Description

The urban plan for Washington, D.C. - the L'Enfant Plan - was developed in 1791 by Major Pierre Charles L'Enfant for George Washington, the first President of the United States. L’Enfant designed a compass-aligned grid for the city’s streets, with intersecting diagonal avenues that were later named after the states of the union. The diagonal avenues also intersect with the north-south and east-west streets at circles and rectangular plazas in order to create more open, green spaces. Lastly, L'Enfant laid out a 400 foot-wide (122 meter) garden-lined “grand avenue” - now know as the National Mall – that connects the US Capitol Building, the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial (the latter two are visible here).