Similarly, on the eve of Woodrow Wilson's 1913 inauguration, Alice Paul masterminded a parade highlighting the women's suffrage movement. During the depression of the 1890s, for example, Jacob Coxey marched 500 supporters down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol to demand federal aid for the unemployed. Looking southeast down Pennsylvania Avenue towards the Old Post Office Pavilion and United States Capitol.Īs well as being the scene of official functions, Pennsylvania Avenue is the traditional parade and protest route of ordinary citizens. Abraham Lincoln's funeral cortege solemnly proceeded along Pennsylvania Avenue in 1865 only weeks later the end of the American Civil War was celebrated when the Army of the Potomac paraded more joyously along the avenue. Ford's went up Pennsylvania Avenue because it paused at the White House en route to the Washington National Cathedral, where the funeral was held. For LBJ, it was along the route from the Capitol to the National City Christian Church, where he worshipped often, because the funeral was held there. Johnson and Ford were the former presidents whose funeral cortege followed this route. Franklin Roosevelt was the only president who died in office whose cortege did not follow this route. From William Henry Harrison to Gerald Ford, the funeral corteges of seven of the eight presidents who died in office and two former presidents followed this route. Relations between the president and Congress were strained, and Jackson did not want to see the Capitol out his window, though in reality the Treasury Building was simply built on what was cheap government land.Įver since an impromptu procession formed around Jefferson's second inauguration, every United States president except Ronald Reagan has paraded down the Avenue after taking the oath of office (Reagan paraded up the avenue for his first inauguration, in 1981, but not for the second in 1985 because of freezing temperatures which high winds made dangerous). The construction of an expansion to the Treasury Building blocked this view, and supposedly President Andrew Jackson did this on purpose. At one time Pennsylvania Avenue provided an unobstructed view between the White House and the Capitol. Washington called this stretch "most magnificent & most convenient", and it has served the country well. From 1862 to 1962, streetcars ran the length of the avenue from Georgetown to the Anacostia River.Īlthough Pennsylvania Avenue extends six miles (10 km) within Washington, D.C., the expanse between the White House and the Capitol constitutes the ceremonial heart of the nation. ![]() Jefferson concurred, and while the "grand avenue" was little more than a wide dirt road ridiculed as "The Great Serbonian Bog", he planted it with rows of fast-growing Lombardy poplars. After inspecting L'Enfant's plan, President Washington referred to the thoroughfare as a "Grand Avenue". ![]() Both Jefferson and George Washington considered the avenue an important feature of the new capital. One theory is that the street was named for Pennsylvania as consolation for moving the capital from Philadelphia. The first reference to the street as Pennsylvania Avenue comes in a 1791 letter from Thomas Jefferson. Laid out by Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant, Pennsylvania Avenue was one of the earliest streets constructed in the Federal City. Intersection of 11th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW in 1921
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