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I'm sorry to be so late entering into the discussion of this subject. I've been studying the locations of the swamps of Washington for over twenty years while reconstructing the region's eighteenth century geography in map form. Though the many literary sources of information are interesting, the ease with which they may be interpreted to fit the analyst's predilections has become obvious in the foregoing exchanges. There is another body of evidence in the form of drawings, maps, plats, surveys and deed descriptions for which the purely textual references may be taken as supplementary. The following areas would have fit any or all of the proposed definitions of swamp at the end of the eighteenth century: 1) Northward from 18th and R, nearly to Florida Ave.. 2) Northeast from 17th and T St., N.W.. 3) A triangle filling the area from 1st and M, N.E. to 2nd and N, N.E. to 1st N.E. between N and O. 4) A small area centered on New Jersey and D, N.W.. 5) An extensive area covering the east end of the Mall. 6) Part of the Ellipse at the east end of Black Duck Gut. These areas add up to a minimum of about 100 acres of swamp in the city. With an original projected urban area of 6100 acres, the swamps were approximately 1.6% of the total. I have left out of consideration the many acres of tidal wetlands on the edges of the rivers and creeks which were either seasonal or peripheral. Those listed were permanent conditions in the natural landscape. The character of the land that would become the city changed radically as it was developed through the nineteenth century. New swamps came into existence and old ones were drained or filled. Eventualy they all disappeared, leaving the question, "Was Washington built on a swamp?" to which the accurate answer is "No, but it was built on a site that included swamps". Washington History vol.3, No. 1, Spring/Summer 1991, p.14 contains a map with my preliminary findings. Don Hawkins ADCHawk@aol.com Matthew Gilmore H-DC list co-editor, web editor dc-edit@mail.h-net.msu.edu http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~dclist/ [list website] http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/lists/subscribe.cgi?list=H-DC [subscribe to H-DC] Remember to check http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=lm&list=h-dc for past list messages.
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