Introduction
, the intersec- tion of Pennsylvania Avenue and Eighth Street, SE,has been an important crossroads for resi- dents of Capitol Hill.Washington’s first city planner,Pierre C.L’Enfant,envisioned an important commercial and financial district nearby.A few blocks south,at the foot of Eighth Street, lay a natural harbor on the Anacostia River.Here L’Enfant suggested building a mer- cantile exchange,where banking houses would serve the brokers who would receive goods and materials from around the country and the world. But before the waterfront commercial center could be built, President John Adams changed the plan.He decided that the spot was better suited for defense work,and in 1799 chose L’Enfant’s exchange site to be developed as the U.S. Navy Yard. Two years later President Thomas Jefferson sent notice to the U.S.
Marines to build their barracks just north of the Navy Yard on Eighth Street. Washington’s would-be Wall Street was on its way to becoming today’s Barracks Row.
Top: Commander John A.Dahlgren, the “father of American naval ordnance.” Left: U.S.Marine Silent Drill Team per- form a behind- the-back rifle throwback, 1978.
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