Washington, D.C. - Part I

We've always wondered about the naming of Washington, D.C. Originally there was the City of Washington within the Territory of Columbia. Then by an act of Congress in 1871 they were merged into an entity formally known as the District of Columbia. It's kind of a fuzzy definition, so much so that citizens of D.C. couldn't vote in presidential elections until 1961. They have no senators, but do have a "non-voting at-large Congressional delegate." It's because of this that the D.C. license plates all have the phrase "Taxation without Representation." The district has a population of about 600,000 which swells to about a million during the workweek due to commuters from surrounding areas. The Washington Metropolitan area as a whole has a population of about 5.3 million.

We had the pleasure of staying with our friends Chuck and Jenn. Richie has known Chuck since high school. They live in Chevy Chase, which is in Maryland just outside of the D.C. border. Our first trip into D.C. was made with Chuck and Jenn to guide us through using the Metro. After being in New York and Boston, we've noticed how each system has its quirks. In D.C. you scan your card when you enter and when you leave. That way you only get charged for the distance that you traveled. Just don't lose your card while napping between your stops!

The closest Metro station was only 1.5 miles from Chuck and Jen's place. It was a nice walk along the Capital Crescent Trail, a walker/jogger/biker trail from Georgetown, D.C. to Silver Spring, MD. It's an 11-mile stretch of abandoned rail bed that was recently rated as one of the most heavily used trails in the nation. We liked it.

Our first stop was the Smithsonian Castle. It has a small number of exhibits that basically give an overview of what can be found in the numerous museums that together comprise "The Smithsonian." We watched a short presentation by Ben Stiller doing a two for one: giving some good info about the Smithsonian while also plugging the newly-released sequel to Night at the Museum. One of the more helpful things he mentioned was that a good place to get food was the American Indian Museum. Hmmmm...

The American Indian Museum, which recently opened in 2004, was beautiful both inside and out. Every construction detail was organic. It consisted of four floors of information on every facet of the American Indian.

For once Ben Stiller was right. The food was phenomenal.

The Mitsitam Cafe (Mitsitam means "Let's eat!" in the Delaware and Piscataway peoples language) is divided into food from five regions: Northern Woodlands, South America, the Northwest Coast, Mesoamerica, and the Great Plains. The problem was trying to pick which region to try! We decided to share a large sampler platter, Jen got Salmon cakes, and Chuck got Indian Tacos. Yum yum yum!

One of the funniest things we saw in the museum
was a mask that looked uncannily like Chuck.

We then walked over to the Capitol but couldn't get in because they don't allow food or bottles of any kind. Guess we'll save that visit for another day.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing, or BEP for short, was established in 1862 when just 6 people separated and sealed notes by hand in the basement of the Treasury. Today the BEP has two locations - the one in D.C. opened in 1914 and one in Fort Worth, TX opened in 1991. In the day and age of boring web addresses, BEP hit this one right on the money (groan...):

www.moneyfactory.gov

As they say, we got to see where real money gets made. Their free tour lasted about 30 minutes, showing the machinery used and explaining the many steps in the process of printing paper notes. The employees had put up numerous signs around the machinery that really livened it up. One said, "Think how I feel. I just printed my lifetime salary in a matter of minutes!"

Did you know that our bills are called greenbacks because the back is printed in green? OK, I guess it's pretty self-explanatory. It's believed that this was done originally to make counterfeiting more difficult.

It was really cool to see how money has changed over the years. Like in 1929 when someone figured out that reducing the size of the bills would save the government lots of money in printing costs. Funny to think how it costs money to print money. Couldn't the cost of printing be offset by just printing a few more reels?

The largest bills ever printed were $100,000 gold certificates that were never publicly circulated (really?) but were used for transactions between Federal Reserve Banks.

Daily printing amounts vary depending on what is requested. Back in August 2009, the BEP was printing $527.3 million a day. It seems production was up in December. At the end of our tour, we were standing just above 907 million dollars... waiting to be shipped.

Life Span of a bill by Denomination:

• $1 - 21 months
• $5 - 16 months
• $10 - 18 months
• $20 - 24 months
• $50 - 55 months
• $100 - 89 months

Let's play a game of "Guess the Memorial," shall we?


Answer: The Jefferson Memorial

Poor guy, there weren't many people here at all. I guess nobody takes the time to walk out to him. It's a pity too, since he's got to stand up all day while Lincoln gets to slouch his days away. They are currently doing major renovation of the seawall in front of the monument, so maybe this scares people away.

• Ground breaking: December 1938
• Dedicated on the 200th Anniversary of Jefferson’s birth: April 13, 1943
• FDR was criticized for insisting that construction continue during World War II. He also received heat for having some of the famous cherry trees chopped down that grew on the line-of-sight between the White House and the monument.

In the basement there's a museum giving a timeline of Jefferson's accomplishments. On his gravestone, Jefferson wished to be remembered for 3 accomplishments:

1. Author of the Declaration of American Independence
2. Statute of Virginia for religious freedom
3. Father of the University of Virginia