A Local Lens - October

A monthly series by E. David Luria, Founder & Director of the Washington Photo Safari

The Cherry Blossoms aren’t the only time to visit the Tidal Basin.  Consider a walk (or jog!) to the Jefferson Memorial and capture the warm vibrant colors of fall.  You will find this spot at the base of the steps leading from the FDR Memorial down to the Tidal Basin (Ohio Drive and Basin Drive SW), look left and you will see this graceful bower of trees. The best time to shoot it is in the morning sun.

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Knocking out the Monuments: FDR Memorial

I apologize for the informality, but the next person I hear call it the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in actual conversation will be the first. It's always just the FDR Memorial, or simply FDR.

And I find that quite appropriate. Like his compatriot across the Tidal Basin, FDR was a complex character, a man born to the upper crust but who saw himself the spokesman of the people. But in many ways he eschewed the formality of the class he was born to. Oh sure, he wore the prince nez glasses, and used the funny looking cigarette holder, and no one has ever confused him with a rag to riches story. But while certainly not humble, he often ducked the more personal trappings of his exalted status, even to the point of asking for a low key memorial.

That's right, this is very much not the Memorial FDR wanted. In fact, it's not even his first. According to his friend, the humorously named Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, FDR had very specific ideas about how to be remembered:

If any memorial should be erected to me, I know exactly what I should like it to be. I should like it consist of a block about the size of this (putting his hand on his desk) and placed in the center of that green plot in front of the Archives Building. I don't care what it is made of, whether limestone or granite or whatnot. But I want it plain, without any ornamentation, with the simple carving "in memory of ...."

But you don't really get to pick how you are remembered after you die, for good or ill, so while the "Real" FDR memorial was built as he directed (shown above), the one we now refer to as such was completed on the Tidal Basin in 1997.

Unfortunately, if you've been following our little "tour" we are heading backwards in time, but it still works. This to me is a great Memorial to guide folks through. It's full of interesting nuances and quirks that spark interest in FDR in a way not seen in the other Presidential Memorials. The Memorial is divided into four plazas or "rooms", each dealing with a different term of his Presidency. Will discuss this as if we came into the front of the Memorial:

1. The first area is not one of the four "rooms". Labeled as "Prologue", it is a result of a controversy following the design of the Memorial. Lacking any overt representation of FDR's disability, many activists threatened to protest. The statue you see up front is a result of that discussion, clearly showing his use of a wheelchair. Whatever the artistic merits of its inclusion, the statue has become a favorite of schoolchildren, who often pose on his lap. It's a great display of a healthy, vibrant FDR who happened to be unable to walk.
2. Moving on, you enter the first plaza, which is almost stark in it's simplicity. You are faced with a large, almost overwhelming waterfall, illustrating the scope of the Great Depression and the challenge he faced with the New Deal. Quotes, including the famous "Fear itself" one, surround the room.
   
3. Continuing to the second plaza, we start to focus on the nuts and bolts of FDR's plan for recovery. We see a little of the human displacement of the Depression with the famous statue of the bread line. This is another favorite, with kids often squeezing in to get pics between the forlorn, hungry, out of work men. But you also see the first tendrils of hope, as we see a man listening to the radio, a depiction of one of FDR's Fireside Chats. Around the corner we have a series of reliefs of people back at work, picking fruit, painting, sculpting, industrial workers, and so on. And finally we see another great waterfall, this one broken up into terraces, evocative of the works of the Tennessee Valley Authority. The deluge is coming under control.
4. We leave this plaza and move to his third term. The great national crisis has moved past the Depression and we start to confront the World War. The designers cleverly illustrate the destruction of the war in abstract means. You will see large blocks strewn about, as if they were ripped from the Memorial itself. Look back from where you came and contrast the finish of the walls. You will see that it is much rougher and less even. The focal water fountain matches the chaos of the surrounding design (and no, the fact that it's perpetually broken has no greater significance). The world is falling apart. I might note here my one quibble with the Memorial. You'll see here a quote beginning with "I hate war" etched on the wall. It very much mistakenly, in my opinion leaves the impression that FDR was a bit of a pacifist and sought to avoid engagement in the conflict overseas.
5. Leaving that aside, we move to his fourth term. FDR died a bare 82 days after being inaugurated, so the plaza acknowledges this with the bas relief sculpture of the funeral procession in front of a still pool. The stillness, of course, represents the end of life. After this we see a statue of Eleanor, who, appropriately enough is acknowledged after her husbands death. In many ways, she came into her own then, serving, among other things as the U.S. Delegate to the newly formed United Nations. The final fountain serves as a conclusion to the narrative, with a large combination of water devices borrowing from the earlier fountains.
   

