The decision to establish the national
capital at this spot had much to do with
the fact that it lies midway between the
rural South and the northern cities of
Boston, New York and Philadelphia (the
last, the previous capital, was thought
too exciting for a seat of government).
It was also accessible from the sea, via
the Potomac River - a bit too easily so,
as demonstrated by the burning and
ransacking of the city by the British
during the War of 1812. Best of all, the
land was cheap - the state of Maryland
ceded sovereignty to the federal
government, which had to pay only for
the individual sites it chose for its
buildings. Though the baroque plan of
the city was laid out in 1791 - by a
Frenchman,
Pierre L'Enfant ,
assisted by the black American scientist
Benjamin Banneker - few buildings
were put up, apart from the actual
houses of government, until near the end
of the century. Charles Dickens,
visiting in 1842, found "spacious
avenues that begin in nothing and lead
nowhere."
After the Civil War, thousands of
Southern blacks arrived in search
of a sanctuary from racial oppression;
to some extent, they found one.
Segregation was banned in public places,
and Howard University , the only
US institution of higher learning that
enrolled black people, was set up in
1867. By the 1870s African-Americans
made up more than a third of the 150,000
population, but economic resources were
soon stretched to the breaking point. As
poverty and squalor worsened, official
segregation was reintroduced in
1920. Blacks were banned from government
buildings - including, in an ironic
twist, the Lincoln Memorial - and the
jobs they had come to find.
After World War II, the city's
economy and population boomed. Although
segregation of public facilities was
declared illegal in the 1950s, civil
rights protests divided the city during
the 1960s - culminating in the
destructive downtown riots of 1968. The
city's problems have changed little
since: DC has one of the country's
highest murder rates, as well as
appalling levels of unemployment,
illiteracy and drug abuse. After years
of mismanagement by city leaders, a
control board appointed by Congress took
charge of the city's finances in 1995,
in an attempt to turn around the massive
budget deficit (which was due in part to
a middle-class flight to the suburbs).
The city rebounded under the board,
which by virtue of its success put
itself out of a job in 2001. Power was
restored to the mayor, Anthony
Williams , and the city council. The
city's rising fortunes can be seen in
lower crime rates, newly paved roads and
a revitalized downtown, where
restaurants, cultural happenings and
sports events have begun to attract
visitors to areas once overrun by drug
dealers.
However, just as things seemed to be
getting back on track, terror struck the
capital. On September 11, 2001,
terrorists hijacked a United Airlines
jet and crashed it into the Pentagon,
killing nearly 200 people, including
those on the plane. Security throughout
the capital was tightened in the
aftermath of the attack. Government
leaders and city officials then began to
grapple with their next challenge:
balancing the openness demanded of a
democratic capital with the vital needs
of public and national security, an
issue likely to be at the forefront of
the city's concerns for some time
