The National Intelligencer And Washington Advertiser

WASHINGTON CITY.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1801.

It must be a cause of peculiar satisfaction
to the citizens of Washington, and of ge-
neral satisfaction to the citizens of the
United States, to observe the rapidity with
which improvements progress in our city.
We believe it may be safely affirmed that
no town in the Union has advanced so ra-
pidly in population. The improvements
that are now making, are on a scale of li-
beral extent, and aided, as they are, by na-
tional as well as individual patronage, they
bid fair in a short period to insure to the
metropolis all the advantages and comforts
of an old established city.

Among the public improvements made
directly by the general government, are
the Navy Yard, the Marine Barracks, and
the Marine Ware-House.

The Navy Yard appears to us, as far
as we are able to judge, to be a work
which, when completed, will reflect ho-
nor on the country. It is formed by the
projection of a wharf into the Eastern
Branch of 800 feet in length, by which
a dock of 1000 feet in diameter is made.
This dock will be so capacious as to con-
tain in perfect preservation, probably all
the naval materials for a long time requir-
ed by the United States, and certainly all
that portion which is likely to be deposited
in this dock.

On this work many workmen have been
employed during the past and present year;
and it has been conducted with so much
spirit under the faithful and active superin-
tendance of Capt. Tingey, that, if we may
form an opinion of the future from the
past, it will be fully completed during the
ensuing season.

The Marine Barracks are designed
to constitute a mass of brick buildings 600
feet in length. One half of this range of
apartments is already up, and will be soon
completed; when, or earlier, if attainable,
it is intended to raise the other part.
These buildings are two stories high, con-
structed with great neatness, and are situ-
ated on commanding ground in the neigh-
bourhood of the Navy Yard.

The Marine Ware-House is a com-
modious building, just raised, of three sto-
ries, 60 feet in front and 40 feet deep.
We understand, however, that it is not
sufficiently capacious for the extensive ob-
jects for which it is designed, and that it
is probable that another building of rather
larger size will be soon undertaken.

The improvements, projected by the
commissioners, principally consist of the
large Elliptical Room designed for the
House of Representatives, and the forma-
tion of several new, and the repair of other
old roads, which pass through the city.

The Elliptical Room, the walls
whereof are nearly raised, is 88 feet in
length and 66 feet in breadth. Its present
A Road, similarly constructed, is mak-
ing on the New-Jersey Avenue between
the Capitol and the Eastern Branch. In
the accomplishment of this object the de-
clivities of the abrupt hill to the south of
the Capitol have been removed, and when
the road shall be completed an easy inter-
course will be opened from the Branch to
the Capitol.

A Road, of the same kind, is in part
made, and in progress to completion on F
street, which forms a line somewhat diver-
gent from the Pennsylvania Avenue, and
is the scene of very extensive and hand-
some improvements already made.

In addition to these public objects, the
citizens are erecting by subscription a hand-
some Market House, in a central posi-
tion on the Pennsylvania Avenue between
the Capitol and the President's House; and
a company of public spirited citizens, who
are incorporated, have formed a fund for
erecting a Permanent Bridge over the
Eastern Branch; and we understand, that
as the resources in hand are fully compe-
tent to the object, no other delay, than
that which is unavoidable in the organiza-
tion of the company and the making of con-
tracts, will be incurred.

These are the prominent improvements
made by the government, or by the citizens
in their collective capacity. As, however,
might be expected from the spirit of the
American people, they bear but a small
proportion to that mass of improvement,
which is made or making by the individual
citizens. Owing to the extensive ground
plot of the city it would not, perhaps, be
easy to collect with precision the number of
houses lately erected; but we believe, that
we may be considered as speaking mode-
rately, when we state the number at 250.
which have been erected since the rise of
Congress, a period of six months. Of
these houses, few if any, are vacant.
We may therefore reckon upon an increase
of about one half of the population in the
city since that period. These houses are
of all descriptions, and all of them com-
mand liberal rents, which in this country
is an unequivocal evidence of prosperity.
Indeed so productive is property invested
in the erection of small commodious build-
ings, that we know not a part of the union
in which the labours of the carpenter and
the mason, aided by a moderate capital or
credit, insure so abundant a return. It is
a fact that the annual rent of this des-
cription of buildings in general exceeds
20 per cent. on the capital expended. We
are not, therefore, surprised at the greater
part of the recent improvements being of
this description. And we rejoice to see it.
For, while our citizens of large property
are not inattentive to the erection of houses
for the accommodation of persons in afflu-
ent circumstances, accustomed to move in
the higher spheres of society, which, while
they increase the elegance of the city, will
promote their convenience, it ought not
to be forgotten that in this country a large
city must rise, if at all, upon the industry
of the great body of the people, and parti-
cularly of that body, whose frugal, indu-
strious, and virtuous habits constitute them
the most useful and respectable class of ci-
tizens. On no stronger foundation can the
prosperity of Washington stand, than on
their well-directed and unintermitted la-
bours. These, while they tend to call in-
-to activity all the physical resources of so-
ciety, will be found to be of incalculable
importance to the moral character of the
city, which will owe much of its permanent
complexion to the early virtues of its citi-
zens.

It would be injustice to the citizens of
Washington to close these remarks with-
out noticing the political harmony that
universally prevails. While, in other parts
of the United States, hostile passions ha-
bitually break out in personal animosities,
destructive of social happiness, in the city
of Washington a spirit of political tole-
rance reigns, and men, however different
their opinions of public measures, unit
e with cordiality in the various intercourses
of business and pleasure.