Washington DC Great American Railroad Journeys

I have crossed the Atlantic to ride the railroads of America

with a new travelling companion.

Published in 1879, my Appletons' General Guide

will steer me to everything that's novel,

beautiful,

memorable

or curious in the United States.

-ALL:

-Amen!

As I cross the continent, I'll discover America's Gilded Age,

when powerful tycoons launched a railway boom

that tied the nation together and carved out its future

as a superpower.

My journey continues south to Washington, DC -

the centre of political power in the world's most powerful country.

Founded on a compromise, built on a greenfield site,

torched by the British.

It rose from the ashes to become a capital of fine public architecture,

monuments and memorials

and the city where the president who divided America,

but saved the Union,

met a theatrical death.

I began this journey in Philadelphia -

the cradle of American independence -

continued to the American Civil War battlefield of Gettysburg

and turned south to Baltimore in Maryland.

Ahead of me, lie both the capital of the nation and the capital

of the state of Virginia, Richmond.

I'll finish in one of the oldest settlements in North America -

Jamestown.

'On this leg of my journey,

'I'll explore Washington, DC, where I'll pick up some spending money...'

This bundle is 80,000.

I've never held anything like that much money in my life!

'..visit the newsroom that toppled a president...'

It went from this break-in all the way to the White House.

'..before discovering how the man credited with saving the nation

'tragically met his end.'

Booth was able to walk right behind the president

and fired a shot that hit him right behind the left ear.

I'm approaching Washington, following a recommended

Appletons' route along what was the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad.

According to Appletons', "Washington's site is admirable.

"Consisting of an undulating plain diversified by irregular elevations,

"which furnish advantageous positions

"for the various public buildings.

"The plan of the city is unique and on a scale which shows that it

"was expected that a vast metropolis would grow up there."

The Founding Fathers foresaw the greatness of the United States

and planned a capital that would rival any European one

in terms of scale, grandeur and prestige.

'You have arrived at Washington Union Station.

'Please watch your step.'

At the beginning of the 20th century,

a new master plan was developed for Washington, DC, to make the city

even more beautiful and as part of that, a new Union Station.

Bringing together in one place, the Pennsylvania

and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroads,

in a building of suitable magnificence.

Or, you might even say, "over-the-topness".

Despite the early 20th century face-lift,

at only 100 years old, Washington was a relatively young city.

Following independence from the British,

the newly formed nation of the United States

couldn't agree on which metropolis should be the seat of government.

So, a purpose-built capital was founded in 1790.

Conspiracy theorists say that the layout of Washington

contains hidden masonic symbols.

I can't see any, but many of the Founding Fathers were freemasons,

including George Washington.

To find out how this city came into being,

I'm heading to Freedom Plaza to meet Jane Freundel Levey

of The Historical Society Of Washington.

-Hello, Jane.

-Hello, it's so nice to see you.

Very good to see you.

And I see we've got a map of Washington laid out before us.

-We do indeed.

-Shall we stroll down Pennsylvania Avenue

-towards the White House?

-Let's do that.

In the beginning, why was Washington, DC,

chosen as the place for the capital?

Washington was chosen as a political compromise.

We had a young nation, it had no money

and we had a revolutionary war to pay off.

The South were not so willing to pay off the debts of the North,

where most of the battles took place,

unless they got something in return.

And what they got in return was the opportunity for the capital

to be in, what was considered then, the South.

That founding compromise was achieved by the man after whom

the city is named -

the first president of the United States.

George Washington saw that the nation's capital needed to be

on a river that would connect to what was going to be the nation.

In other words, a river that connected to the West

and that's what the Potomac River did.

It connected to the Ohio River which took us out to the West

and that's how he saw the new empire growing.

In 1791, a diamond of land, ten miles squared,

was carved out of the states of Virginia and Maryland to become

the federal capital and the seat of the national government.

We've ended our journey down Pennsylvania Avenue,

we've arrived in the White House.

Would you join me in the Blue Room?

Yes, my favourite, the Blue Room! Thank you.

Appletons' informs me,

"The public buildings are the chief attraction of Washington.

"The White House, as the president's official residence,

"represents the executive branch of

"the United States Federal Government.

"The legislative branch of Congress is based at the Capitol

"and the judiciary is housed in the Supreme Court Of Justice."

Around the time of my Appletons' Guide, another grand building

was being constructed - the Library Of Congress.

And I can't resist taking a look.

It was established as a resource for members of Congress.

Over the years, it has become the national library

and any book published under US copyright

has to be deposited here.

It's now the largest library in the world.

