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I used to find myself in Washington at least a couple of times a year. (At one point when I was at Borland I did two trade shows there in the same month.)...

Washington

Hank Shiffman
2003-12-02 20:36:06

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possible by making it practical: the Douglas DC-3. From these humble beginnings came the fast and only moderately uncomfortable jets that can take me to London in ten hours and my luggage somewhere else entirely.

One wonders what they were thinking when our Founding Fathers decided to put the nation's capital in this swamp between Maryland and Virginia. Hot, humid and miserable in summer, it becomes positively Nordic in winter. Which makes photography an interesting challenge, as I remove my gloves just long enough to maneuver the camera in place. I suppose the Capitol is worth the discomfort, even if I don't feel the same way about its inhabitants. More to my liking is the Library of Congress across the street, whose staid and solid exterior hides the kind of beauty and grace usually limited to houses of worship.

Then again, what in life is more worthy of veneration than the country's greatest collection of words: written, spoken and displayed? I dream of wandering through the stacks, reading dime novels from the wild west and comic books from the golden age, along with all the great works with which they share space. Sadly, that magnificent reading room I first saw in All The President's Men is closed away from visitors; we can only watch from behind plexiglas and envy the researchers their access to our literary history.

It was almost exactly a year after the attacks of September 11th that I found myself back in New York and then in Washington. Flying out of National Airport (I refuse to call it Reagan), you are required to stay in your seat for the first half hour of the flight. At left is part of the reason. The Pentagon makes a dramatic sight as we leave northern Virginia, looking strong and forceful and no worse off for the horror it witnessed. In fact, at this distance it's impossible to tell that an attack ever took place. Which raises the question of which would be the more effective image: A fortress that has survived a massive attack? Or repairs so perfect that they deny that the unthinkable has indeed happened?