Cannon almost stopped the Lincoln Memorial

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Cannon almost stopped the Lincoln Memorial

by David Alpert • February 4, 2008 10:48 am

A fascinating story in the Washington Post Magazine explains how Illinois Congressman and Speaker of the House Joe Cannon (who has a House office building named in his honor) fought the establishment of the Lincoln Memorial on what was then a swamp along the banks of the Potomac, preferring a smaller memorial near Union Station; years later, he admitted he was glad he had lost that fight. Via Save the Mall.

1 comment

Tags: DC, Lincoln Memorial, memorials, The Mall

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David Alpert is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Greater Greater Washington. He has had a lifelong interest in great cities and great communities. He worked as a Product Manager for Google for six years and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He loves the area which is, in many ways, greater than those others, and wants to see it become even greater.

Comments

Just contrast all of the attention given during the early 1900s in the newspapers to the McMillian Plan's West Mall, Lincoln Memorial and Union Station, with the sort of 'reporting' in 1996+ upon 'USNCPC's Extending the Legacy- Planning America for the 21st Century'.

http://wwwsouthcapitolstreet.blogspot.com/2008/09/un-reporting-1996-how-largest.html

Its rather telling about the political 'evolution':

http://wwwsouthcapitolstreet.blogspot.com/2008/09/non-responsive-washington-d.html

http://wwwsouthcapitolstreet.blogspot.com/2006/07/physical-reality-only-structure-along_22.html

by Douglas A. Willinger on Mar 26, 2010 8:49 pm