Every loyal American has a personal pride in the beauty of Washington and in its development and growth.  There is no one with a proper appreciation of our Capital City who would favor a niggardly policy in respect to expenditures from the National Treasury to add to the attractiveness of this city, which belongs to every citizen of the entire country, and which no citizen visits without a sense of pride of ownership.  We have had restored by a Commission of Fine Arts, at the instance of a committee of the Senate, the original plan of the French engineer L’Enfant for the city of Washington, and we know with great certainty the course which the improvement of Washington should take.  Why should there be delay in making this improvement in so far as it involves the extension of the parking system and the construction of greatly needed public buildings?  Appropriate buildings for the State Department, the Department of justice, and the Department of Commerce and Labor have been projected, plans have been approved, and nothing is wanting but the appropriations for the beginning and completion of the structures.  A hall of archives is also badly needed, but nothing has been done toward its construction, although the land for it has long been bought and paid for.  Plans have been made for the union of Potomac Park with the valley of Rock Creek and Rock Creek Park, and the necessity for the connection between the Soldiers’ Home and Rock Creek Park calls for no comment.  I ask again why there should be delay in carrying out these plans We have the money in the Treasury, the plans are national in their scope, and the improvement should be treated as a national project.  The plan will find a hearty approval throughout the country.  I am quite sure, from the information which I have, that, at comparatively small expense, from that part of the District of Columbia which was retroceded to Virginia, the portion including the Arlington estate, Fort Myer, and the palisades of the Potomac can be acquired by purchase and the jurisdiction of the State of Virginia over this land ceded to the Nation.  This ought to be done.

The construction of the Lincoln Memorial and of a memorial bridge from the base of the Lincoln Monument to Arlington would be an appropriate and symbolic expression of the union of the North and the South at the Capital of the Nation.  I urge upon Congress the appointment of a commission to undertake these national improvements, and to submit a plan for their execution; and when the plan has been submitted and approved, and the work carried out, Washington will really become what it ought to be—­the most beautiful city in the world.

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State of the Union Address
Woodrow Wilson
December 2, 1913

Gentlemen of the Congress: 

In pursuance of my constitutional duty to “give to the Congress information of the state of the Union,” I take the liberty of addressing you on several matters which ought, as it seems to me, particularly to engage the attention of your honorable bodies, as of all who study the welfare and progress of the Nation.