI_150617_522.JPG	[130] TRFTRI_150617_525.JPG
[131] TRFTRI_150617_533.JPG	[132] TRFTRI_150617_538.JPG	[133] TRFTRI_150617_546.JPG	[134] TRFTRI_150617_550.JPG	[135] TRFTRI_150617_553.JPG
[136] TRFTRI_150617_555.JPG	[137] TRFTRI_150617_562.JPG	[138] TRFTRI_150617_566.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. TRFTRI_150617_005.JPG: Grandeur for the People Make No Little Plans -- Federal Triangle Heritage Trail -- The National Archives, keeper of the nation's founding documents and most important federal government records, occupies this important spot halfway between the Capitol and the White House. Before the Archives building was constructed, federal records were stored haphazardly all over town. The nation's first archivist began centralizing them here in 1935. In 1898 the United States won the Spanish-American War, and national leaders began questioning whether their capital city reflected the nation's new importance in world affairs. This viewpoint, the centennial in 1900 of the federal government's arrival in Washington in 1800, and concerns of the nation's foremost architects spurred the Senate Park Commission, led by Senator James McMillan, to develop a new city plan. The McMillan Plan revived and expanded elements of Pierre L'Enfant's 1791 vision for the capital. It also looked to the Beaux-Arts style of buildings at the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition (world's fair). The fair awed visitors and launched the City Beautiful movement, which promoted classically inspired groups of buildings for governmental or institutional functions. The McMillan Plan redesigned the National Mall and designated this 70-acre triangle for new government offices. Before World War I intervened, however, only one structure was built, the John A. Wilson Building (Washington, DC's city hall, 1908), at 13th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. In 1926 President Calvin Coolidge signed the Public Buildings Act, revived the McMillan Plan, and assigned Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon to work with leading American architects to create the Federal Triangle. It stands today as the nation's largest great public project combining classical architecture and sculpture. The U.S. Navy Memorial across the street was dedicated in 1987, the Navy's 212th anniversary.
2. TRFTRI_150617_009.JPG: The 1901 McMillan Plan proposed a triangular grouping of government office buildings between the White House and the U.S. Capitol. They are shown in black in the upper right quadrant of this plan.
3. TRFTRI_150617_015.JPG: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt at his desk in the White House, 1935. In the park to your right is a desk-sized stone memorial to the president who made the National Archives a federal agency. Roosevelt once said that if a memorial to him were built, it should be no larger than his desk, and located here. In 1997 a larger, landscape memorial to him opened along the Tidal Basin.
4. TRFTRI_150617_020.JPG: This 1919 view of the Pennsylvania Avenue streetcar and loading platform captures the, at right,the block across the avenue where the U.S. Navy Memorial now stands.
5. TRFTRI_150617_024.JPG: The architecture of the Federal Triangle reflects the style and scale of the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition, seen here, which brought classically inspired civic buildings into vogue and launched the City Beautiful movement in American.
6. TRFTRI_150617_029.JPG: Shown here during work on the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, architects Daniel Burnham (far left), Charles McKim (third from right), and sculptor Augustus St. Gaudens (sixth from right) also served on the Senate Park Commission, organized by Senator James McMillan, right.
7. TRFTRI_150617_032.JPG: Shown here during work on the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, architects Daniel Burnham (far left), Charles McKim (third from right), and sculptor Augustus St. Gaudens (sixth from right) also served on the Senate Park Commission, organized by Senator James McMillan, right.
8. TRFTRI_150617_037.JPG: You are standing in the Federal Triangle, a group of buildings whose grandeur symbolizes the power and dignity of the United States. Located between the White House and the Capitol, these buildings house key agencies of the U.S. Government. The Federal Triangle is united by the use of neoclassical revival architecture, drawing from styles of ancient Greece and Rome that have influenced public buildings throughout the ages. Although each structure was designed for a specific government department or agency, they all share limestone fa�ades, red-tiled roofs and classical colonnades. Their architectural features, following traditions of the Parisian School of Fine Arts (�cole des Beaux-Arts), illustrate each building's original purpose. Most of the Federal Triangle was constructed between 1927 and 1938. However, the Old Post Office and the John A. Wilson Building survive from an earlier era, while the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center was not completed until 1998. In 1791 Pierre L'Enfant designed a city plan for the new cpaital in Washington under the direction of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The L'Enfant Plan overlaid broad avenues on a street grid with areas reserved for prominent buildings and parks. This area originally followed L'Enfant's vision as a center for businesses serving the municipal and federal governments. By the time of the Civil War (1861-1865), it had become a hodgepodge of boarding houses, stables, and light industry. This disarray, and the growing need for government office space, led to calls for redevelopment. In 1901 the Senate Park Commission, known as the McMillan Commission, created a new plan for Washington's parks and monumental areas and redefined the Triangle as a government center. In 1926 Congress authorized a massive building program that drew inspiration from classical architecture to create today's monumental Federal Triangle. Make No Little Plans: Federal Triangle Heritage Trail is an Official Washington, D.C. Walking Trail. The self-guided, 1.75-mile tour of 16 signs offers about one hour of gentle exercise. Its theme comes from "Make no little plans, they have no magic to stir men's blood. Make big plans," attributed to visionary Chicago architect Daniel Burnham, chair of the McMillan Commission. For more information on Federal Triangle buildings, please visit www.gsa.gov. For more information on DC neighborhoods and walking tours, please visit www.CulturalTourismDC.org. Make No Little Plans: Federal Triangle Heritage Trail is produced by the U.S. General Services Administration in collaboration with the District Department of Transportation and Cultural Tourism DC.
9. TRFTRI_150617_043.JPG: Looking west at the new Federal Triangle, 1938. Note that the building on the middle left is the National Museum of Natural History which opened in 1910. The area to the upper left of it would become the National Museum of American History which opened in 1964.
10. TRFTRI_150617_046.JPG: The National Archives in center with the Federal Trade Commission in this 1938 photograph. Directly to the left is where the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden was built in 1999. Across from the FTC is where the National Gallery of Art would be completed in 1941.
11. TRFTRI_150617_051.JPG: Make No Little Plans Federal Triangle Heritage Trail 15 Temple for Our History You're standing at the National Archives Building, the first permanent repository for the original records of the federal government. They include the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, displayed inside with other fascinating documents. More than one million people visit each year to see those records and others on exhibit. Thousands research their family histories using census, land, or military pension records. Others delve into the papers of Congress and the Supreme Court, military records from the Revolution onward, documents pertaining to Native Americans, and more. For decades Congress debated where and how to store America's most precious documents. Over time many were damaged or destroyed. In 1913 Congress directed the treasury secretary to plan a National Archives building. Construction began in 1931, and three years later President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed legislation creating the National Archives as a government agency. Architect John Russell Pope, who also designed the Jefferson Memorial and the National Gallery of Art, planned the building to stand out from the rest of the Federal Triangle. With 72 Corinthian columns and elaborately sculptured pediments, it embodies the importance of safeguarding historical records. At the stairs are James Earle Fraser's Heritage, with mother holding baby and urn filled with ashes of past generations, as well as Guardianship, whose protective sword and lion skin convey the need to safeguard records for future generations. The National Archives and Records Administration maintains billions of records nationwide in presidential libraries, regional archives, and federal records centers, and a research facility in College Park, Maryland.
12. TRFTRI_150617_060.JPG: After 28 years on display at the Library of Congress, the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence arrive via Marine Corps armored personnel carrier and military escort for placement in the National Archive, 1952.
13. TRFTRI_150617_065.JPG: In this 1938 view of the National Archives, you can see the pediment sculpture Recorder of the Archives, by James Earle Fraser and Laura Gardin Fraser. At center is the recorder of the archives flanked by men and women receiving documents. The dogs symbolize the Archives' role as guardians.
14. TRFTRI_150617_068.JPG: Citizens view the Constitution in the newly renovated Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom, 2004. Photography by Earl McDonald, National Archives and Records Administration
15. TRFTRI_150617_071.JPG: Construction proceeds on the building that President Herbert Hoover called "this temple of our history." This building squarely aligns with the city's street grid, unlike its Federal Triangle neighbors that face the diagonal Pennsylvania Avenue.
