Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s Plan of Washington
Superimposed on the Rectangular System
from which he worked
My hometown, Washington, D.C., was designed to be the people’s city. Open stretches of lawns, monuments and wide boulevards, the city itself divided into quadrants all emanating from diagonals with the Capitol at the center. That openness was at the core of the underlying notion of democratic transparency. When the British attacked the United States in 1812, the march to the Capitol was easy, specifically designed to be that way… so they set fire to it in 1814. That was the last time the Capitol was invaded and damaged.
As Congress gathers to consider a quick impeachment, as many on the right try to pretend that good American patriots could never have desecrated the people’s house (the Capitol) so it must have been “Antifa” (as if there were a coherent organization operating under that philosophical notion) – let’s just say they were Americans and edit out the other words – it becomes relevant to look at how the very openness of the city may have made the insurrection attempt so easy. Belief in the Constitution and the solidity of the republic may have been the only real barriers to attacking federal buildings. Obviously, those barriers have eroded, particularly during the past four years.
Equally obviously, given the ramrod straight mass of soldiers and police that surrounded the Capitol and other government buildings during the peaceful BLM protests in June, it has been stated more than once that there was a wink-wink underprepared response to an obvious high-risk assault by “white folks.”
The Department of Defense dallied as the Governor of Maryland requested clearance to move his National Guard – requested by the DC mayor but subject to prior DOD approval – into the defense of key DC government buildings, including the Capitol itself. That approval did not come until it was obvious that matters were getting far out of hand. Watching a DC/Capitol cop getting a selfie with a rampaging Trumper assaulting the Capitol… or DC/Capitol cops literally stepping aside to let the “protestors” through to enter the Capitol itself… was tough to stomach. That those charged with protecting the Capitol may have had too many who actually sympathized with those implementing insurrection was gut-wrenching. That 60 DC/Capitol police officers were injured is indeed unfortunate, but those at the top clearly had trouble believing that “white folks” should be deterred. Lots of police resignations followed, and to their credit, most of those junior officers, sabotaged by their leadership, did their jobs.
It is also interesting to note that a very large segment of those incited to march on the Capitol by the President literally had no intention of invading, damaging and looting the Capitol. There were indeed “peaceful protestors” among those who actually were engaged in insurrection, who did invade the Capitol… including stealing a laptop with serious confidential information on board.
So, what is it about Washington, D.C. that made it so damned easy to invade the Capitol? As most of us know, New York and Philadelphia were the earlier seats of government. The District of Columbia came later, a city specifically designed to be the capital of the United States. “The Statue of Liberty, believe it or not, is not the biggest nor the most impressive architectural contribution France has made to America. For much of Washington DC was in fact designed by a Frenchman… Born in France in 1754, Pierre Charles L’Enfant grew up following in the footsteps of his famed painter father who was in the service of King Louis XV… L’Enfant left his studies at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris, however, to go to America and fight on the rebellious colonials’ side in the Revolutionary War.
“In 1777 he enlisted in the Continental Army under General Lafayette as a military engineer. He went on to serve under General Washington himself, forming a close relationship aided by his production of several portraits of the future first president.
“After the war, L’Enfant set up a civil engineering firm in New York. He redesigned City Hall for the First Congress of the United States, providing the first example of the renowned Federal Style architecture for the country… Introduced in 1789, the Constitution of the United States provided for the development of a new city that would act as the federal district of the nation. Later named after the first president himself, Washington D.C. was allotted up to 10 square miles. L’Enfant nominated himself to plan the city and George Washington accepted, officially appointing him to the task in 1791.
“L’Enfant had grandiose ideas, taking inspiration from the architecture of his native France, wanting to reflect such palaces as the one at Versailles. In between the Potomac River and its Eastern Branch (today the Anacostia River), he developed a plan for the city that would compliment the contours of the land. L’Enfant’s biographer, Scott Berg, claims that, ‘The entire city was built around the idea that every citizen was equally important,’ explaining why Congress was placed on the highest point overlooking the Potomac, traditionally an ideal location for the executive palace. In his Plan of the City […] L’Enfant described this location as ‘a pedestal awaiting a monument.’
