Tuesday, September 4, 2018

The New Deal Around DC: The Washington Monument, the Monument grounds, and the Lincoln Memorial

Above: Workers renovate the Washington Monument, with funds from the New Deal's Public Works Administration (PWA), ca. 1934-1935. See the Living New Deal's web page for the Washington Monument repairs here. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

Above: The Washington Monument today. Photo by Brent McKee, August 2018.

Above: Here is a view of the Washington Monument at 15th Street. According to the July 23, 1936 edition of the Washington Daily News, WPA workers widened 15th Street as part of a larger project to improve the grounds surrounding the Monument. See the Living New Deal's web page for the WPA's repair & improvement project here. Photo by Brent McKee, August 2018.

Above: Another view of 15th Street, in front of the Washington Monument (the Monument is to the left of this photo). Photo by Brent McKee, August 2018.

Above: Enlistees in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) remove snow from the area around the Lincoln Memorial, ca. 1933-1942. In March 1936, hundreds of WPA and CCC men built dikes to protect the Lincoln Memorial from rising flood waters that had already swamped the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool (see, for example, "Scenes As Raging Potomac Spreads Over Low Washington Areas," The Baltimore Sun, March 20, 1936, and "Scenes of Devastation Wrought By Floods," The Evening Sun (Hanover, Pennsylvania), March 21, 1936). Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

Above: The Lincoln Memorial today. According to the September 8, 1933 edition of the Washington Post, the PWA put in several thousand dollars for repairs to the Memorial. It's unclear what those repairs were and if they were fully carried out. See the Living New Deal's web page for this project here. Photo by Brent McKee, August 2018.

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