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A Sports Dispute Started the Cuban Missile Crisis and Other Odd Facts

Khalid Elhassan October 28, 2019 31 min

29. The French Architect Who Planned Washington, DC

Frenchman Charles Pierre L’Enfant crossed the Atlantic to fight for the rebels during the American Revolution, and became an accomplished architect after the war. In 1790, Congress authorized a federal district on the Potomac River to house the national government, and George Washington entrusted L’Enfant to plan the new nation’s capital.

He created Washington, DC, from scratch, imposing his vision for a grand capital on unappealing tracts of land. Surveying a swath of swamps and forests and hills, L’Enfant envisioned inspiring buildings, grand avenues, and public squares. America’s capital, as it exists to this day, is based on L’Enfant’s design.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.