Washington DC: History
The decision to establish the national capital at this spot had much to do with the fact that it lies midway between the rural South and the northern cities of Boston, New York and Philadelphia (the last, the previous capital, was thought too exciting for a seat of government). It was also accessible from the sea, via the Potomac River - a bit too easily so, as demonstrated by the burning and ransacking of the city by the British during the War of 1812. Best of all, the land was cheap - the state of Maryland ceded sovereignty to the federal government, which had to pay only for the individual sites it chose for its buildings. Though the baroque plan of the city was laid out in 1791 - by a Frenchman, Pierre L'Enfant , assisted by the black American scientist Benjamin Banneker - few buildings were put up, apart from the actual houses of government, until near the end of the century. Charles Dickens, visiting in 1842, found "spacious avenues that begin in nothing and lead nowhere."After the Civil War, thousands of Southern blacks arrived in search of a sanctuary from racial oppression; to some extent, they found one. Segregation was banned in public places, and Howard University , the only US institution of higher learning that enrolled black people, was set up in 1867. By the 1870s African-Americans made up more than a third of the 150,000 population, but economic resources were soon stretched to the breaking point. As poverty and squalor worsened, official segregation was reintroduced in 1920. Blacks were banned from government buildings - including, in an ironic twist, the Lincoln Memorial - and the jobs they had come to find.
After World War II, the city's economy and population boomed. Although segregation of public facilities was declared illegal in the 1950s, civil rights protests divided the city during the 1960s - culminating in the destructive downtown riots of 1968. The city's problems have changed little since: DC has one of the country's highest murder rates, as well as appalling levels of unemployment, illiteracy and drug abuse. After years of mismanagement by city leaders, a control board appointed by Congress took charge of the city's finances in 1995, in an attempt to turn around the massive budget deficit (which was due in part to a middle-class flight to the suburbs). The city rebounded under the board, which by virtue of its success put itself out of a job in 2001. Power was restored to the mayor, Anthony Williams , and the city council. The city's rising fortunes can be seen in lower crime rates, newly paved roads and a revitalized downtown, where restaurants, cultural happenings and sports events have begun to attract visitors to areas once overrun by drug dealers.
However, just as things seemed to be getting back on track, terror struck the capital. On September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked a United Airlines jet and crashed it into the Pentagon, killing nearly 200 people, including those on the plane. Security throughout the capital was tightened in the aftermath of the attack. Government leaders and city officials then began to grapple with their next challenge: balancing the openness demanded of a democratic capital with the vital needs of public and national security, an issue likely to be at the forefront of the city's concerns for some time
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