Washington, District of Columbia - three days May 2010: Uniquely worldly while still unmistakably American.

The map of flights in the in-flight magazine of United Airlines shows five flight connection hubs in USA: LA and San Francisco on the West coast, Denver and Chicago midland USA, and Washington DC alone serving the East coast. Although strictly speaking two of the three international Washington airports are in the state of Virginia and one in the state of Maryland, (the neighbouring states are a few metro stops away) they are all considered to be “Washington DC airports” and two are overseen by Washington DC authorities. There are also a few smaller domestic and private airports within the same radius. What that means is that if you look up to the skies any time while in Washington DC you will always see a few planes taking off or landing. A few of the military jets are also constantly high in the sky with their long white tails of vapours, and there must also be some that cannot be seen with a naked eye. Add to that some serious-looking non-recreational helicopters that suddenly appear and zip away over your head every now and then, and you will get the picture of the WDC skies.

May weather in Washington is similar to Melbourne: cold one minute, very hot the next minute, then a heavy rain with thunderstorms, then nice and warm again, then a cold evening. Hence planning my day I did not bother looking at the forecast.
Looking for lunch and dinner meals I came across numerous classical American institutions of fast food, grills and sea food with appetiser plate sizes enough for a few people to share as a main course. I initially searched on the net for consumer rated dining places. But finding Wendy’s and McDonalds getting 5 star ratings, I changed my tactics and looked for international tourist recommendations. I was pleasantly surprised to find without too much difficulty smaller places that served non-supersized meals and even very small deserts. Like in all good restaurants, as the size of the meal got smaller, the size of the plates and the bills got larger. But it certainly was up to highest food critic’s expectations. One dinner I had was at a Spanish restaurant where over the years Spanish royalty had dined when visited Washington. Other than ubiquitous tapas, this place also served some interesting mains of real Spanish cuisine that I had never seen before. Unfortunately, a true espresso however was still as elusive in Washington as ever in North America, being served at best as a double shot of heavily roasted bitter coffee diluted by water to an expected larger volume.

Unlike in most other USA places that I visited outside metropolises of NYC, San Francisco and LA and business districts of other cities, most people I saw wore leather shoes and not sneakers. The only people wearing sneakers were those who were exercising, some youth and the tourists from other American places.
The usual for the rest of America overweight people in Washington were either American tourists wearing sneakers and shorts, police personnel or school children with their teachers.
The metropolitan railway is so deep under ground that it is justly called The Metro and not a “Subway” like in NYC where only an iron gate on a walkway separates you and a roaring train. A possible explanation for the Washington Metro being buried so deep underground becomes apparent when after a long descent down an escalator or two one enters a nuclear war bunker that also doubles up as a train station. It has a striking Cold War 70’s futuristic design of a tunnel with walls to ceiling large concrete tiles with their rounded edges and deepened inner portions. The whole place has a Bauhaus style with walks and escalators having rounded edges and long flowing lines. The dramatic emergency feel of the these bunker-stations is heightened by the shadows created by lighting being predominantly from the floor up and along the train tracks. Round red lights built into the floor at the edges of platforms start blinking theatrically as a train approaches, making one feel like being on a futuristic stage-set of the next instalment of Star Trek, or 1970s James Bond fantasy.
Being the country’s administrative and military center, it is not surprising to see many men and women in uniforms. What is striking however is the diversity of uniforms. Other than military, navy and air force personnel of all ranks, there are uniformed men and women from police, highway patrol, rangers and other departments’ from all over the United States and of all administrative denominations. And if they were not uniformed, they proudly carried their badges either on lanyards or attached to their chests. There must be an official reason why they are all uniformed or display their badges while clearly outside their jurisdictions and likely off duty, but it felt like being at a themed convention with die hard fans in costumes, or like being in a huge live museum of uniforms. The only uniform I didn’t see outside the official policing locations was the Washington DC Police Department.
Once while on a train, the train driver made repeated announcements between many stop asking for the Metro Patrol if they are present on the train or at the stations to come urgently to the first car. He was clearly distressed repeating his announcement a few times between each stop. “Taking Pelham” came to mind. Many of the uniformed men and women of all ages looked at each other with some concern but none moved, probably following some unspoken rule of not crossing into a domain of another department. I had to get off at the next stations so I never saw the ending of that day’s drama.
The buildings lining the wide streets of the well planned Washington DC downtown are not tall skyscrapers - the town planning laws prohibit buildings taller than the Washington Monument. The city was planned and built mid 19th century, and most official buildings are masonry creations of imposing pantheonic monumental dimensions of neoclassical style with decorative front columns crowned by triangular roofs with inscriptions. While befitting for judiciary or law making institutions, the Ministry of Agriculture housed in a museum like building looked odd. The whole downtown has a feeling of an empire reminiscent of hey days of other empires of Athens, Rome, Germany, USSR and more recently China. Interestingly though, there are less national flags on private buildings than in New England.
Walking towards mid town there are a few streets with mid size buildings NYC-style, wall-to-wall and of different character, but these are quickly replaced by some older and some modern single buildings of many styles. Some side streets have residential buildings of New England style, or 70s and 80’s brick apartments, all drowning in the many green trees, at least in May.
There are many museums, a try-hard effort of a young nation from years ago. In a true capitalist style of USA many of these public institutions were built and are maintained by private funds. The upside of philanthropy American-style is some of the best in the world public works and free museums. The side effect though is the in-your-face vanity that sometimes goes beyond grateful acknowledgement. While you can see for free one of the best in the world collections of modern fine art, the hall before it, the gift shop, catalogue and the exhibition boards and even the small plates next to the paintings all tell you how wonderful the person was who donated them. An artist’s name is mentioned only in passing. Only a guide of a free guided tour provides an escape by talking about the paintings and not the donor.
One of the landmarks to which tourists are taken is a national Cathedral for all faith. I was very keen to see it. It is indeed a beautiful building with lots of fantastic mosaics and windows. The only disappointing thing was realising once inside that “all faith” refers to “all denominations of Christian faith”. How inwardly American.
It is quite a clean city, especially considering the relatively high density of population by US standards.
Promotions of cultural events give an impression of a vibrant cultural life. The two plays and a show that I attended were packed. Interestingly though, the audience and the cast were distinctly different along ethnic lines in each of the performances. A coincidence perhaps, but being a capital of USA, it is hard not to see Washington as a reflection of the rest of the country in this light as well.
Overall, Washington DC was a pleasant surprise, absolutely worth a visit.