DC, Not A Swamp (1810)

This Day in Esoteric Political History

Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

History

4.6 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 13 April 2023

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s April 13th. This day 1810, a new canal is being built in Washington, DC in an attempt to give a little logic to the topography of the nation’s capital.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why DC was built where it was, and the persistent idea that DC is a “swamp” in both the literal and metaphorical sense.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.
0:07.0	My name is Jody Avergan.
0:10.0	Drain the Swamp is of course a phrase that has rung in all of our ears a lot over the last few
0:16.2	years the swampy mix of politicians and lobbyists and media elites that Donald Trump and others
0:21.1	in his circles love to rail against.
0:23.8	That's one swamp, but there is also another swamp,
0:26.9	the actual swamp that Washington, DC is said to have been built on.
0:31.2	And that is where we will start today, April 1810, when President
0:35.8	James Madison participated in a groundbreaking ceremony for the Washington Canal. The
0:41.2	Canal was a major project and it kind of started to give a little bit of logic to the topography
0:46.4	of the nation's capital and that combined with a master plan for the city from architect
0:51.7	Pierre Charles Lafourne. It kind of helped turn
0:54.3	this swamp into the city that we largely know today. So let's talk about DC
1:00.0	was it really built on a swamp? What does the swamp mean metaphorically and physically and topographically and more?
1:06.0	Here to do that as always are Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley. Hello there.
1:12.0	Hello Jody. Hello there.
1:12.7	Hello Jody.
1:13.8	Hey there.
1:14.8	So I went to high school in the DC area.
1:17.8	I kind of largely call it home.
1:20.5	But that sort of baseline notion like, oh, DC was built. uh... but you know that
1:23.0	baseline notion like oh DC was built on a swamp i mean it was used to explain a lot of things
	...

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