The A to Z of Washington, D. C.

In 1791, Pierre Charles L'Enfant was hired as city planner of what would become Washington, D.C. However, after little more than a year, L'Enfant was dismissed after a dispute erupted involving the destruction of a mansion on Capitol Hill belonging to wealthy landowner Daniel Carroll that interfered with L'Enfant's vision of what would become our nation's capital. The original city surveyor, Andrew Ellicott, and his assistant, Benjamin Banneker, were asked to carry out the construction of the ci…