16. TRFTRI_150617_079.JPG: A workman surveys the Corinthian capitals at the tops of the National Archives' columns, the most elaborate in the Federal Triangle.
17. TRFTRI_150617_091.JPG: Man Controlling Trade provided a prime viewing spot for the Bicentennial parade on Constitution Avenue, July 4, 1976.
18. TRFTRI_150617_094.JPG: Protecting Consumers and Competition Make No Little Plans -- Federal Triangle Heritage Trail -- This is the Federal Trade Commission Building, home of the agency that defends the public against unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices. One of the older independent Federal agencies, the FTC was created in 1914 and has occupied this site since the building was completed in 1938. It works to protect the competitive marketplace and interests of consumers through litigation, consumer and business education, public hearings, and enforcement of regulations such as the Do Not Call rule. Considered the capstone of the Federal Triangle project, the FTC building stands at the apex of the Triangle. As the Great Depression deepened in the 1930s, Congress twice cut funding for the project, which originally called for costly Beaux Arts embellishments similar to those on other Federal Triangle buildings. Eventually Congress funded Edward H. Bennett's simpler, less ornamented "stripped classicism" designs. Softening the building's severity is artwork illustrating trade activities. Exquisitely detailed aluminum night gates depict the maritime industry's evolution, while bas-reliefs above each entrance show forms of commercial exchange. (Bas-reliefs, popular in Art Deco design, are sculptures slightly raised from their backgrounds.) Man Controlling Trade, the dramatic limestone figures flanking this end of the building, symbolize the FTC's role in protecting competition. The well muscled men represent government and the wild stallions represent unregulated business. New Yorker Michael Lantz was a 19-year-old struggling artist when he won the 1938 competition to design these sculptures. Lantz was the younger brother of Walter Lantz of "Woody Woodpecker" fame.
19. TRFTRI_150617_097.JPG: Businessmen exit the new Federal Trade Commission headquarters under Concetta Scaravaglione's bas-relief, Agriculture.
20. TRFTRI_150617_099.JPG: Clockwise from top, Foreign Trade by Carl Schmitz, Shipping by Robert Laurent, and Industry by Chaim Gross are the building's other over-door bas-reliefs.
21. TRFTRI_150617_101.JPG: Young Michael Lantz earned the commission for Man Controlling Trade in 1938 during the difficult days of the Great Depression. A Washington Post article chronicles his good fortune.
22. TRFTRI_150617_103.JPG: This 1937 sketch for William McVey's aluminum right gate panels shows American maritime trade's evolution from Columbus's fleet to a then-modern seaplane. Most of the building's decorations celebrate U.S. trade. At right, FTC's night gates gleam after restoration, 2012.
23. TRFTRI_150617_107.JPG: This 1937 sketch for William McVey's aluminum right gate panels shows American maritime trade's evolution from Columbus's fleet to a then-modern seaplane. Most of the building's decorations celebrate U.S. trade. At right, FTC's night gates gleam after restoration, 2012.
24. TRFTRI_150617_109.JPG: This aerial view shows the expanse of the Ronald Reagan Building and how its red-tile roof edge echos the red-roofed Federal Triangle.
25. TRFTRI_150617_114.JPG: You are standing in the Federal Triangle, a group of buildings whose grandeur symbolizes the power and dignity of the United States. Located between the White House and the Capitol, these buildings house key agencies of the U.S. Government. The Federal Triangle is united by the use of neoclassical revival architecture, drawing from styles of ancient Greece and Rome that have influenced public buildings throughout the ages. Although each structure was designed for a specific government department or agency, they all share limestone facades, red-tiled roofs and classical colonnades. Their architectural features, following traditions of the Parisian School of Fine Arts (ecole des Beaux-Arts), illustrate each building's original purpose. Most of the Federal Triangle was constructed between 1927 and 1938. However, the Old Post Office and the John A. Wilson Building survive from an earlier era, while the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center was not completed until 1998. In 1791 Pierre L'Enfant designed a city plan for the new capital in Washington under the direction of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The L'Enfant Plan overlaid broad avenues on a street grid with areas reserved for prominent buildings and parks. This area originally followed L'Enfant's vision as a center for businesses serving the municipal and federal governments. By the time of the Civil War (1861-1865), it had become a hodgepodge of boarding houses, stables, and light industry. This disarray, and the growing need for government office space, led to calls for redevelopment. In 1901 the Senate Park Commission, known as the McMillan Commission, created a new plan for Washington's parks and monumental areas and redefined the Triangle as a government center. In 1926 Congress authorized a massive building program that drew inspiration from classical architecture to create today's monumental Federal Triangle. Make No Little Plans: Federal Triangle Heritage Trail is an Official Washington, D.C. Walking Trail. The self-guided, 1.75-mile tour of 16 signs offers about one hour of gentle exercise. Its theme comes from "Make no little plans, they have no magic to stir men's blood. Make big plans," attributed to visionary Chicago architect Daniel Burnham, chair of the McMillan Commission. For more information on Federal Triangle buildings, please visit www.gsa.gov. For more information on DC neighborhoods and walking tours, please visit www.CulturalTourismDC.org. Make No Little Plans: Federal Triangle Heritage Trail is produced by the U.S. General Services Administration in collaboration with the District Department of Transportation and Cultural Tourism DC.
26. TRFTRI_150617_117.JPG: Make No Little Plans Federal Triangle Heritage Trail 9 Completing the Triangle The Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center honoring the 40th president, filled the last open space in the Federal Triangle. When former First Lady Nancy Reagan dedicated it in 1998, the redevelopment of this area of Pennsylvania Avenue, begun by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, was complete. The Reagan Building's 3.1 million square feet of space make it the second-largest federal building. Only the Pentagon is larger. The only Federal Triangle building with both private and government offices houses the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the U.S. Customs Service. James Ingo Freed of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, New York, designed the limestone exterior as a modern re-working of its neighbors' neoclassical style. The public is encouraged to explore this landmark building featuring a contemporary soaring atrium; conference, exhibit, and event spaces; and a tribute to President Reagan. Planners of the Federal Triangle originally envisioned a "Great Plaza" here, designed as a formal French garden. However as the Federal Triangle began to take shape, construction workers parked on the site. Federal employees and their cars soon followed. With war looming in the late 1930s, the government shelved the Great Plaza idea. The parking lot lingered for six decades. In 1947 President Harry S Truman dedicated a memorial here to diplomat and former Secretary of Commerce Oscar S. Straus (1850-1926). Appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt, Straus was the first Jewish cabinet member. Visible behind you on the plaza, the privately funded memorial by Adolph Weinman displays two cast-bronze sculptures: Liberty of Worship and The Voice of Reason.
27. TRFTRI_150617_120.JPG: On 14th Street, the building's Indiana Limestone fa�ade echoes the columns and rusticated blocks of its earlier neighbors.
28. TRFTRI_150617_122.JPG: A very young model poses for sculptor Adolph Weinman. His Liberty of Worship sculpture forms part of the Straus Memorial in front of the Reagan Building's main entrance.
29. TRFTRI_150617_129.JPG: Keith Sonnier's Route Zenith, a 49-foot-tall neon glass, and metal sculpture, plays on the subtle interchange of light and reflection in the glass-covered atrium of the Reagan Building. The U.S. General Service Administration's Art in Architecture Program commissioned the artwork.
30. TRFTRI_150617_132.JPG: The Straus Memorial under construction amid a sea of cars, 1942
31. TRFTRI_150617_138.JPG: The Pennsylvania Avenue dome of the Reagan Building pays homage to the presence of monumental domes throughout the city.