Take note of the use of water throughout. Whether by design, or simply the encrusted layers of tour guide stories, the symbolism of the fountains (assuming they're working) has acquired great meaning. There is much to absorb here, and I myself learn new things all the time about this Memorial.

Once you're done taking it all in, and I encourage you to take your time, we'll finish our tour tomorrow with, in my opinion, the greatest of the Presidential Memorials. You know, the one on the back of the penny.

Knocking out the Monuments

I know, I know. I'm full of advice on off the beaten path treasures, quirky little museums, and other idiosyncratic items. I'd rather spend the day hanging out on Capitol Hill, wandering around Dupont Circle, or eating in Adams Morgan.

But that's not why you are here. You came to visit Washington, DC. That means the stuff on the back of the money. And I don't blame you, if you go back home and tell everyone you went to the nation's capital and did not see the Lincoln Memorial, they're going smile, and nod, and then politely say "that's nice". But then they're going to remark to each other when you leave the room "they went all that way and didn't see old Abe?" So to save you that unfortunate social awkwardness, let me share with you my standard walking tour of the major DC Memorials:

View Bathrooms of the National Mall in a larger map

But wait! Isn't that just your "Bathrooms of the National Mall" map? Are you honestly just passing that off as a tour of the monuments? Are you the laziest guy in the known world, or just the greater DC area?

Yes, yes, and yes. But, in my defense, you don't really need a map to find the Washington Monument, and you just might happen to need a bathroom as we stroll about. So for the next four days, we're going to examine in greater detail the four Presidential Memorials on the Mall. And we're going to follow the same route as the "bathroom" tour. I'll share with you tips and techniques for getting the most out of each of them, some great stories behind them, and maybe prepare you for a few urban legends you are likely to hear about them.

So find your most obscene T-shirt, your largest fold out map (doesn't have to be DC), some widely inappropriate footwear, and let's go be tourists!

Sample Cherry Blossom Routes

Now that you've decided to come see the cherry blossoms, perhaps it would be just a bit responsible to come up with some sort of plan to actually see some blossoms.

As Connie from Pennsylvania wrote and asked:

"Would you please "guesstimate" how much time I should budget for wandering and looking at the blossoms along the tidal basin and mall? I am trying to plan out our sightseeing schedule."

Good question, Connie. For those of us that live here, we don't put much thought into it. One day, when we have a chance, we hop down to the Tidal Basin, see the blossoms, and go on about our lives. Having to budget time for the blossoms is somewhat foreign to us and worthy of a bit of consideration.

So, the answer comes down to how much you want to see and how to do it. I've laid out some options for bikes and Segways in a previous post, so I'll skip that and lay out two walking tours:

View Larger Map

For both, they involve taking advantage of the secret passageway between the Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Auditors Building, the big red brick building with a steeple on Independence and 14th (don't worry, it's not important). Neither walk's distance includes the walk to the Metro (.3 milies). If you're driving, the walks don't include the 2 mile walk to the nearest parking. Don't be fooled by the parking spaces on the map; the Park Service closes it during the Cherry Blossom Festival. 

The long walk is two miles and will take you past the Park Service's Tulip Library, the future sight of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, the FDR Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP), and finishes by the Holocaust Memorial Museum. There are some great views here. I'm particularly fond of the view of the Jefferson from FDR and the view of the Tidal Basin from the BEP. You will also go within short walking distances of the World War II, DC WWI, and George Mason Memorials if you are interested in any of those. I would plan on an hour and a half to two hours for this one and some tired legs.

