| I spent 13 years working at 12th and Constitution, in downtown Washington (from 1968 to 1981). I worked directly across the street from the Smithsonian's Museum of American History (then known as the Museum of History and Technology). The Washington Monument was two blocks away. The White House was only about four blocks away. I was one block from the Mall and the rest of the Smithsonian. I still remember the feeling of awe I had when I first arrived back in the fall of 1968 (LBJ was president) and looked around at the incredible monuments to history that I was was so close to. During the time I was there, I was a witness to history. Among many other things I experienced in Washington, I saw presidents (live and via their funerals), senators, and Congressmen. I met an astronaut who had flown around the moon and on the Apollo-Soyuz. I was witness to multiple anti-Vietnam war demonstrations. I was there during the entire Watergate episode and stood outside the White House when Richard Nixon departed after resigning from office. I was there when the first spade of earth was turned to build the Washington Metro and I got to ride the Metro before departing DC in December 1981. The Metro's Federal Triangle station was just below the building in which I worked. These vintage postcards are from an earlier period, probably the 1930s through the 1950s. They are all postally unused. The first is the view from the Treasury Department looking down Pennsylvania Avenue towards the Capitol. | |