32. TRFTRI_150617_147.JPG: The Division Make No Little Plans -- Federal Triangle Heritage Trail -- Soon after the Federal government moved to Washington in 1800, this area attracted shops and stables to serve the new residents. But where Constitution Avenue runs today, just south of this sign, Tiber Creek flowed - and often flooded. In 1815 engineers channeled the creek into the new Washington Canal. By 1860, however, the canal had deteriorated into an open sewer. Impoverished families, both African American and white, lived in small wood-frame houses along unpaved, often muddy streets and alleys. Crime was rampant. The Civil War (1861-1865) brought thousands of soldiers and civilians into the capital, and brothels and saloons thrived. This area became known as "Hooker's Division," a pun on the name of General Joseph Hooker, who commanded an Army division defending Washington. After the war ended, Alexander "Boss" Shepherd, head of Washington's powerful Board of Public Works, filled and paved over the canal, though the area remained flood-prone. Reformers such as the Central Union Mission and Anti-Saloon League moved here, as did cabinet workshops, lumber yards, and other industrial facilities. But the old businesses continued - despite the 1908 arrival of the District Building, home to the city government and police department - until Congress finally outlawed prostitution in 1914, and Prohibition shut down the saloons a few years later. The Division, including homes, a church, and a school, was bulldozed for construction of the Federal Triangle in 1926. Five years later, Congress renamed B Street (and the filled-in canal) Constitution Avenue. As you walk through the passageway on your way to Sign 11, please note the typical Federal Triangle cobblestone walk and rusticated (rough-edged) limestone.
33. TRFTRI_150617_153.JPG: Artist Seth Eastman's 1850 sketch of the Washington Canal looking west from the foot of the U.S. Capitol.
34. TRFTRI_150617_160.JPG: The detail from an 1886 real estate map shows the neighborhood south of Pennsylvania Avenue. The Federal Triangle plan erased Ohio Avenue, 13-1/2 Street, and C Street. You are standing approximately at the letter "V" in Ohio Avenue. B Street (now Constitution Avenue) was later built over the old Washington Canal.
35. TRFTRI_150617_161.JPG: Washington Woodworking Company, viewed from 12th Street at B Street, was one of the light industries here before the Federal Triangle was laid out.
36. TRFTRI_150617_169.JPG: Gilded and burnished aluminum lamps light the cobblestone passageway to Constitution Avenue.
37. TRFTRI_150617_170.JPG: By 1923 the District Building, in the foreground and the Southern Railway building next door on Pennsylvania Avenue had erased some but not all of the Division. In the background is the Old Post Office.
38. TRFTRI_150617_174.JPG: Warwick & Hiss billiard parlor, right, was one of the gentlemen's clubs and social activities in the Division.
39. TRFTRI_150617_177.JPG: Pioneering social documentary photographer Lewis Hine explored the red-light district in 1912. Hine photographed young Griffin Veatch, a messenger, standing on C Street near 13th Street.
40. TRFTRI_150617_201.JPG: Make No Little Plans Federal Triangle Heritage Trail You are standing in the Federal Triangle, a group of buildings whose grandeur symbolizes the power and dignity of the United States. Located between the White House and the Capitol, these buildings house key agencies of the U.S. Government. The Federal Triangle is united by the use of neoclassical revival architecture, drawing from styles of ancient Greece and Rome that have influenced public buildings throughout the ages. Although each structure was designed for a specific government department or agency, they all share limestone fa�ades, red-tiled roofs and classical colonnades. Their architectural features, following traditions of the Parisian School of Fine Arts (�cole des Beaux-Arts), illustrate each building's original purpose. Most of the Federal Triangle was constructed between 1927 and 1938. However, the Old Post Office and the John A. Wilson Building survive from an earlier era, while the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center was not completed until 1998. In 1791 Pierre L'Enfant designed a city plan for the new cpaital in Washington under the direction of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The L'Enfant Plan overlaid broad avenues on a street grid with areas reserved for prominent buildings and parks. This area originally followed L'Enfant's vision as a center for businesses serving the municipal and federal governments. By the time of the Civil War (1861-1865), it had become a hodgepodge of boarding houses, stables, and light industry. This disarray, and the growing need for government office space, led to calls for redevelopment. In 1901 the Senate Park Commission, known as the McMillan Commission, created a new plan for Washington's parks and monumental areas and redefined the Triangle as a government center. In 1926 Congress authorized a massive building program that drew inspiration from classical architecture to create today's monumental Federal Triangle. Make No Little Plans: Federal Triangle Heritage Trail is an Official Washington, D.C. Walking Trail. The self-guided, 1.75-mile tour of 16 signs offers about one hour of gentle exercise. Its theme comes from "Make no little plans, they have no magic to stir men's blood. Make big plans," attributed to visionary Chicago architect Daniel Burnham, chair of the McMillan Commission. For more information on Federal Triangle buildings, please visit www.gsa.gov. For more information on DC neighborhoods and walking tours, please visit www.CulturalTourismDC.org. Make No Little Plans: Federal Triangle Heritage Trail is produced by the U.S. General Services Administration in collaboration with the District Department of Transportation and Cultural Tourism DC.
41. TRFTRI_150617_204.JPG: This 1929 view taken from atop the Washington Monument shows the IRS Building under construction. At middle right is the old Louisiana Avenue lined with market buildings and produce trucks. That section of the avenue was later replaced by the Department of Justice building.
42. TRFTRI_150617_210.JPG: Our Tax Dollars Make No Little Plans -- Federal Triangle Heritage Trail -- While only Congress - the people's elected representatives - can impose taxes and decide how they are spent, the Internal Revenue Service, a bureau of the U.S. Treasury, ensures those taxes are collected fairly and efficiently. The IRS building reminds citizens what their tax dollars buy. In the words of the great jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes engraved over the building's entrance, "Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society." Revenue collected by the IRS pays for everything from national defense and highways to weather forecasts and food safety inspections. Louis A. Simon, superintendent of the architectural section of the Treasury Department, designed the IRS building to be the least ornate in the Federal Triangle because it houses a bureau, rather than a cabinet-level department of government. The building's neoclassical style is similar to its neighbors', but its only embellishments are four eagles atop shields carved in limestone panels flanking the entrance. Congress enacted the first income tax to pay expenses of the Civil War, and in 1862 President Lincoln appointed a commissioner of internal revenue to collect it. A decade later the income tax was repealed and not revived until 1913, when the 16th Amendment to the Constitution gave Congress authority to enact a permanent income tax. The first Form 1040 was issued that year, and Americans began paying one percent tax personal incomes greater than $3,000, and six percent on incomes greater than $500,000. Other forms of revenue collected by the IRS include corporate, estate, excise, gift, and employment taxes.
43. TRFTRI_150617_213.JPG: The lobby of the IRS building photographed soon after its completion in 1930, features a coffered plaster ceiling, two story arched openings, and limestone-clad walls.
44. TRFTRI_150617_219.JPG: A 1946 photo essay by DC photojournalists of Harris & Ewing captured "Miss Rose Marie Preston," below, one of an army of women, bottom left, entering "statistics from tax returns" on punch cards for proto-computers. Above "trained auditors carefully check your tax returns."
45. TRFTRI_150617_221.JPG: A 1946 photo essay by DC photojournalists of Harris & Ewing captured "Miss Rose Marie Preston," below, one of an army of women, bottom left, entering "statistics from tax returns" on punch cards for proto-computers. Above "trained auditors carefully check your tax returns."
46. TRFTRI_150617_224.JPG: A 1946 photo essay by DC photojournalists of Harris & Ewing captured "Miss Rose Marie Preston," below, one of an army of women, bottom left, entering "statistics from tax returns" on punch cards for proto-computers. Above "trained auditors carefully check your tax returns."
47. TRFTRI_150617_227.JPG: IRS clerks use a "beer meter" to determine the alcoholic content of beer and thus its tax rate, 1937.