If that doesn't appeal to you, obviously you can take any portion of it. I've mapped out a small sample loop that is about .7 miles. This should just take about 45 minutes. It starts and ends by the Holocaust Museum and will take in the Tulip Library, the Boat Dock, and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. If you really want to burn out your legs, feel free to rent a paddle boat (or peddle boat, as they insist on calling it). A more inefficient form of tranisit could not be imagined. 

A Walking Tour of the National Mall Bathrooms

View Larger Map
Any tour guide can take you around the Mall and show you the monuments. Bah, I laugh at them. Instead, let us today take a walking tour of the bathrooms of the National Mall. Bathrooms on the Mall are few and far between and generally bad, so we'll want to plan ahead. For our immediate purposes, we'll pass on those east of 14th St, as the Smithsonian's line the mall that way and they like nothing better than being viewed as a giant pee break.

Let us, instead, start at the Washington Monument kiosk, on 15th St. Recently restored, this is not a bad option if you have to go. It's generally clean and well stocked, even with moderate to high traffic.

Which is good, because you don't want to stop at the next one. Tucked in the trees behind the Sylvan Theater near Independence Ave, lurks one of the circular 1960s bathrooms the Park Service maintains. Now, I can only assume Historic Preservation laws prevent this from being rehabilitated, as it almost always has out of order facilities and is consistantly dirty. I do like it aesthetically; it reminds me of the Jetsons and flying cars and hundred story skyscrapers and all the ways people in the '60s thought we were going to live today. But as a toilet facility, it stinks.

Next up is our only real Museum option. The Holocaust Memorial Museum is worthy of it's own trip but if you happen to be walking by and need to go, it's an option. You'll have to go through security, so keep that in mind. You can either go in the cafe (seperate building to the left) or the Museum proper. In the Museum go down the stairs and take a left. The restrooms are quite well taken care of.

You've got a good stretch ahead of you to the next one. The Jefferson Memorial has restrooms on the ground level. They have maintenance problems and are often broken but the Park Service tries hard to stay on top of it.

Keep strolling and you get to one of my favorite Memorials, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's. It's so sprawling it has two separate facilities, one on either end. And unlike the fountains of the Memorial, these actually work. Wow, it's nice to go to a Memorial and not have to plan bathroom breaks around it.

If you're following the map, you've reached the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. As this does not exist yet, I can't yet give an opinion. But in addition to the well deserved Memorial, I look forward to new restroom options.

Fortunately, a short walk away is the World War II memorial. As you head along Home Front Drive (hey, I didn't pick the name), the restrooms are at the end of the bus drop off area. They're newish, so they still work. And it has one of the few working drinking fountains on the Mall. Take a picture. You're not going to another one for awhile.

Do your business now, because options are going to dry up. Our next stop is the Lincoln Memorial. I'd like to show you the excellent DC World War I and Korean War Memorials along the way, but they don't have restrooms so they're out. Now, at Lincoln, I hope it's an emergency because chances are good there's a line for the bathroom. The best I can say is that sometimes the standing water discourages the line. The Park Service tries, but this one gets way too much traffic to stay very functional. It really should be shut down and renovated, but there's nothing else to take it's place.

We're almost done. You might be tempted to cross Henry Bacon Drive across from the Vietnam Memorial. After all, just like across from the Korean Memorial, there's clearly a newly constructed kiosk there. Surely, they wouldn't build new kiosks as part of a multi-million dollar restoration and not bother to put bathrooms in them? Nope, just $18 disposable cameras and surly staff. Maybe they're unhappy at the lack of restrooms, too?

Your last option, if I could call it that, is in Constitution Gardens. Hiding in the woods as if the Park Service is ashamed of it, is the long lost brother of the circular one by the Washington Monument. Hell, this one isn't even open sometimes so you're not missing much here.

But let's end on a positive note. The National Park Service is committed to improving the situation and has a plan for upgrades. I'll be watching this as it progresses and let you know how it goes. Help is on the way! You might just have to hold it until then.