Overview

This is the true story about how Washington, D.C. became the nation's capital. Arnebeck uncovers unknown information and chronicles the building of the city unlike anyone else.

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9781568330273

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To judge from the colorful, hugely entertaining, irreverent history, it's a wonder Washington, D.C., got built at all. George Washington welcomed Congress's decisions to move from Philadelphia to the Potomac, but just before his death in 1799, the first president vented his spleen at nine years of inept financing, lawsuits, builders' inflated costs, real estate sharks' greed and other roadblocks that impeded the capital's developement. Obstinate French architect Pierre Charles L'Enfant jockeyed for total control of the city's construction, spreading confusion in his wake. His successor, Samuel Blodget, an ingratiating Bostonian, frittered away seven years trying to salvage a $350,000 lottery he organized to finance an unfinished hotel. Land speculator Thomas Jefferson, charmed by the capital's rural character, cultivated more botanists than he did investors in the city. Arnebeck draws on reams of previously untapped archival material for this exhaustive year-by-year chronicle. Publishers Weekly

Author Information

Bob Arnebeck has been writing about Washington history for fifteen years. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, Leslie Kuter, and their son, Ottoleo.

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