48. TRFTRI_150617_233.JPG: Make No Little Plans Federal Triangle Heritage Trail You are standing in the Federal Triangle, a group of buildings whose grandeur symbolizes the power and dignity of the United States. Located between the White House and the Capitol, these buildings house key agencies of the U.S. Government. The Federal Triangle is united by the use of neoclassical revival architecture, drawing from styles of ancient Greece and Rome that have influenced public buildings throughout the ages. Although each structure was designed for a specific government department or agency, they all share limestone fa�ades, red-tiled roofs and classical colonnades. Their architectural features, following traditions of the Parisian School of Fine Arts (�cole des Beaux-Arts), illustrate each building's original purpose. Most of the Federal Triangle was constructed between 1927 and 1938. However, the Old Post Office and the John A. Wilson Building survive from an earlier era, while the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center was not completed until 1998. In 1791 Pierre L'Enfant designed a city plan for the new cpaital in Washington under the direction of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The L'Enfant Plan overlaid broad avenues on a street grid with areas reserved for prominent buildings and parks. This area originally followed L'Enfant's vision as a center for businesses serving the municipal and federal governments. By the time of the Civil War (1861-1865), it had become a hodgepodge of boarding houses, stables, and light industry. This disarray, and the growing need for government office space, led to calls for redevelopment. In 1901 the Senate Park Commission, known as the McMillan Commission, created a new plan for Washington's parks and monumental areas and redefined the Triangle as a government center. In 1926 Congress authorized a massive building program that drew inspiration from classical architecture to create today's monumental Federal Triangle. Make No Little Plans: Federal Triangle Heritage Trail is an Official Washington, D.C. Walking Trail. The self-guided, 1.75-mile tour of 16 signs offers about one hour of gentle exercise. Its theme comes from "Make no little plans, they have no magic to stir men's blood. Make big plans," attributed to visionary Chicago architect Daniel Burnham, chair of the McMillan Commission. For more information on Federal Triangle buildings, please visit www.gsa.gov. For more information on DC neighborhoods and walking tours, please visit www.CulturalTourismDC.org. Make No Little Plans: Federal Triangle Heritage Trail is produced by the U.S. General Services Administration in collaboration with the District Department of Transportation and Cultural Tourism DC.
49. TRFTRI_150617_236.JPG: Artist Seth Eastman's 1851 sketch of the Washington Canal, which ran where Constitution Avenue is today, captured the base of the unfinished Washington Monument and the Smithsonian Institution's "castle."
50. TRFTRI_150617_246.JPG: Keeping it Green Make No Little Plans -- Federal Triangle Heritage Trail -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is the youngest agency housed here in the Federal Triangle. Established as an independent agency in 1970, EPA protects human health and the environment through science, transparency, and the rule of law. This building, designed by San Francisco architect Arthur Brown, Jr., originally housed the Interstate Commerce Commission, which regulated transportation of goods between the states. Like its Federal Triangle neighbors, the building was richly finished inside with limestone and marble ornamented with decorative paintings and carvings. Adorning the pediment behind you is Wheeler Williams's Commerce and Communications, dominated by the messenger Mercury leaning against his steed while being blown through the clouds. An American eagle perches majestically over his shoulder. Just ahead is Interstate Transportation by Edward McCartan, its nude female reclining on a seahorse amid dolphins symbolizing the energy of interstate transportation. To showcase the EPA's presence in the complex, these buildings were rehabilitated between 1994 and 2001 by the U.S. General Services Administration in partnership with EPA. While adhering to strict historic preservation standards, the renovation introduced 21st-century green design innovations such as recycled building materials, low-emission paints, energy-saving lighting and mechanical systems, low-flow water fixtures and supplementary rainwater cisterns. The EPA buildings overlook Constitution Avenue, the path of the old Washington Canal. Conceived by city designer Pierre L'Enfant and designed by architect Benjamin Latrobe, the canal made Tiber Creek into a navigable waterway connecting the Potomac and Anacostia rivers. Barges transported materials to build the new city via the canal. Eventually, though, the canal became an open sewer. It was paved over in the 1870s.
51. TRFTRI_150617_248.JPG: Doors of nickel silver open to a restored lobby inside the EPA East Building.
52. TRFTRI_150617_252.JPG: This limestone face is one of 11 keystones you can see over entrances and windows in this complex.
53. TRFTRI_150617_255.JPG: Wheeler Williams, his assistant, and the horse-model stand below the clay version of Williams's Commerce and Communications.
54. TRFTRI_150617_259.JPG: The Washington Canal's route from the Potomac River to the front of the U.S. Capitol, and then south to the Anacostia River can be seen in blue on this 1862 map.
55. TRFTRI_150617_262.JPG: From Workers to Environment Make No Little Plans -- Federal Triangle Heritage Trail -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, whose mission is to protect human health and the environment, has occupied the majority of offices in this block since 2001. EPA West (this building), the adjacent Mellon Auditorium, and the EPA East building share once continuous, monumental fa� designed by Arthur Brown, Jr. The projecting temple front of the auditorium, colonnades at both ends, and generous sculptures unify the complex. Because this 1934 building originally housed the Department of Labor, its most prominent sculptures are monumental pediments showing products of American labor. In Abundance and Industry by Sherry Fry (west end), the female figure symbolizing abundance pours from a vase of apples and pomegranates, the fruits of industry. In Labor and Industry by Albert Stewart (east end), the male figure portraying industry sits amid corn and wheat, the fruits of the soil. The Labor Department was created to promote the welfare of workers, improve their working conditions, and advance their opportunities for profitable employment. Frances Perkins, the first secretary of labor to occupy this building, was the nation's first woman cabinet member. Edgar Walter's colossal Columbia holding the torch of freedom crowns the ornate portico behind you. Six Doric columns mark the entrance to the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, named in 1987 in honor of the treasury secretary who spearheaded the creation of Federal Triangle. The auditorium hosted President Franklin Roosevelt as he read numbers drawn in the nation's first peacetime draft lottery, conducted less than a year before the United States entered World War II. After the war, the NATO treaty was signed in the same auditorium.
56. TRFTRI_150617_266.JPG: Look for General George Washington, depicted planning the Battle of Trenton, in this bas-relief, over the entrance to the Mellon Auditorium behind the columns.
57. TRFTRI_150617_269.JPG: Department of Labor Secretary Francis Perkins meets the press 1937
58. TRFTRI_150617_272.JPG: Bureau of Labor Statistics clerks enter data on punch cards, 1936, for use in early "computing" machines.
59. TRFTRI_150617_275.JPG: Spectators, radio networks, and newsreel cameras witness President Franklin Roosevelt opening the Selective Service lottery in the auditorium, 1940. The United States entered World War II the following year.
60. TRFTRI_150617_278.JPG: Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon looks at a scale model of the Federal Triangle, around 1929.
61. TRFTRI_150617_281.JPG: Laborers pose with a carved limestone block to be hoisted above the entrance to the Mellon Auditorium, 1933. The dome of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History is visible in the background.
62. TRFTRI_150617_290.JPG: Work progresses as limestone blocks are attached to the steel frame of the Mellon Auditorium, 1933.
63. TRFTRI_150617_291.JPG: Make No Little Plans Federal Triangle Heritage Trail You are standing in the Federal Triangle, a group of buildings whose grandeur symbolizes the power and dignity of the United States. Located between the White House and the Capitol, these buildings house key agencies of the U.S. Government. The Federal Triangle is united by the use of neoclassical revival architecture, drawing from styles of ancient Greece and Rome that have influenced public buildings throughout the ages. Although each structure was designed for a specific government department or agency, they all share limestone fa�ades, red-tiled roofs and classical colonnades. Their architectural features, following traditions of the Parisian School of Fine Arts (�cole des Beaux-Arts), illustrate each building's original purpose. Most of the Federal Triangle was constructed between 1927 and 1938. However, the Old Post Office and the John A. Wilson Building survive from an earlier era, while the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center was not completed until 1998. In 1791 Pierre L'Enfant designed a city plan for the new cpaital in Washington under the direction of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The L'Enfant Plan overlaid broad avenues on a street grid with areas reserved for prominent buildings and parks. This area originally followed L'Enfant's vision as a center for businesses serving the municipal and federal governments. By the time of the Civil War (1861-1865), it had become a hodgepodge of boarding houses, stables, and light industry. This disarray, and the growing need for government office space, led to calls for redevelopment. In 1901 the Senate Park Commission, known as the McMillan Commission, created a new plan for Washington's parks and monumental areas and redefined the Triangle as a government center. In 1926 Congress authorized a massive building program that drew inspiration from classical architecture to create today's monumental Federal Triangle. Make No Little Plans: Federal Triangle Heritage Trail is an Official Washington, D.C. Walking Trail. The self-guided, 1.75-mile tour of 16 signs offers about one hour of gentle exercise. Its theme comes from "Make no little plans, they have no magic to stir men's blood. Make big plans," attributed to visionary Chicago architect Daniel Burnham, chair of the McMillan Commission. For more information on Federal Triangle buildings, please visit www.gsa.gov. For more information on DC neighborhoods and walking tours, please visit www.CulturalTourismDC.org. Make No Little Plans: Federal Triangle Heritage Trail is produced by the U.S. General Services Administration in collaboration with the District Department of Transportation and Cultural Tourism DC.
