Designed by Major Pierre Charles L'Enfant in about 1791, Washington was the first American city planned for a specific purpose. It is a beautiful city, with wide, tree-lined streets laid out according to a design that is breathtaking in its scope and imagination. For its purpose, the broad plan still works well even though L'Enfant could not have foreseen the automobile or the fact that the United States would come to have a population of more than 250 million people. Nevertheless, L'Enfant's concept was ambitious, allowing for vast growth. Washington, named for the first US president, has been the nation's capital since 1800. The city's business is centered around government and tourism; there is little heavy industry.

The District of Columbia and Washington are one and the same. Originally, the District was a 10-mile-square crossing the Potomac River into Virginia, but the Virginia portion (31 square miles) was returned to the state in 1846. Residences of DC workers spill into Virginia and Maryland; so do government offices. In 1800, there were 130 federal employees; at the end of the Civil War, there were 7,000; now there are well over half a million. Although the city was a prime Confederate target in the Civil War, it was barely damaged. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln, however, struck a blow to the nation and drove home to Americans the fact that Washington was not merely a center of government. What happens here affects everyone.

This is a cosmopolitan city. Perhaps no city on earth has a populace with so many different origins. Representatives from all nations and men and women from every state work here—and vote in their home states by absentee ballot. It is a dignified, distinguished capital. Many who visit the city go first to the House of Representatives or Senate office buildings and chat with their representatives, who receive constituent visitors when they can. At these offices, visitors obtain tickets to the Senate and House galleries. From the top of the Washington Monument, there is a magnificent view of the capital. The Lincoln and Jefferson memorials cannot fail to capture the imagination.