Washington
19 May 2024
The interstate out of Philadelphia is at least moving, but only in the sense the M25 moves during the weekday rush hour. Washington should be an easy 145 miles, but takes five hours including a stop.
Washington’s subway system is relatively new, having opened in 1976 and it shows. Sleek, spacious, quiet, clean with stations built using common components, there’s a sense of order and calm. It’s extremely easy to navigate with none of the maddening, maze-like complexity that makes foreign city subways a slightly daunting prospect for visitors.
The red line whisks us into the city down Connecticut Avenue to Presidents Park and the White House. The northern facade is surprisingly close-up and, beyond the impregnable steel fence, tolerates a few noisy demonstrations under the close watch of a large but discrete Police presence.
On the southern side, the view from President’s Park that the Oval Office faces into, is at least half-a-mile away and protected by three visible defences and the view obscured by steel bars.
It’s a bit disappointing and looks like the levels of self-protection, a cowardly, third-world dictator might afford himself rather than home to the leader of the free world.
Another visitor remarks that this increased security has appeared sometime in the last thirty-years, since he was last here, and suggests it was the doing of the previous president.
Washington itself though, is very grand. Spaciously laid out around wide avenues and large parks, the public buildings are imposing and distinctive. Even the recent ones, inevitably constructed in times when public expenditure has been constantly under pressure, are of the same quality and have the same gravitas.
The juxtaposition of government buildings, museums, and memorials underscores the country's achievements, history, and influence. The view from the Washington Memorial, the contemporary-looking needle that dates from 1884, offers inspiring views of the White House to the north; the Lincoln Memorial to the west, and the Capitol Building to the east.
Having strolled around the outside of a few institutions, we seek out the inside of another: the Old Ebbit Grill for drinks and dinner. Thankfully, we reserved a table a few weeks ago. It’s Graduation Season in all major American cities and the Ebbit lends itself to familial celebration events, just as restaurants like Rules in London do.
Consequently, it’s very busy with a constant stream of people in and out of the revolving doors. But this only adds to the atmosphere amidst the dark wood and subdued lighting as properly-dressed waiters josh with customers as if they were locals, and keep the drinks coming.
The wheels only fall off a bit with the food. It’s exactly what we expected: expensive East Coast staples of prime cuts preceded by super-fresh seafood, all simply presented.
But creaking table service and a local law which prohibits a customer from having two drinks in front of them, means food and drinks are constantly about one stage out of step.
Crab with Gin & Tonic just about works but Russian River Chardonnay for Gary’s Lamb Chops and my Filet Steak doesn’t. The two glasses of red turn up just as plates are being finished..
This is nitpicking though; it’s a memorable, must-do part of the Washington experience. I do think Richard was right insofar as eating at the bar, along with the Great & the Good of the city, is the way to go.
18 May 2024
The Smithsonian sounds like a destination but represents many destinations. It’s the world's largest museum and research complex, with 21 museums, 9 research centres, and affiliates around the world. 17 of these are in Washington DC which poses the question of which ones to visit, given each demands at least three hours of your attention.
The third-most popular is the Air & Space Museum, and the one Richard had recommended. We assumed we could wander in, but it is so popular, you need to reserve a (free) ticket. Thankfully, they release a few each day and we bag two for entrance between 11:00 & 12:00.
Nearby is the National Gallery of Art and a quick glance at their exhibits says they have 93 Ansel Adams prints.
Such is the bounty of treasures they have, only one is on display: ‘Moonrise’, which I wrote about in an earlier post.
It’s part of a curated exhibition featuring works by Edward Hopper and Georgia O’Keefe, amongst others entitled ‘American Places: selections from the Corcoran Collection’. So I’m not the only one guilty of plagiarising this concept and title…
The 1980 print of Moonrise may be one of the last ones Adams printed as he died in 1984. It’s extraordinary in terms of the level of detail captured.
The foreground scrub; the silvered Adobe buildings; crosses in the desolate graveyard and the swirling mystery of the clouds over mountains in the far distance. The facsimiles and mass-produced prints I’ve seen are two-dimensional in comparison.
In the bottom left border is a small, modest, light trace of Adam’s signature in pencil, as if only to vouch for the print’s authenticity rather than claim credit for this peerless work.
The Air & Space Museum is a treasure trove of artifacts from the last hundred years. The Wright Brothers’ original flyer is in here, along with a cockpit from one of the first Jumbo jets. A mere 60 years separates a forty-yard flight for one person and four-thousand-mile journeys for 400 passengers or more. There are dozens of thought-provoking observations, too numerous to list, and the most effortless way to absorb knowledge.
