The Washington Monument is some 555 ft. tall. It is the tallest building in Washington and legal restrictions practically guarantee it will always remain so. It is not, however, the highest artificial elevation in Washington, that honor going to the top of the Gloria in Excelsis Tower of the Washington National Cathedral at some 676 ft. above sea level. Still, the Washington Monument towers over the National Mall, which is not really a shopping center except for K Street lobbyists.
But the borders of the federal city were not always as they are today, originally including a part of what is now the City of Alexandria and Arlington County in Virginia. In recognition that the federal government would never grow large enough to need all that land, the Virginia contribution to the city was retroceded to the Commonwealth in 1847. Thus Northern Virginians enjoy the dubious benefits of taxation with representation denied District of Columbia residents.
Arlington County is an unusual place on several grounds. Best known as the location of both Arlington National Cemetery and the Pentagon, it is one of the best educated “cities” in America (having a county form of government but being an urban area in demographic fact) with excellent public schools and the highest percentage of residents with graduate degrees in the nation. It is also one of the smallest counties in the U.S. at some 26 square miles, roughly the size of Manhattan.
There, however, with one minor exception, its comparison with Manhattan ends. The exception being that what little high-rise cityscape one finds inside the Capital Beltway is to be found primarily in Arlington County, especially that part of Arlington called Rosslyn.
Rosslyn lies directly across the Potomac River from Georgetown and is connected to Washington by the Francis Scott Key Bridge. It is in the local Washington news now because of controversy over plans to build two new high-rise buildings, one thirty stories tall, the other 31 stories in an effort to revitalize the area. The taller building would be 388 ft. tall, 76 ft. taller than the currently tallest building there.
Taller buildings might pose some problems for the flight paths of aircraft using Reagan National Airport, but most of the outcry is over the aesthetics of high-rise construction as it might affect the overall aesthetics of Washington. The Washington Post refers to these buildings and others already in Rosslyn as skyscrapers, absurdly comparing them to the Sears Tower and the Empire State Building. Only someone suffering from acute vertigo would find that comparison apt, but we’ll let that go for now.
The first such “skyscraper” in Rosslyn was the Key Bridge Marriott hotel, shown above. Built during my childhood – did I mention Arlington is my hometown? – it was the subject of great controversy for much the same reasons the proposed construction faces opposition today. At 14 stories tall, roughly half the height of the proposed new buildings, one gets dizzy just looking at it, doesn’t one? Okay, maybe not.
On a personal note, I will always have fond memories of the Key Bridge Marriott because it happened to be the location where the first great love of my life and I celebrated the occasion of her 18th birthday. (She later ditched me, found someone else and lived happily ever after. The second great love of my life, by contrast, suffered the great misfortune of being my wife for nearly thirty years now.) Nostalgia aside, however, the cityscape of Rosslyn not only does not overshadow the aesthetics of Washington architecture, it contributes to it. I can’t speak to questions of air traffic safety, but the notion that a thirty-some storey building or two will be a blight on the landscape of the Washington area is palpable nonsense.
That said, unlike Manhattan where real skyscrapers arose because land was at such a premium, there is no practical need for skyscrapers in most of the cities where they have been built. Tourists wishing to get a splendid view of Washington might well flock to the observation deck of a thirty-one storey building in Arlington, but that is hardly a compelling reason to build one.
No. The reason we build modern skyscrapers, unlike the reason we once built towering cathedrals or even soaring monuments to our Founding Fathers, is because the skyscraper is the ultimate symbol of Western civilization. It is, if you will, our monument not to gods or heroes but to ourselves as mere mortals; to our capabilities, our aspirations and our dreams. The 9/11 terrorists understood that, and that is precisely why we should continue to build them now.
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