Washington is home to the federal government

and to lobbying groups and embassies.

It hosts the headquarters of many international organisations

and here, too, are the institutions that manage the economy

and issue the money.

It's always struck me as odd that all American banknotes

are the same size, whatever denomination.

But they do help you to learn American history.

On the 20, we've got Andrew Jackson.

On the 10, we've got Alexander Hamilton.

Good old Abraham Lincoln on the five

and George Washington on the single dollar bill.

Established around the time of my guidebook,

the Bureau Of Engraving And Printing is noted in my Appletons'

as being "of much interest to visitors."

I imagine that few 19th century tourists would have had access

to the printing presses that produce the famous greenback.

Show me the money!

The dollar must be the currency that most circulates on earth.

Some of these 20 bills will, undoubtedly,

find their way around the globe.

The dollar, economically speaking,

makes the world go round.

Paper money was first issued by the federal government

at the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861.

These government IOUs floated the Union side through the conflict.

As these packages come out, they have to be checked at either end

to make sure the seal is good and that the numbers match.

This bundle is 80,000.

I've never held anything like that much money in my life!

To deter counterfeiting,

some hi-tech features are incorporated into each note.

For example, microprinting, a security thread or a watermark.

But at the heart of the process are skill and attention to detail.

Will Fleishell has been a picture engraver here for 28 years.

Will, excuse me.

-Ah!

-I'm Michael.

-Michael, pleasure, Will.

What are you working on there?

This is a portrait of Frederick Douglass who was the great

Civil War era abolitionist.

Are these also examples of your work?

Yes, there's Benjamin Franklin,

Mark Twain.

There's a portrait of Lincoln that's on the current five dollar bill.

How do you feel about the fact that every time you pick up

a five dollar bill your work is there?

It is impressive.

It's nice to think about, in those quiet moments,

that your work is in a lot of wallets around the world.

So, that's quite an accomplishment for an artist.

What is it that you're doing and what is this material?

This is soft steel and I can cut into it with

what we call gravers or burins.

The design of this tool has not changed significantly in 500 years.

This is the sort of exquisite, painstaking work

that I can't understand.

I just don't have anything like the patience.

Every portrait that I work on,

I try to sort of put myself into the shoes of the subject

to try to empathise, in a sense, with the person.

What were you wanting to convey with this mouth and these eyes?

To convey a sort of faraway look of the future, he could see ahead.

I think you certainly achieved it. It's wonderful.

Thank you, thank you very much.

A city at the heart of money and power must guard against

excess and corruption.

Keeping those in authority in check is the American press,

which was already raucously free in the late 19th century.

Appletons' tells me that,

"At the offices of leading American newspapers on Newspaper Row,

"files of newspapers are accessible to the visitor."

But as you'd expect in the land of the free and the home of the brave,

there is a free press here.

And some American presidents have discovered that, in Washington,

the press is both free and very brave.

Just as the press has moved away from Fleet Street in London,

so it has from Washington's Newspaper Row.

Five blocks north of its 19th century location,

I visit the offices of the multi Pulitzer prize-winning

Washington Post.

Founded in 1877, a couple of years before my guidebook,

this newspaper was highly critical of the then president,

Rutherford B Hayes.

Nearly 90 years later, another president, Richard Nixon,

would find himself at the centre of a Washington Post story

that would prove his undoing.

I'm meeting columnist John Kelly.

What does it mean to you to be a journalist on the Post

in today's Washington, DC?

I've worked here 26 years and I still get a little thrill

when I come up that elevator.

Phil Graham, when he was publisher, said that,

"A newspaper is the first rough draft of history."

The work we do is pulling together information from

all sorts of places, it's holding powerful people accountable.

And in 1972, that's exactly what Washington Post reporters

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein did when they began to investigate

a break-in at the Watergate office complex,

designed to tap the phones of

the Democratic Party's National Committee.

Following the money that financed the crime,

the reporters uncovered a trail which led them

to the re-election campaign of President Nixon.

I welcome this kind of examination because people have got to know

whether or not their president's a crook.

Well, I'm not a crook.

For over two years, Woodward and Bernstein persisted with the story,

which eventually forced the Senate to establish a committee

to investigate the scandal.

It went from this break-in all the way to the White House

and to Richard Nixon's attempts to basically smear his opponents,

to break the law, to subvert the Constitution

and ended up with his resignation.

Ever since, all manner of scandals have been dubbed with the suffix -

gate.

I mean, it really was an extraordinary journalistic coup,

wasn't it?

It just shows you that you never know where any story is going to go.