64. TRFTRI_150617_299.JPG: Make No Little Plans Federal Triangle Heritage Trail You are standing in the Federal Triangle, a group of buildings whose grandeur symbolizes the power and dignity of the United States. Located between the White House and the Capitol, these buildings house key agencies of the U.S. Government. The Federal Triangle is united by the use of neoclassical revival architecture, drawing from styles of ancient Greece and Rome that have influenced public buildings throughout the ages. Although each structure was designed for a specific government department or agency, they all share limestone fa�ades, red-tiled roofs and classical colonnades. Their architectural features, following traditions of the Parisian School of Fine Arts (�cole des Beaux-Arts), illustrate each building's original purpose. Most of the Federal Triangle was constructed between 1927 and 1938. However, the Old Post Office and the John A. Wilson Building survive from an earlier era, while the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center was not completed until 1998. In 1791 Pierre L'Enfant designed a city plan for the new cpaital in Washington under the direction of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The L'Enfant Plan overlaid broad avenues on a street grid with areas reserved for prominent buildings and parks. This area originally followed L'Enfant's vision as a center for businesses serving the municipal and federal governments. By the time of the Civil War (1861-1865), it had become a hodgepodge of boarding houses, stables, and light industry. This disarray, and the growing need for government office space, led to calls for redevelopment. In 1901 the Senate Park Commission, known as the McMillan Commission, created a new plan for Washington's parks and monumental areas and redefined the Triangle as a government center. In 1926 Congress authorized a massive building program that drew inspiration from classical architecture to create today's monumental Federal Triangle. Make No Little Plans: Federal Triangle Heritage Trail is an Official Washington, D.C. Walking Trail. The self-guided, 1.75-mile tour of 16 signs offers about one hour of gentle exercise. Its theme comes from "Make no little plans, they have no magic to stir men's blood. Make big plans," attributed to visionary Chicago architect Daniel Burnham, chair of the McMillan Commission. For more information on Federal Triangle buildings, please visit www.gsa.gov. For more information on DC neighborhoods and walking tours, please visit www.CulturalTourismDC.org. Make No Little Plans: Federal Triangle Heritage Trail is produced by the U.S. General Services Administration in collaboration with the District Department of Transportation and Cultural Tourism DC.
65. TRFTRI_150617_312.JPG: Appointed Rounds Make No Little Plans -- Federal Triangle Heritage Trail -- The imposing Ariel Rios Building opened in 1934 to house the U.S. Post Office Department. Architect William A. Delano, of the New York firm Delano and Aldrich, drew inspiration from Paris and other European cities to design the building's unusual hourglass shape. The building, including a ground-level arcade and a Parisian-inspired slate mansard roof, was intended to face a circular court planned to span 12th Street. The plan, however, required demolition of the Old Post Office. Its destruction was delayed, and eventually the Old Post Office gained landmark status, preventing completion of the circular court. When this building was constructed, the Post Office Department was among the larger non-military employers in the nation. Postal service dates to 1775, when the Continental Congress, representing the 13 colonies, appointed Benjamin Franklin the first postmaster general. The ability of colonial military commanders to communicate by mail helped them defeat the British during the Revolution. In the new nation, postal service furthered democracy and growth by linking elected representatives with their constituents and businesses with their customers. Although the Post Office Department became the U.S. Postal Service in 1971 and moved from the Federal Triangle, the building's plentiful inscriptions, sculptures, bas-reliefs, and evocative interior murals preserve its stories and mission of binding the nation together. The embellishments also remind viewers of the thousands of laborers, artists, and craftsmen who found much-needed work here during the Great Depression (1929-1941). This building was later occupied by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and renamed to honor Special Agent Ariel Rios, who was killed in the line of duty. It now houses the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency headquarters.
66. TRFTRI_150617_315.JPG: A bronze balustrade lining the interior staircases features wings over twisted serpents to symbolize Mercury, the Roman messenger of the gods.
67. TRFTRI_150617_317.JPG: The central figure of The Spirit of Progress and Civilization by Adolph Weinman raises a torch of enlightenment and holds a winged ball representing progress. On the right, a youth holds a scroll and book symbolizing education. On the left the Roman god Mercury, signifying the speed of mail delivery, fastens his winged sandals. The other figures evoke the many methods of transporting mail by land, water, and even electric wire.
68. TRFTRI_150617_320.JPG: Sorting the Mail, by Reginald Marsh, 1935
69. TRFTRI_150617_323.JPG: Messenger of Sympathy and Love by Eugene Francis Savage, 1937
70. TRFTRI_150617_327.JPG: General Store by Doris Lee, 1938. The Treasury Department's Section of Fine Arts commissioned these murals for the Post Office Department from leading American artists.
71. TRFTRI_150617_335.JPG: The Old Post Office at center prevented the completion of the circular court intended to flank 12th Street.
72. TRFTRI_150617_338.JPG: Make No Little Plans Federal Triangle Heritage Trail You are standing in the Federal Triangle, a group of buildings whose grandeur symbolizes the power and dignity of the United States. Located between the White House and the Capitol, these buildings house key agencies of the U.S. Government. The Federal Triangle is united by the use of neoclassical revival architecture, drawing from styles of ancient Greece and Rome that have influenced public buildings throughout the ages. Although each structure was designed for a specific government department or agency, they all share limestone fa�ades, red-tiled roofs and classical colonnades. Their architectural features, following traditions of the Parisian School of Fine Arts (�cole des Beaux-Arts), illustrate each building's original purpose. Most of the Federal Triangle was constructed between 1927 and 1938. However, the Old Post Office and the John A. Wilson Building survive from an earlier era, while the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center was not completed until 1998. In 1791 Pierre L'Enfant designed a city plan for the new cpaital in Washington under the direction of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The L'Enfant Plan overlaid broad avenues on a street grid with areas reserved for prominent buildings and parks. This area originally followed L'Enfant's vision as a center for businesses serving the municipal and federal governments. By the time of the Civil War (1861-1865), it had become a hodgepodge of boarding houses, stables, and light industry. This disarray, and the growing need for government office space, led to calls for redevelopment. In 1901 the Senate Park Commission, known as the McMillan Commission, created a new plan for Washington's parks and monumental areas and redefined the Triangle as a government center. In 1926 Congress authorized a massive building program that drew inspiration from classical architecture to create today's monumental Federal Triangle. Make No Little Plans: Federal Triangle Heritage Trail is an Official Washington, D.C. Walking Trail. The self-guided, 1.75-mile tour of 16 signs offers about one hour of gentle exercise. Its theme comes from "Make no little plans, they have no magic to stir men's blood. Make big plans," attributed to visionary Chicago architect Daniel Burnham, chair of the McMillan Commission. For more information on Federal Triangle buildings, please visit www.gsa.gov. For more information on DC neighborhoods and walking tours, please visit www.CulturalTourismDC.org. Make No Little Plans: Federal Triangle Heritage Trail is produced by the U.S. General Services Administration in collaboration with the District Department of Transportation and Cultural Tourism DC.
73. TRFTRI_150617_342.JPG: The monumental Commerce Department serves as the short leg of the Federal Triangle. It features a base of rusticated granite blocks, a colonnade with Doric capitals, and a cornice embellished with eagles.
