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Instead, you find a life-size sculpture of two old men sitting by the side of the park playing chess. Lloyd Lillie made this sculpture. You and your friends take turns snapping pictures of each other pretending to tell the old man on the right, the one about to make a move, where to put his knight.
You cross Pennsylvania Avenue, passing a small, wild garden, to look at the statue of Civil War General George Meade in front of the United States Court House. Next to the courthouse is a quiet little park, rising by steps up a hill. The park is named after John Marshall, an early Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. You find a statue of him way in the back, but it doesn't interest you too much because you never heard of Justice Marshall.
You walk halfway up the block to see the one piece of art on display on Pennsylvania Avenue outside the museum. It is called "Untitled 1971-1977" by James Rosati. [Left photo] It is an odd sculpture. [Right photo] It looks like a series of metal heating vents. Maybe instead of "Untitled 1971-1977," Rosati should have called it: "Can't Think of a Title Although I Tried From 1971 to 1977."
The National Gallery of Art's East Building is on your left now, just across Third Street.
At Third Street, Pennsylvania Avenue opens up. It becomes the wide "Main Street of America." It has no wires overhead. The wires are underground. Traffic lights and signals are on the sides of the avenue and in the center. Every 4 years, the night before the President is sworn in, workers remove the lights from the center of Pennsylvania Avenue so the parade can march without being disrupted. All the crosswalks on Pennsylvania Avenue are made of brick.
From First to Third Avenue, the Avenue of the Presidents is not very impressive. It has one narrow lane of traffic in each direction. Cars are parked in four rows. Pennsylvania Avenue looks more like a parking lot than the grand boulevard of America that L'Enfant imagined 200 years ago.
You start at a small traffic circle at First Street. In the center of the circle is a statue honoring the officers, seamen, and marines of the U.S. Navy who served during the American Civil War (1861-1865). You will see several more statues honoring heroes of our Civil War and our other wars as you walk along Pennsylvania Avenue. As you look ahead, you can see the Washington Monument just off to the left. In the center of a small traffic circle is a statue honoring the U.S. Navy for its role in the American Civil War.
Imagine you are walking on Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House:
A while back, the Highway History Web site asked the Rambler to see if he could find anything interesting about General Roy Stone, first leader (1893-1899) of what is now the Federal Highway Administration, on the free archives of The New York Times.