This was a story about a break-in.

No-one knew where it led and I think what inspires us is knowing

that every day when we come to work...

what's the phone going to bring?

What's a little shoe leather going to bring?

What's an e-mail going to bring?

What are we going to find that's going to be our big story?

As a formerly powerful person, you've got me trembling.

That's as it should be.

Time to take refuge at a hotel for the evening.

And my Appletons' recommends that one of the best is Willard's.

It had already been a favourite haunt of politicos for 20 years

by the time of my guidebook.

Amongst its many famous guests were President Abraham Lincoln,

author Mark Twain

and Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King.

This morning, I'm continuing my tour of the nation's capital.

Whilst the location for the young republic's capital

was a matter of compromise,

the choice of its first president in 1789 was not.

George Washington was the only candidate for the job.

Written in 1879, Appletons' says that,

"The Washington Monument, in its present unfinished state,

"is rather a blemish than an ornament to the city.

"After 230,000 had been expended in building it

"to a height of 174 feet, funds gave out and the work was suspended."

Well, luckily, that budget crisis was resolved

and it was completed to a height of 555 feet.

And ever since then, all the other buildings in Washington

are severely restricted in height as a sort of symbolic deference

to the first president and, for many Americans, the favourite.

Directly opposite this memorial to the founding president is

a structure to honour the president who kept

the United States as one nation - Abraham Lincoln.

Erected less than 40 years apart,

the monuments to the most revered presidents of the United States

stand just over a mile from each other.

Appletons' says that, "A statue of Abraham Lincoln

"stands in Lincoln Park, erected by contributions

"of coloured people."

Appletons' uses the language of the day.

But that is not the monument behind me which was finished only in 1922.

By which time it was realised that the president who had

fought for the Union, who saved the Union,

who died for the Union,

merited a national memorial.

It's been a popular spot with both domestic and foreign tourists

since the 1920s.

I want to know what they think of Abraham Lincoln.

-Good afternoon.

-Good afternoon.

How would you rate Abraham Lincoln amongst

presidents of the United States?

One or two.

Who is his competitor then?

-Washington.

-Uh-huh, uh-huh.

-Hi.

-Hi, Michael.

Oh, it's very nice to see you. Hello.

We hadn't picked you out as Brits.

How do you rate Abraham Lincoln amongst American presidents?

By the size of that, he's got to have been pretty great, hasn't he?

Hello, may I join you a second?

-Yeah, sure, no problem.

-Of course.

How do you rate Abraham Lincoln?

As far as the presidents of the United States go,

I think he's probably number one.

You know, he was president during a time of crisis,

he's made such an impact on American history.

And I don't think anyone can dispute his greatness.

Inside, the statue of the man sits nearly 20 feet high.

Even in life, this political giant stood six feet, four inches tall.

I want to understand how Lincoln came to be so honoured.

Terry Alford is an author and historian.

What kind of a man was Abraham Lincoln?

Abraham Lincoln was a real original child of America, I would say.

His family had been here for about two centuries

by the time he came along.

Born on the frontier, limited education, rural, rustic roots.

An American original.

He did follow a legal career, didn't he?

Yes, that's how Lincoln made his name and his fame

and, in fact, what fortune he had.

He was a lawyer and he was really, really good.

Lincoln was admitted to the Bar in 1836.

And it was during his legal career that he earned the nickname

"Honest Abe".

As a young litigator, he needed cases and he found them

in the burgeoning railroad industry.

It was one of the great things that developed

during his lifetime, right?

I mean, it just revolutionised travel.

He was profoundly interested in all things like this.

Lincoln was committed to bringing about a transcontinental railroad

and he made it part of his manifesto for the presidential election

of 1860.

In return, railway tycoons enthusiastically supported

his candidacy and with their financial help,

Lincoln won the presidency.

He enjoyed near total support from the northern states,

but the opposite was true of the slave states of the South.

What did he feel about slavery?

He had always felt, I think, at a gut level

there was something wrong with it.

He's not an abolitionist per se.

He wasn't one of those people,

"That's the only issue, there is no other issue."

Lincoln did not intend to end slavery in the South,

but his pledge to ban expansion of the practice

into the new western territories was seen by the South as a threat.

As the president-elect made his way by train to his inauguration

in Washington, the southern states began to break away from the Union.

They formed the Confederate States of America

and proclaimed their own government.

Lincoln felt that the America he had grown up in was

the best country in the world in terms of democratic values,

accessibility and openness, opportunities.

And he just couldn't believe that the losers of an election -

the South, of course, had lost to him -

that they were going to be able to break that up, right?