74. TRFTRI_150617_349.JPG: Open For Business Make No Little Plans -- Federal Triangle Heritage Trail -- Across the street the Department of Commerce's Herbert C. Hoover Building anchors the Federal Triangle, just as the department - with its mission of promoting trade, supporting economic development, and strengthening the competitiveness of American companies - historically anchors the U.S. economy. Upon completion in 1932, the building was the world's largest office complex, covering almost eight acres and filling three city blocks with 3,300 rooms. It brought under one roof offices that had been scattered among 20 locations in Washington. The massive Hoover Building has six interior courtyards that bring light and air into offices. Exterior sculptures, plaques, and inscriptions illustrate the department's wide-ranging activities. The monumental structure reflects the nation's prosperity when Louis Ayres of the New York firm of York and Sawyer designed it and when President Herbert Hoover laid the cornerstone in May 1929. A few months later, however, the world economy crashed, launching the Great Depression. Fortunately, construction on the Federal Triangle proceeded creating jobs that became harder to find as the depression deepened. When the Commerce Department was founded in 1903, it took in the Census Bureau (established in 1790), Bureau of Navigation (1789), Lighthouse Service (1789), Patent Office (1802), Coast and Geodetic Survey (1807), Bureau of Steamboat Inspection (1838), and Bureau of Fisheries (1871). When the building was complete, it also housed the bureaus of Mines, Foreign and Domestic Commerce, and Aeronautics, as well as the Radio Division. Changing times have consolidated or eliminated many bureaus, but the department's mission of supporting the American economy remains constant.
75. TRFTRI_150617_353.JPG: The central figure for James Earle Fraser's Aeronautics sculpture is hoisted into position on the 13th Street side of the Hoover Building. The sculpture's two 'mortals' fasten wings to a "demi-god" pilot, suggesting the greatness of human flight.
76. TRFTRI_150617_357.JPG: The Commerce Department's vaulted law library. The library and the White House Visitor Center are open to the public and can be entered on the Pennsylvania Avenue side of the building.
77. TRFTRI_150617_360.JPG: To decorate the fa�ades of the building, James Earle Fraser designed bas-reliefs representing Commerce's 16 bureaus in 1930. The National Aquarium, an initiative of the Bureau of Fisheries, is located inside the Commerce Building and is open to the public.
78. TRFTRI_150617_369.JPG: Craftsmen create the bronze doors found inside the Hoover Building. An example of their handiwork is shown at right.
79. TRFTRI_150617_377.JPG: President Herbert Hoover, who earlier served as secretary of commerce, addressed the nation at the 1929 cornerstone-laying ceremony of the Department of Commerce building.
80. TRFTRI_150617_384.JPG: Make No Little Plans Federal Triangle Heritage Trail 14 Equal Justice Under the Law The roots of America's top law enforcement agency, the Department of Justice, reach back to 1789. That year the first Congress created the Office of the Attorney General to prosecute lawsuits in the Supreme Court and advise the President and the Cabinet on matters of law. In 1870, after the Civil War spurred an increase in lawsuits, Congress created the Department of Justice to address the increasing demands on the attorney general's office. The Department's modern mission is to enforce the laws and defend the interests of the United States, protect the American people against terrorism and other threats to national security, prevent and control crime, seek just punishment for those who break the law, and ensure equal justice for all citizens. For the Department's first permanent home, Philadelphia architects Clarence C. Zantzinger and Charles I. Borie, Jr., showcased bold yet elegant Art Deco ornamentation. The 20-foot-high night doors just ahead and most of the building's decorative fixtures are made of aluminum instead of traditional bronze. Colorful mosaics by Washingtonian John Joseph Earley adorn entranceway ceilings. C. Paul Jennewein designed 57 interior and exterior sculptural pieces, including the spectacular Art Deco torchi�res lighting the entrances. Inside the building are distinctive 1930s-era murals illustrating how law and justice improve American life. Painter George Biddle, one of the artist, had persuaded his friend and schoolmate President Franklin D. Roosevelt to fund public murals. Roosevelt's New Deal went on to commission important works of civic art throughout the Federal Triangle and the nation. The building was named the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in 2001 to honor the slain former attorney general.
81. TRFTRI_150617_391.JPG: Artist George Biddle touches up his 1936 mural Society Freed Through Justice on the Department's fifth floor. The panel, left, shows tired, worn, factory workers in an unjust economic system. Upper left, Happy Americans benefit from the economic prosperity of a just society.
82. TRFTRI_150617_394.JPG: Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy speaks to civil rights marchers outside the Department of Justice building, June 14, 1963.
83. TRFTRI_150617_400.JPG: U.S. Marshals from the Department of Justice escort James Meredith to class at the University of Mississippi, 1962. Meredith's arrival desegregated the historically white institution.
84. TRFTRI_150617_405.JPG: The Department of Justice building replaced the buildings at right that once served the wholesale and retail market district here. Around 1920 truck drivers for the Piggly Wiggly modern grocery store chain posed by their trucks on C Street at 10th Street. Behind them is the 11th Street (eastern) side of the Old Post Office.
85. TRFTRI_150617_413.JPG: Make No Little Plans Federal Triangle Heritage Trail You are standing in the Federal Triangle, a group of buildings whose grandeur symbolizes the power and dignity of the United States. Located between the White House and the Capitol, these buildings house key agencies of the U.S. Government. The Federal Triangle is united by the use of neoclassical revival architecture, drawing from styles of ancient Greece and Rome that have influenced public buildings throughout the ages. Although each structure was designed for a specific government department or agency, they all share limestone fa�ades, red-tiled roofs and classical colonnades. Their architectural features, following traditions of the Parisian School of Fine Arts (�cole des Beaux-Arts), illustrate each building's original purpose. Most of the Federal Triangle was constructed between 1927 and 1938. However, the Old Post Office and the John A. Wilson Building survive from an earlier era, while the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center was not completed until 1998. In 1791 Pierre L'Enfant designed a city plan for the new cpaital in Washington under the direction of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The L'Enfant Plan overlaid broad avenues on a street grid with areas reserved for prominent buildings and parks. This area originally followed L'Enfant's vision as a center for businesses serving the municipal and federal governments. By the time of the Civil War (1861-1865), it had become a hodgepodge of boarding houses, stables, and light industry. This disarray, and the growing need for government office space, led to calls for redevelopment. In 1901 the Senate Park Commission, known as the McMillan Commission, created a new plan for Washington's parks and monumental areas and redefined the Triangle as a government center. In 1926 Congress authorized a massive building program that drew inspiration from classical architecture to create today's monumental Federal Triangle. Make No Little Plans: Federal Triangle Heritage Trail is an Official Washington, D.C. Walking Trail. The self-guided, 1.75-mile tour of 16 signs offers about one hour of gentle exercise. Its theme comes from "Make no little plans, they have no magic to stir men's blood. Make big plans," attributed to visionary Chicago architect Daniel Burnham, chair of the McMillan Commission. For more information on Federal Triangle buildings, please visit www.gsa.gov. For more information on DC neighborhoods and walking tours, please visit www.CulturalTourismDC.org. Make No Little Plans: Federal Triangle Heritage Trail is produced by the U.S. General Services Administration in collaboration with the District Department of Transportation and Cultural Tourism DC.
86. TRFTRI_150617_417.JPG: Make No Little Plans Federal Triangle Heritage Trail You are standing in the Federal Triangle, a group of buildings whose grandeur symbolizes the power and dignity of the United States. Located between the White House and the Capitol, these buildings house key agencies of the U.S. Government. The Federal Triangle is united by the use of neoclassical revival architecture, drawing from styles of ancient Greece and Rome that have influenced public buildings throughout the ages. Although each structure was designed for a specific government department or agency, they all share limestone fa�ades, red-tiled roofs and classical colonnades. Their architectural features, following traditions of the Parisian School of Fine Arts (�cole des Beaux-Arts), illustrate each building's original purpose. Most of the Federal Triangle was constructed between 1927 and 1938. However, the Old Post Office and the John A. Wilson Building survive from an earlier era, while the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center was not completed until 1998. In 1791 Pierre L'Enfant designed a city plan for the new cpaital in Washington under the direction of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The L'Enfant Plan overlaid broad avenues on a street grid with areas reserved for prominent buildings and parks. This area originally followed L'Enfant's vision as a center for businesses serving the municipal and federal governments. By the time of the Civil War (1861-1865), it had become a hodgepodge of boarding houses, stables, and light industry. This disarray, and the growing need for government office space, led to calls for redevelopment. In 1901 the Senate Park Commission, known as the McMillan Commission, created a new plan for Washington's parks and monumental areas and redefined the Triangle as a government center. In 1926 Congress authorized a massive building program that drew inspiration from classical architecture to create today's monumental Federal Triangle. Make No Little Plans: Federal Triangle Heritage Trail is an Official Washington, D.C. Walking Trail. The self-guided, 1.75-mile tour of 16 signs offers about one hour of gentle exercise. Its theme comes from "Make no little plans, they have no magic to stir men's blood. Make big plans," attributed to visionary Chicago architect Daniel Burnham, chair of the McMillan Commission. For more information on Federal Triangle buildings, please visit www.gsa.gov. For more information on DC neighborhoods and walking tours, please visit www.CulturalTourismDC.org. Make No Little Plans: Federal Triangle Heritage Trail is produced by the U.S. General Services Administration in collaboration with the District Department of Transportation and Cultural Tourism DC.