“The President’s House, or Executive Palace (today the White House), was meant to be five times its actual size. Many of L’Enfant’s plans didn’t come to fruition at the time, however, including his development of the federal city. Urged by Thomas Jefferson, L’Enfant ended up resigning his post.” TheVintageNews.com, February 19, 2019. Washington, D.C. was wide open, intentionally.
“In the early years, the public could literally knock on the front door of the White House in hopes of getting an audience with the president. Thomas Jefferson was the first to add a simple, stone gate to the White House along the north lawn. ‘It wasn’t intended as a security measure, and was more a way to demarcate the grounds—and frankly, keep horses and cattle off the gardens because it was seen as farmland,’ [says Dr. Lindsay M. Chervinsky, a historian who specializes in early presidential history]. ‘The south lawn, particularly, was viewed as a common park.’ At his own tense inauguration, Abraham Lincoln insisted that his guards dress like civilians, so that the White House didn’t feel militaristic. Even after Lincoln’s assassination, the White House grounds were closed at night, but still open during the day. ‘Local residents would come and treat it as any other common green space,’ says Chervinsky.” FastCompany.com, January 7th.
In a modern era, particularly post 9/11/01, it has been necessary to add security measures to a city designed not to have them. Chervinsky and Bob Peck, the latter a principal at the architecture firm Gensler, who previously oversaw D.C. building security as the Commissioner of the General Services Administration for eight years under Presidents Clinton and Obama administrations, explain more:
“Today, areas such as the Capitol building have concrete blockades to keep out cars, but not much more in terms of overt, architectural deterrents. ‘I think some of the security measures are there [across D.C.] but we can’t see them,’ says Chervinsky. ‘The Secret Service doesn’t talk about them.’…
“After September 11, the Capitol expanded with a $700 million Visitor Center that opened in 2008. Built in the basement, it’s a gathering place for up to 4,000 tourists a day to learn about democracy. Peck, who didn’t design the structure but is familiar with the building’s strategy, explains that by moving tourists to the basement, the goal was to control crowds and get large groups away from the Capitol’s main entrances. The Visitor Center is also a heavily fortified bunker, complete with blast doors and secure rooms. Indeed, nowhere captures the complicated duality of D.C.’s tension between security and openness so clearly as the Center. (The lead architect of the Center declined to speak for this piece given that he’s subject to a nondisclosure agreement, and detailing the Center further could constitute a matter of national security.)
“During the mob rush on January 6, as rioters ran up the Capitol steps, Congress fled to the Center as part of a carefully choreographed defensive plan…
“The Capitol itself has a large grass area in front, with an expanse that makes the Capitol defensible through sheer depth. ‘In the military, we always talk about giving up space for time—time to organize defenses,’ says Peck. ‘For areas like the Mall or Capitol when there’s a big protest like this, you want to design the space so there are things you can bring in.’… These interventions include spots for emergency barriers that can be set up on the grounds quickly. Instead of making the Capitol a fortress all the time, you turn it into a fortress on demand. (The pop-up defensive strategy is popular today and is used at the World Trade Center too.) Peck believes the Capitol Police have some such capabilities but failed to implement them.
“One reason this may have failed at the Capitol is procedural: something within Capitol Police bureaucracy prevented the proper defense of the Capitol, Peck suggests. Another reason he points to is that Washington’s current defenses may be focused too much on truck bombs and other lone attacks—the ghosts of Oklahoma City and 9/11—more than mass turmoil or civil unrest.” FastCompany.com.
As the FBI has made clear, repeatedly, today we have much more to fear from domestic terrorism, mostly from right-wing (not left-wing) extremists than from foreign terrorists. And since we are increasingly capable of self-destructing, those foreign terrorists and nations that are unequivocally our foes, must be gratified that there are so many misguided Americans willing to act on their behalf.
I’m Peter Dekom, and either the United States uses these events to reunite… or it doesn’t; which American breakaway territory will you choose to live in… if it doesn’t?
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