The following is a theoretical reconstruction of the ideal grid template for the Washington DC map plan which presumes the relocation of the CB and Jeff Mml, with apologies to those who do not find the topology arguement convincing.

In the figure below, imagine the red dot at the center to be the White House location on the 16th Street axis. The '0' line is the Capitol Street axis running through the Capitol Building. Pennsylvannia Avenue runs from Georgetown in the northwest past the WH to the CB.

The '32' line is symmertical to the '0' line. As the grid is composed of equilateral triangles, from 0 to 32 is 32 times the height of these triangles.

Thr blue rectagonal grid is spaced 8 'heights of the triangle' in width and spaced 8 'sides of the triangle' in height. The sides of the red rhombus are also 8 sides wide in both directions. Remember that if the sides and short axis of the rhombus is 1 then the long axis equals the sqrt of 3 (1.732), meaning that the triangles making up this grid have sides of 1 and a height of .866.

The blue grid measures 8 tall x 6.92 wide here and produces diagonals of 30 degrees. If we were to adjust the width so that the blue grid was 8 x8 (square), the diagonals would be at 26.5 degrees.

Click for larger image

Penn Ave runs from Georgetown to the CB through the WH. NY and Penn Aves cross at the WH, while Mass and Rh Is cross at Scott Circle. These four represent the isometric grid in the map and outline what I choose to call the 'cental rhombus' just north of the WH, bounded on the east by Mt Vernon Sq, on the west by Washington Cr, and on the north by Scott Cr.

New Hampshire Ave (left side of triangle below) represents the equilateral (rotated triangular) grid superimposed on the isometric grid. The sides of the triangle cross Mass Ave at DuPont Cr and Rh Is at Logan Cr, locating for us the top two points of the pentagram. Conn runs from the WH through DuPont Cr, while Vermont runs from the WH through Logan Cr, and K St connects Mt Vernon Sq and Wash Cr.

In the map the large triangle is reduced to ~52 degree base angles producing 23 degree diagonals.

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Changes

We know that the CB is not located in the spot predicted by the image above, but is located well 'above' there. The first thing that does is to put a bend in Penn Ave. This results in a similar bend in NYA (south west of the WH) since the map is symmetrical around 16th St.

Maryland Avenue (from the CB to the Jeff Mml) is like wise deflected because the map is symmetrical around the E Capitol Street axis. This moves the Jeff Mml to the north, which positioned the House of the Temple that is the same distance from the WH as the Jeff Mml is.

The Washington Monument was (theoretically) supposed to have been built due south of the WH and due west of the CB. Moving the CB adjusted this location to the north. As it turns out, that monument was finally located south and east of the revised/planned location (still north and east of the ideal spot).

This location of the Wash Mml determines the alignment of Virginia Ave which runs from the east branch to the memorial (parallel to Penn Ave), crossing Maryland on the way. The Wash Mml was used to position the Lincoln Mmeorial, so the line to it is running about 1 degree downhill from the center of the CB.

You will note that the majority of the monumental locations in the map (except for the top points of the pentagram) fall on places where red lines cross on blue axes. The Lincoln Mml is the largest monument that does not fit this pattern. Had the CB been to the south the Linc Mml would have fallen where two blue lines cross. I believe that a better location for that, as per the grid, would have been the south west corner of the triangle.

Extending New Hampshire past the 32 line to Arlington, then reflecting that back though the Lincoln Mml to the Ellipse soutb of the WH appears to be an attempt to tie the monument back in with the 'correct' grid since Memorial Avenue appears to parallel the lines in that.

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