87. TRFTRI_150617_421.JPG: The FBI's National Crime Information Center pictured here in 1967, computerized mug shots, crime records, and other data to link police agencies nationwide.
88. TRFTRI_150617_432.JPG: G-Men and G-Women Make No Little Plans -- Federal Triangle Heritage Trail -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation is headquartered across Pennsylvania Avenue from this spot. Thanks to popular media, it may be one of the better-known government agencies. Since the 1930s Hollywood has found great stories among the "G-men" (government agents). The FBI often cooperates in these productions. The FBI was established in 1908 as the Justice Department's detective unit. Its agents investigated allegations of investment fraud, opium smuggling, munitions trafficking, and other federal crimes. The agency's power increased during national security crisis and as it brought mob figures and other violent criminals to justice. Under the half-century directorship of native Washingtonian J. Edgar Hoover, the bureau grew in responsibility and helped professionalize modern law enforcement, emphasizing scientific analysis. Drawing on a century of experience, the modern FBI protects the nation against terrorist and foreign intelligence threats, enforces U.S. criminal laws, and provides leadership for the nation's law enforcement organizations. Formerly housed in the Department of Justice building to your left, the FBI relocated across the street in 1975. Designed by Charles F. Murphy, the building's modern brutalist style (from the French "B�ton brut," or raw concrete) contrasts with the earlier buildings of Federal Triangle. On this corner you can see the Justice Department's classically inspired Art Deco style night doors, torchares (light fixtures), and other decorative aluminum features. High above the doors is a colorful mosaic ceiling by local artist/craftsman John Joseph Earley. Looking to your left along 10th Street, you can see the continuation of the city's street plan as Federal Triangle buildings frame the view to the National Museum of Natural History.
89. TRFTRI_150617_437.JPG: Actor Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., left, photographed with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover in 1865, played an FBI inspector in a 1960s television series.
90. TRFTRI_150617_440.JPG: This 1930s child's badge, whistle, and handcuffs set was inspired by the increasingly famous FBI agents, or "G-men," of the Hoover era.
91. TRFTRI_150617_444.JPG: FBI agents of the 1940s scientifically test soil samples, analyze fingerprints, and break a coded message. New agents practice dusting a car for fingerprints under the watchful eye of a supervisor, mid-1960s.
92. TRFTRI_150617_447.JPG: FBI agents of the 1940s scientifically test soil samples, analyze fingerprints, and break a coded message. New agents practice dusting a car for fingerprints under the watchful eye of a supervisor, mid-1960s.
93. TRFTRI_150617_452.JPG: The FBI building replaced these 19th-century commercial buildings, photographed in 1968.
94. TRFTRI_150617_456.JPG: A detail from an Art Deco style concrete mosaic ceiling by John Joseph Earley above a driveway to the Justice Department courtyard.
95. TRFTRI_150617_462.JPG: America's Main Street Make No Little Plans -- Federal Triangle Heritage Trail -- The broadest and most important street in Pierre L'Enfant's Plan of 1791 for the nation's capital connects to the Capitol and the White House. Pennsylvania Avenue. Almost every American knows its name. Almost every visitor to the Washington sets foot on it. As America's Main Street, Pennsylvania Avenue is where Americans practice their rights to free speech and assembly. It is our ceremonial stage, where the nation comes together to celebrate - new presidents, national holidays, and victories - and to mourn, as at funeral processions for seven of the eight presidents who died in office. L'Enfant's plan called for a grid of streets broken by wide diagonal avenues offering visual connections among the city's important buildings. The avenues, he suggested, would be named for the states. Later, city authorities honored Pennsylvania, home of the nation's seat of government at the time of the Revolution, with the most central avenue. The area where you are standing first developed in 1801 as Washington's main marketplace. In 1871 the ornate, red-brick Center Market arose just across the avenue, and shops, wholesalers, and the small businesses clustered nearby. In the 1930s the market district disappeared, replaced by the stately, classically detailed National Archives and its neighboring, grand Federal Triangle buildings. Thirty years later, this side of the avenue had grown shabby. President John F. Kennedy noted the decline as he traveled the parade route from his inauguration at the Capitol to the White House in January 1961. President Kennedy appointed scholar and policy expert David Patrick Moynihan to plan the restoration of the avenue as the "great thoroughfare of the city of Washington."
96. TRFTRI_150617_467.JPG: The L'Enfant Plan specified the "President's house" (later White House) and "Congress house" (Capitol) as anchors for the new city.
97. TRFTRI_150617_469.JPG: Thomas Jefferson, who advised L'Enfant on the plan for Washington, planned these double rows of poplar trees along the 160-foot-wide Pennsylvania Avenue in 1807, Charles Burton painted them in 1824.
98. TRFTRI_150617_471.JPG: The National American Women Suffrage Association demands votes for women on Pennsylvania Avenue one day before President Woodrow Wilson's inauguration, 1913.
99. TRFTRI_150617_475.JPG: Press photographers jog alongside President Dwight D. Eisenhower's car on Pennsylvania Avenue during his 1953 inaugural parade.
100. TRFTRI_150617_477.JPG: Center Market, seen across the avenue in 1914, was the city's main food supplier from 1872 until it was razed for the National Archives in 1931.
101. TRFTRI_150617_480.JPG: Make No Little Plans Federal Triangle Heritage Trail You are standing in the Federal Triangle, a group of buildings whose grandeur symbolizes the power and dignity of the United States. Located between the White House and the Capitol, these buildings house key agencies of the U.S. Government. The Federal Triangle is united by the use of neoclassical revival architecture, drawing from styles of ancient Greece and Rome that have influenced public buildings throughout the ages. Although each structure was designed for a specific government department or agency, they all share limestone fa�ades, red-tiled roofs and classical colonnades. Their architectural features, following traditions of the Parisian School of Fine Arts (�cole des Beaux-Arts), illustrate each building's original purpose. Most of the Federal Triangle was constructed between 1927 and 1938. However, the Old Post Office and the John A. Wilson Building survive from an earlier era, while the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center was not completed until 1998. In 1791 Pierre L'Enfant designed a city plan for the new cpaital in Washington under the direction of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The L'Enfant Plan overlaid broad avenues on a street grid with areas reserved for prominent buildings and parks. This area originally followed L'Enfant's vision as a center for businesses serving the municipal and federal governments. By the time of the Civil War (1861-1865), it had become a hodgepodge of boarding houses, stables, and light industry. This disarray, and the growing need for government office space, led to calls for redevelopment. In 1901 the Senate Park Commission, known as the McMillan Commission, created a new plan for Washington's parks and monumental areas and redefined the Triangle as a government center. In 1926 Congress authorized a massive building program that drew inspiration from classical architecture to create today's monumental Federal Triangle. Make No Little Plans: Federal Triangle Heritage Trail is an Official Washington, D.C. Walking Trail. The self-guided, 1.75-mile tour of 16 signs offers about one hour of gentle exercise. Its theme comes from "Make no little plans, they have no magic to stir men's blood. Make big plans," attributed to visionary Chicago architect Daniel Burnham, chair of the McMillan Commission. For more information on Federal Triangle buildings, please visit www.gsa.gov. For more information on DC neighborhoods and walking tours, please visit www.CulturalTourismDC.org. Make No Little Plans: Federal Triangle Heritage Trail is produced by the U.S. General Services Administration in collaboration with the District Department of Transportation and Cultural Tourism DC.
