US Park Police officer waits for a green traffic light at Independence Ave and 12th Street SW.
Tear Down This Wall!
“This wall will fall. Beliefs become reality.”
- Anonymous:
painted on the Berlin wall near the Brandenburg Gate
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Kim left a kind comment concerning my sidebar text yesterday - asking if I wrote poetry. As genuinely flattered as I am by the question, I have never thought of myself as a poet. My attempts at verse are usually more limerick than lay.
When I decided to do this blog I wanted it to be about more than simply the structures and sights within the limits of the federal city. I wanted to show life in DC - from one man’s perspective - in a broader context. I sought to express that through couplets of contrasting elements. As I did so, I began to “feel the metre” - for lack of a better term - in my words and finished it off in a way that seemed to fit. Call it serendipity.
Axillary Artery
If transportation is the life blood of a city, then this is DC’s Axilary Artery…
Interstate 66
Please…
I’m begging you. If you are going to stand still on the escalator, stand to the right side. Some of us actually have somewhere to go - like home - and trains to catch.
Thank you!
Empty Air
The 315 foot tall clock tower on the Old Post Office building is one of the tallest in the Federal City. It is also a fascinating place to visit. You can take an elevator (actually two elevators) to the top which is open on the sides. The view is fantastic.
When you are done you can take the elevator back down, or you can take the stairs and see the inside of the clock and the giant caralon bells. It is not, however, an adventure for those afraid of heights. Here is the view looking down… waaaaaaay down!
The End of the Road
If you have looked at my personal blog, you know I lead a double life, of sorts. While I work in the heart of the city, I live at nearly the furthest limits of the DC suburbs - where I can smell mountain air and hear the birds sing. This picture (from near my home) seems to say it all.
You Are Here >>
Freedom Plaza appears at first to be an open area paved with a strange selection of odd sized marble blocks. Some of them apear at first to have been vandalized by someone scratching words into them.
But if you take the time to walk around the plaza and pay attention to the pattern and the etching a picture begins to form. It is not random at all. It is, in fact, a map. Or rather a plan.
The plaza is a large scale rendering of the plan drawn by Major Charles L’Enfant for the design of the new federal city. It is oriented and positioned so that the spot where I took this photo is the “You Are Here” spot. The white strip pointing toward the Capital Building - down Pennsylvania Avenue - represents… well, Pennsylvania Avenue. You can even make out the faded street designation on the pavement.
The plaza is just one of the many details of the city that even its residents look at and pass by every day without even knowing it is there. These are the things that fascinate me.
Early Morning Commando
Assault on window grime in the somewhat less searing heat of the early morning.
The Monument
If there is any one image that symbolizes the Federal City it is The Monument. The memorial to George Washington, the “Father of the United States”.
From what I have read of him, the humble giant who led our nation to independence would have been teribly embarased - but we like it.