That an orderly society depends upon the majority ruling.

And that what the South was doing was absolutely incendiary.

It was essentially a giant riot.

A giant riot that requires an enormous military response,

which leads to the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives.

Lincoln felt a real sense of responsibility, you know,

for what happened on these battlefields

and he was awfully attentive throughout his whole presidency

to the suffering the war caused.

And I think it wore on him.

You can look at these photographs of him, right, from 61 to 65.

He looks like he's aged 20 or 30 years.

As the American Civil War dragged on into its third year,

Lincoln made a bold attempt to destabilise the Confederacy.

He issued a presidential proclamation to free all slaves

in the rebellious southern states from 1st January 1863.

Slaves in areas captured by the Union troops could now join

the army, boosting the ranks by 186,000.

Those who remained with their masters worked to weaken

the Southern economy.

When General Robert E Lee surrendered his Confederate Army

on April 9th 1865, Lincoln's proclamation would lead to

the emancipation of all slaves.

I think Lincoln felt enormous relief that the slaughter was over.

Just a great sense of relief, like a weight had been lifted off him.

The war was over.

The Union was saved and slavery was officially ended.

However, racial equality across the nation remained a dream,

even a century later.

On the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation,

a vast crowd at the Lincoln Memorial heard an extraordinary speech

from Dr Martin Luther King.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up,

live out the true meaning of its creed -

"We hold these truths to be self-evident,

"that all men are created equal."

But for Lincoln, the peace brought by the end of the Civil War

would be short-lived.

Just days later, the president went to see a performance

of the English farce Our American Cousin

at Ford's Theatre.

Here, in this auditorium, Lincoln's tragic end was played out.

Terry, I've never been here before.

I'm very moved to be in the theatre

where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.

Was he a keen theatregoer?

He was. Lincoln loved the theatre.

Gave him a way to get out of the White House,

a place to go to decompress from politics.

He came to this theatre a good dozen times.

In fact, once, he saw John Wilkes Booth,

who would become his murderer, at this very theatre.

-Playing onstage.

-Playing onstage in November '63,

so some 15, 16 months before Booth shot him.

What was the motive of John Wilkes Booth?

John Wilkes Booth was a fanatical Southern supporter.

He believed that the war was a giant attack upon the Southern states

and, unfortunately, he did not go into the Confederate Army.

I say unfortunately because that would have given him

an outlet for his passions.

By staying out, by acting, Booth realised, you know,

"I play a hero onstage, but I'm not one.

"I'm really a coward."

And I think it ate into him and made him dangerous.

So, on the night of the event, I assume the president and Mrs Lincoln

would be sitting in the box opposite us.

Tell us what happened.

The play started at 8.15 that night.

About ten o'clock, Booth came into the theatre

while the play was underway and he walked around the seats behind us

to the door leading to the State Box and because he was well-known,

there was no suspicion attached to his presence.

In fact, Booth was known and liked by the Ford family

who owned this place.

And so he had access to all parts of the theatre

and could simply walk right up to the Lincolns.

Mr and Mrs Lincoln were watching the play, of course.

Nobody was looking over their shoulder, why should they?

Booth was able to walk right behind the president

and from just a few inches, fired a shot that hit him

right behind the left ear.

Did the president die here in the theatre?

No, the president was gravely wounded.

Everyone realised that he was at imminent risk of death.

But they didn't want him to die in a theatre.

They didn't know if he could survive a trip back to the White House,

as close as that is.

So, they took him across the street to a boardinghouse

and he died there at 7.22 the next morning.

As his body was transported by funeral train

from Washington to his home in Springfield, Illinois,

Americans lined the route to pay their respects to the great leader.

It was a tragic loss to the country.

And I've often thought that there are things you could learn.

You know, you can learn facts and strategies and tactics,

but you can't learn humanity, right?

You can't learn humility.

And the country was very fortunate to have Lincoln when it did.

A beautiful thought.

European countries such as Russia, Ireland and Spain

know how long and bitter is the legacy of civil war.

Abraham Lincoln, for all his humanity,

led the North in a crushing victory over the Confederacy.

And many in the defeated South must have hated him, as did his assassin.

But I hope that a majority of Americans today,

contemplating his engraved image,

would reflect that he saved the Union

and liberated the United States from slavery.

Next time, I'll discover the tragic reality of America's slave trade...

While you're selling produce and other goods, you're selling humans.

..get to grips with American archaeology...

-I'm so sorry.

-It's OK!

..and get into the swing of Washington.

THEY PLAY JAZZ MUSIC