Totally Tubular

Platform : Navy Memorial/Archives/Penn Quarter : Metro-Green/Yellow Line

Green Line Train in the Direction of Branch Avenue

My brother works downtown as a contractor at a government agency (he and 3.8 bajillion other Metro Washingtonians) and every once in a while, I go down and meet him for lunch. We usually go for fries at Five Guys and then spend an hour or so wandering the corridors and exhibit halls of the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Want to see a slice of D.C. diversity? Ride Metro. You'll see lobbyists,
interns, Congressional aides, construction workers, students, tourists, government
employees, military personnel, white people, black people, Hispanics/Latinos,
Asians, Indian Indians and Native American Indians, veterans, protesters,
Republicans, Democrats, Independents, singers, poets, people of faith, and atheists.
You name the demographic and you're likely to find it on Metro.

To get from Point A to Point B, I usually take some form of Metro transportation, because it's cheap and easy. Today's post features pictures from my latest Metro ride between the Navy Memorial/Archives station and the Columbia Heights/Park Road station. The latter is the stop for Target, which is where I went after our lunch. From there, I walked home, which was a good 3.5 miles. Nothing like combining a few great activities: seeing my brother, eating, culture, shopping, photography, and exercise!

Escalator : Columbia Heights/Park Road : Metro-Green/Yellow Line

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential

Motorcade

I didn't have my camera with me yesterday afternoon, but I did have my MacBook and its handy-dandy, simple software--PhotoBooth. I snapped this picture of the President's limousine going down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House around 1:30 this afternoon. When the President travels by car, the crossroads and intersections on his route are closed. In Washington, being stuck in traffic and, by extension, being late for meetings or appointments because of a motorcade is a viable and accepted excuse around here.

The common phrase is, "Oh the President was motorcading and I got stuck on the opposite side of Pennsylvania Ave." (When it's the Vice President, it's Masschusetts Avenue through DuPont Circle and then down Connecticut. I've been stuck there before. Not fun.)

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential

Temperance

Cogswell Temperance Fountain
(Sculptor: Henry B. Cogswell, DDS, 1880.)

While many of the monuments and memorials around D.C. exist for obvious reasons, there are many that puzzle those who stop long enough to look at them. Case in point would be this monument to Temperance located at the corner of Indiana Avenue and 7th Streets NW. This seemingly odd sculpture sits in the same area as that of the Grand Army of the Republic.

Known as the Cogswell Temperance Fountain, it was sculpted by San Francisco dentist Henry B. Cogswell who desired two things. First, that Americans would stop drinking alcohol and start drinking water. And second, that he be remembered forever. Cogswell made his fortune in California in real estate and mining, but it is his eccentricity that is manifest in this fountain, as well as others he sculpted and set in 16 cities across America. Of the 16, this is the only one to survive.

Originally, the Temperance Fountain was a drinking fountain. Today, the fountain does not flow with water. And it's probably just as well. The District of Columbia is notorious for bad water, including high lead content, among other concerns.

Zip: 20004

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, (09/07.)

Fraternal

Monument to the Grand Army of the Republic,
a fraternal order established in 1866 for Union Army veterans of the Civil War.

For today's Another Dead Guy Statue Day, I bring you the monument to the Grand Army of the Republic. The GAR was the first fraternal order of war veterans founded in the United States after the Civil War. The GAR was founded for Union Army veterans by Benjamin Stephenson, M.D., in Decatur, Illinois, in April 1866. The order was a mix of freemasonry and military structure meant to give veterans of the 'War of Rebellion' a place to meet with those who understood and appreciated the shared experience of combat.

The GAR is considered one of the first special interests groups to lobby in Washington and, for many years, no Republican was nominated to run for the presidency without the endorsement of the GAR. The group was instrumental in pension legislation and the creation of old soldiers' homes, which eventually became the Department of Veterans Affairs. At its pinnacle in 1890, the GAR boasted membership numbers of nearly half a million.

American's can thank the GAR for the holiday that is now used to mark the annual beginning of this country's summer vacation season. Two years after its inception, the organization issued General Order #11 calling for May 30 to be designated as a day of remembrance for Union veterans. The holiday was originally called "Decoration Day" and later evolved into a national holiday known as Memorial Day.

This memorial is located in the plaza at the corner of 7th Street and Pennsylvania and Indiana Avenues NW.

Zip: 20004

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential (Janet M Kincaid, 08/07)

Safekeeping

The National Archives of the United States is the repository of historical documents that range from the Declaration of Independence to transcripts from the Nuremberg Trials. This building does not, by itself, contain every single meaningful or historically significant document or artifact known to historians or Americans. In a warehouse system in suburban Maryland and in presidential libraries nationwide reside parchments and reliquaries of American history the likes of which the average American will likely never lay eyes on.

The Archives are open to the public and you can see, behind gas-filled, bulletproof glass in vaults that are raised each morning from their basement repose, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Magna Carta. On July 4th every year, the Founders of our nation gather on the steps of the Archives and there read to the assembled public the declaration that resulted in America's independence from the sovereign rule of England.

Zip: 20004

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential (Janet M Kincaid, 07/07)

Fireman's Fund

Fireman's Fund Building, Penn Quarter

Built in 1882, the Fireman's Fund Building at the corner of 7th Street and Indiana Avenue NW was originally the office for the Fireman's Fund Insurance Company in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1863 in San Francisco, the FFIC was thusly "named for an arrangement in which [the Fund] paid 10 percent of [its] profits to widows and orphans of firefighters"--a mandate that continues to this day.

The Firemen's Fund has been an integral player in some of America's most noteworthy events and construction achievements, including paying all claims from the Chicago and Boston fires; rebuilding Virginia City, Nevada, after fire destroy three-quarters of the town; insuring "horseless carriages;" insuring movie studios against the risk of producing "talkies;" and underwriting construction of the Golden Gate Bridge, as well as paying out claims on disasters ranging from 9/11 to Hurricane Katrina.

The building is located at 325 Seventh Street NW and is part of a larger commercial space that includes a 12-story office building. The building's tenants include Starbucks, the U.S. Department of Justice, the American Hospital Association, and the National Retail Federation.

Zip: 20004

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential (Janet M. Kincaid, 06/07)

Ahoy

U.S. Navy Memorial fountain, flag mast,
and the National Archives in the background, Penn Quarter.

Situated in the plaza right outside my office building is the United States Navy Memorial. The memorial's purpose is to "honor the men and women of the Sea Services--past, present, and future." Commissioned in 1980, construction began in 1985 as part of a revitalization of Pennsylvania Avenue--America's Main Street. The memorial was completed in 1987--the 212th anniversary of the Navy in the United States.

The memorial features a plaza with a map of the world, 26 bas reliefs depicting various scenes from Navy, Marine, Coast Guard, and merchant marine life, fountains, and masts. The center point of the memorial is a statue called "The Lone Sailor." The memorial is on the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue with the National Archives on the south. This photo features part of the fountain features in the foreground and the archives in the background.

Zip: 20004

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential (Janet M. Kincaid, 06/07)