Washington DC Under Construction, Part 1

Every now and then when I'm jetting down Constitution Ave or rolling around Dupont Circle in DC, I realize that this place, my stomping grounds, is actually one of the top 3 tourist destinations in the country.
Somehow the tourists elude the locals very effectively. Tourists don't go to the bars and lounges we do. Tourists aren't at the networking happy hours or business events in the city. The tourists for the most part aren't even on the roads with us in DC, they are.... at the memorials.
People come to DC for politics, government contracting business, and memorial tourism. Let's take a look at what went into the making of some of those famous memorials and buildings. This will be Part 1 in a series of posts.

Driving into DC on I-66 from the west the first prominent structure you pass in DC is the Lincoln Memorial. After 8 years of construction it was completed in 1922, and was designed by Henry Bacon, it sits on what was formerly swampland. The stone is Yule Marble brought all the way from Marble, Colorado.

(photo on left from flickr user dyoshida)

Directly east from the Lincoln Memorial stands the world's tallest stone structure, the Washington Monument. This 555' tall obelisk began construction in 1848 but and didn't complete until 1884 due to delays caused by the Civil War and lack of funds. Once completed it was the world's tallest structure, beating out the Cologne Cathedral. Architect Robert Mills' original sketch (shown below) called for a round colonnade at the base.

The Potomac River used to run much closer to the monument, but the land mass has since been built up and the Mall extended for structures such as the Lincoln Memorial. See a map from 1810 showing the proximity to the Potomac below.

At the east end of the National Mall stand the United States Capital. Architect William Thornton won a design competition for the building in 1793 and construction began in 1793. After being damaged by the war of 1812, it was completed in 1819. It was later expanded and added to.

(Lincoln's Inauguration in 1861 with the Capitol still under construction)
(a great past/present composition by flickr user jasonepowell)

More images and stories to come on the building of Washington DC, stay tuned.