102. TRFTRI_150617_484.JPG: President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy wave to the crowd along Pennsylvania Avenue during his inaugural parade, 1961.
103. TRFTRI_150617_495.JPG: Broad awnings shade a busy F Street in the late 19th century, seen here looking west toward the U.S. Treasury Building.
104. TRFTRI_150617_501.JPG: Abraham Lincoln Walked Here Civil War to Civil Rights -- Downtown Heritage Trail -- "Tonight, beautiful women, perfume, and the violins' sweetness ... [yet during the war] the amputation, the blue face, the groan, the glassy eye of the dying." -- Walt Whitman At 10:30 p.m. on March 4, 1865, a tired and gaunt President Lincoln arrived at this site, his wife Mary in white lace and silk with purple and white flowers in her hair. The ball celebrating his second inaugural was being held in the Grand Hall on the top floor of the Patent Office next to where you stand (today a Smithsonian Museum). It was a bittersweet affair. Union victory was in sight, but the ravages of war weighed heavily on the president, and were reflected in his weary, weathered face. He left before the midnight supper, never being one for social occasions. In six weeks he would be gone, felled by an assassin's bullet at Ford's Theatre just two blocks from here. Lincoln would have come this way often. The Patent Office and the General Post Office Building, facing it across F Street, were the two most important federal buildings to be built after the White House and the Capitol. Both buildings were designed in part by Robert Mills, the architect of the Washington Monument and the U.S. Treasury, and were partially complete by the time Lincoln came to Washington as a one-term congressman from Illinois in 1848. They towered over the little two- and three-story shops and homes around them. In one of these small buildings adjacent to the Post Office, Samuel B. Morse ran the nation's first telegraph office. During the Civil War, this street would have been the scene of intense activity. The Post Office doubled as a food commissary. The Patent Office, scene of Lincoln's second inaugural ball, had been a hospital. The poet Walt Whitman, who nurse the wounded there, witnessed it all and recorded the dramatic contrasts.
105. TRFTRI_150617_503.JPG: Lincoln's second inaugural ball was held in the Patent Office, now a Smithsonian museum.
106. TRFTRI_150617_505.JPG: Walt Whitman, about 1860
107. TRFTRI_150617_510.JPG: A drawing of the Old Post Office Building about 1843 when only the section facing F Street was complete. A corner of the Patent Office appears at the left.
108. TRFTRI_150617_515.JPG: The Patent Office, seen in 1846, towered over the neighborhood. Samuel F.B. Morse ran the nation's first telegraph office in this block.
109. TRFTRI_150617_522.JPG: Samuel F. B. Morse
110. TRFTRI_150617_525.JPG: Lincoln's second inaugural ball was held in the Patent Office, now a Smithsonian museum.
111. TRFTRI_150617_533.JPG: Make No Little Plans Federal Triangle Heritage Trail You are standing in the Federal Triangle, a group of buildings whose grandeur symbolizes the power and dignity of the United States. Located between the White House and the Capitol, these buildings house key agencies of the U.S. Government. The Federal Triangle is united by the use of neoclassical revival architecture, drawing from styles of ancient Greece and Rome that have influenced public buildings throughout the ages. Although each structure was designed for a specific government department or agency, they all share limestone fa�ades, red-tiled roofs and classical colonnades. Their architectural features, following traditions of the Parisian School of Fine Arts (�cole des Beaux-Arts), illustrate each building's original purpose. Most of the Federal Triangle was constructed between 1927 and 1938. However, the Old Post Office and the John A. Wilson Building survive from an earlier era, while the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center was not completed until 1998. In 1791 Pierre L'Enfant designed a city plan for the new cpaital in Washington under the direction of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The L'Enfant Plan overlaid broad avenues on a street grid with areas reserved for prominent buildings and parks. This area originally followed L'Enfant's vision as a center for businesses serving the municipal and federal governments. By the time of the Civil War (1861-1865), it had become a hodgepodge of boarding houses, stables, and light industry. This disarray, and the growing need for government office space, led to calls for redevelopment. In 1901 the Senate Park Commission, known as the McMillan Commission, created a new plan for Washington's parks and monumental areas and redefined the Triangle as a government center. In 1926 Congress authorized a massive building program that drew inspiration from classical architecture to create today's monumental Federal Triangle. Make No Little Plans: Federal Triangle Heritage Trail is an Official Washington, D.C. Walking Trail. The self-guided, 1.75-mile tour of 16 signs offers about one hour of gentle exercise. Its theme comes from "Make no little plans, they have no magic to stir men's blood. Make big plans," attributed to visionary Chicago architect Daniel Burnham, chair of the McMillan Commission. For more information on Federal Triangle buildings, please visit www.gsa.gov. For more information on DC neighborhoods and walking tours, please visit www.CulturalTourismDC.org. Make No Little Plans: Federal Triangle Heritage Trail is produced by the U.S. General Services Administration in collaboration with the District Department of Transportation and Cultural Tourism DC.
112. TRFTRI_150617_546.JPG: Arts and Artists Make No Little Plans -- Federal Triangle Heritage Trail -- Woodrow Wilson Plaza honors President Woodrow Wilson, noted scholar and former president of Princeton University. Located just inside the Ronald Reagan building ahead is the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the nation's memorial to our 29th president. The nonpartisan institution studies national and world affairs. Installed in the lively plaza are monumental sculptures by two Washington-born artists: the cast-aluminum Federal Triangle Flowers by Stephen Robin and the hammer-formed and welded bronze Bearing Witness by Martin Puryear. Robin's large-scale rose and lily reflect traditional uses of flowers as architectural ornamentation. The familiar yet mysterious shape of Puryear's colossal work allows viewers to create their own associations. The sculptures, commissioned by the U.S. General Services Administration's Art in Architecture Program, continue a long history of government-sponsored art for public buildings. Take a moment to marvel at the bas-reliefs by Adolph Alexander Weinman and Anthony De Francisci adorning the former Post Office Department (now Ariel Rios) building. Just under the roofline at either end of the curved fa�ade are the graceful sculptures, The Transmission of Mail by Day and The Transmission of Mail by Night. A timeline of postal service history and a romantic statement of mail delivery's effect on American life are inscribed between them. Just below the sculptures, a series of plaques by Weinman and Joseph Renier illustrates communications developments: carrier pigeons, smoke signals, and drums. Benjamin Franklin tops the list of postmasters general carved into the fa�ade. Passageways leading to 12th Street and to the National Mall via Constitution Avenue to your left evoke architectural traditions of European cities.
113. TRFTRI_150617_550.JPG: Look up to your left to see the bas-relief of The Transmission of Mail by Day. Its companion The Transmission of Mail by Night, portrayed behind the text of this sign, is on the opposite side of the building's curved fa�ade.
114. TRFTRI_150617_553.JPG: President Woodrow Wilson at his White House desk, around 1918. The Woodrow Wilson Presidential Memorial Exhibit is open to the public. Enter through the doors located behind the Bearing Witness sculpture.
115. TRFTRI_150617_555.JPG: Bearing Witness was created by contemporary American sculptor Martin Puryear.
116. TRFTRI_150617_562.JPG: Sculptor Stephen Robin in his studio, with a clay model of his Federal Triangle Flowers.
117. TRFTRI_150617_566.JPG: The frieze illustrates early forms of communication. From left are smoke signals, drums, helio (light-reflecting) signal, blanket signal, and carrier pigeons.
Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.) I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
Connection Not Secure messages? Those warnings you get from your browser about this site not having secure connections worry some people. This means this site does not have SSL installed (the link is http:, not https:). That's bad if you're entering credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal information. But this site doesn't collect any personal information so SSL is not necessary. Life's good!
Photo Contact: [Email Bruce Guthrie].