Other curiosities abound such as Evil Knievel’s 750cc Harley Davidson used for his record-breaking jump over 14 Greyhound buses in 1975, a world record that remained unbroken for 24 years.
And neither is it jingoistically American: Bavaria Moto Werken’s S1000RR that broke the land-speed record for a motorcycle in 2012 is here. Continuing the European theme, so are models of the Anglo-French Concorde, albeit with sniffy observations that the American people were concerned about the environmental impact, and hence why Boing demurred to build a competitor.
Right…but gas at 36 cents a gallon was OK?
But perhaps it’s the space section that leaves the greatest impression. These are objects you’ve seen, but most likely on grainy black & white TV pictures, a very long time ago.
Neil Armstrong’s space suit is displayed, still intact but degraded through age. His scratched Omega Speedmaster chronometer is in a separate case close by, next to the modified Hasselblad camera used to take the famous photographs from the surface.
Of all the exhibits, it’s a Saturn V rocket engine, recovered from the Atlantic Ocean after over 40 years, that is perhaps the most curious and powerful, literally and metaphorically.
Although it would fit in the back of a Transit Van, the twisted and melted titanium of the business-end is a testament to the unthinkable energy these things harnessed. At the other end from where combustion occurred, the valves, pipes, brackets, nuts, and bolts - relics of the mechanical age - combined with unfathomable levels of human intelligence are archaically humbling. Five of these engines combined, took on physics and won, propelling 3,000 tons (the equivalent of every car parked in the Stansted Airport short-stay when full) against gravity into space.
We jump on the sightseeing bus tour that includes a trip over the Potomac River, to the Arlington Military Cemetery that includes the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The graves are endless, radiating out in perfectly straight lines across undulating, manicured parkland. The behaviour of visitors is impeccable, without exception, including that of the many children present.
Arlington is also the side-by-side resting place of JFK and Jackie Onassis who share a modest, paved memorial, encompassing the Eternal Flame, on the axis between Arlington House and the Lincoln Memorial over the river.
At the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a guard is maintained 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and changed every hour, on the hour. We witness the 15:00 ceremony when a wreath placed by one school is replaced with another’s, under the clipped guidance of one of the presiding soldiers.
Back on the bus, we get snared up in rush-hour traffic, giving plenty of time to listen to the pre-recorded commentary which clears up a point that has confused me since I saw ‘In the Loop’.
This 2009 film is a savage parody of Washington and London political elites, as they wrestle with a potentially explosive situation between two obdurate, neighbouring countries. Sound familiar?
As a spin-off from ‘The Thick of It’ TV-series, it features foul-mouthed, mendacious, spin-doctor, Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi), not based in any way on former Blair Henchman, Burnley FC-supporting and eminently likeable Alistair Campbell, who remarks - in the White House - to his Washington counterpart:
“If I had my way, I’d burn this f***ing place down again”
My knowledge of US history is far from extensive, so I filed this away under ‘Must Find Out’ but never did.
It turns out that the British Army did exactly this, a mere thirty years after signing the treaty that ended the War of Independence.
Not for the first time in the last couple of days, I experience a degree of shame and embarrassment at the actions of our forbears, although there is probably more to this nugget of history than a tourist bus commentary can impart.
It’s been an excellent day. Educational and entertaining in equal measure, with dinner at Rasika to look forward to after quenching our thirsts in the nearby Penn Sports Bar.
Rasika is superb. Cutting-edge, contemporary Indian food in the mould of Pali Hill in London (for those who know it) and vies for top spot with Lebanese Suraya in Philadelphia as the best restaurant over the last four days.
Even at 18:30, the place is heaving. It resembles an open-casting session for an ‘In the Loop’ remake; existing to feed and water a well-groomed ensemble of apparatchiks to the modern political process.
PR consultants, advisors, lobbyists, civil servants and sundry other people, all billing and cooing at each other with an expensively educated insincerity. Eunuchs to the world they serve, they see first-hand, every day, what goes on without actually being able to do it themselves.
But they are necessary. Modern democracies are complex, intricate machines and need this level of supporting human capital to function properly, rather than rely on the fickle whims of elected politicians. A governance framework, together with oversight and transparency, and a means of introducing external thinking into the process are all vital functions.
Along with the heroism represented by Arlington and the freedoms it preserves, the wisdom and knowledge reflected in the Smithsonian Museums, the crowd at Rasika are a less visible but important cog in the machinery of this exemplary city.
