1.
National Register of Historic Places
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The National Register of Historic Places is the United States federal governments official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation. The passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 established the National Register, of the more than one million properties on the National Register,80,000 are listed individually. The remainder are contributing resources within historic districts, each year approximately 30,000 properties are added to the National Register as part of districts or by individual listings. For most of its history the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service and its goals are to help property owners and interest groups, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, coordinate, identify, and protect historic sites in the United States. While National Register listings are mostly symbolic, their recognition of significance provides some financial incentive to owners of listed properties, protection of the property is not guaranteed. During the nomination process, the property is evaluated in terms of the four criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, the application of those criteria has been the subject of criticism by academics of history and preservation, as well as the public and politicians. Occasionally, historic sites outside the proper, but associated with the United States are also listed. Properties can be nominated in a variety of forms, including individual properties, historic districts, the Register categorizes general listings into one of five types of properties, district, site, structure, building, or object. National Register Historic Districts are defined geographical areas consisting of contributing and non-contributing properties, some properties are added automatically to the National Register when they become administered by the National Park Service. These include National Historic Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Historical Parks, National Military Parks/Battlefields, National Memorials, on October 15,1966, the Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices. Initially, the National Register consisted of the National Historic Landmarks designated before the Registers creation, approval of the act, which was amended in 1980 and 1992, represented the first time the United States had a broad-based historic preservation policy. To administer the newly created National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service of the U. S. Department of the Interior, hartzog, Jr. established an administrative division named the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation. Hartzog charged OAHP with creating the National Register program mandated by the 1966 law, ernest Connally was the Offices first director. Within OAHP new divisions were created to deal with the National Register, the first official Keeper of the Register was William J. Murtagh, an architectural historian. During the Registers earliest years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, organization was lax and SHPOs were small, understaffed, and underfunded. A few years later in 1979, the NPS history programs affiliated with both the U. S. National Parks system and the National Register were categorized formally into two Assistant Directorates. Established were the Assistant Directorate for Archeology and Historic Preservation and the Assistant Directorate for Park Historic Preservation, from 1978 until 1981, the main agency for the National Register was the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service of the United States Department of the Interior. In February 1983, the two assistant directorates were merged to promote efficiency and recognize the interdependency of their programs, jerry L. Rogers was selected to direct this newly merged associate directorate
2.
United States Naval Observatory
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The USNO operates the Master Clock, which provides precise time to the GPS satellite constellation run by the United States Air Force. The USNO performs radio VLBI-based positions of quasars with numerous global collaborators, aside from its scientific mission, a house located within the Naval Observatory complex serves as the official residence of the Vice President of the United States. President John Quincy Adams, who in 1825 signed the bill for the creation of an observatory just before leaving presidential office, had intended for it to be called the National Observatory. The names National Observatory and Naval Observatory were both used for 10 years, until a ruling was passed to use the latter. Adams had made protracted efforts to bring astronomy to a level at that time. He spent many nights at the observatory, watching and charting the stars, established by the order of the United States Secretary of the Navy John Branch on 6 December 1830 as the Depot of Charts and Instruments, the Observatory rose from humble beginnings. Placed under the command of Lieutenant Louis M. Goldsborough, with an budget of $330, its primary function was the restoration, repair. It was made into an observatory in 1842 via a federal law. Lieutenant James Melville Gilliss was put in charge of obtaining the instruments needed, lt. Gilliss visited the principal observatories of Europe with the mission to purchase telescopes and scientific devices and books. The observatorys primary mission was to care for the United States Navys marine chronometers, charts and it calibrated ships chronometers by timing the transit of stars across the meridian. These facilities were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017, the first superintendent was Navy Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury. Maury had the worlds first vulcanized time ball, created to his specifications by Charles Goodyear for the U. S. Observatory and it was the first time ball in the United States, being placed into service in 1845, and the 12th in the world. Maury kept accurate time by the stars and planets, the time ball was dropped every day except Sunday precisely at the astronomically defined moment of Mean Solar Noon, enabling all ships and civilians to know the exact time. Time was also sold to the railroads and was used in conjunction with railroad chronometers to schedule American rail transport, early in the 20th century, the Arlington Time Signal broadcast this service to wireless receivers. In 1849 the Nautical Almanac Office was established in Cambridge, Massachusetts as a separate organization and it was moved to Washington, D. C. in 1866, colocating with the U. S. Naval Observatory in 1893. On September 20,1894, the NAO became a branch of USNO, the astronomical measurements taken of the transit of Venus by a number of countries since 1639 resulted in a progressively more accurate definition of the AU. Relying heavily on methods, the naval observers returned 350 photographic plates in 1874. This calculated distance was a significant improvement over several previous estimates, the telescope used for the discovery of the Moons of Mars was the 26-inch refractor, then located at Foggy Bottom
3.
Washington meridians
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The Washington meridians are four meridians that were used as prime meridians in the United States and pass through Washington, D. C. The four which have been specified are, through the Capitol through the White House through the old Naval Observatory through the new Naval Observatory. NAD83 longitude of the Capitol is about 1.1 arc seconds less than its NAD27 longitude, pierre Charles LEnfant specified the first meridian in his 1791 Plan of the city intended for the permanent seat of the government of the United States. His plan stated near its side that the longitude of the Congress house, now called the Capitol, was 0. LEnfants plan contained the following note, In order to execute the above plan. These lines were measured, and made the basis on which the whole plan was executed. He ran all the lines by an instrument, and determined the acute angles by actual measurement. The longitude of the center of the Capitols dome is now given by the National Geodetic Survey as 77°0032. 6W, the west side of LEnfants triangle forms a natural prime meridian passing through the Presidents house. The following nine features on and near this Washington Meridian are listed south to north, The center of the Jefferson Memorial. The wooden post was replaced by the Jefferson Pier in 1804, after removal and replacement several times, it was permanently replaced in 1889 by a 2-foot-square, 2-foot-tall, granite pier, now 390 feet WNW of the center of the Washington Monument. NGS gives its longitude as 77°0211. 56258W as of 2002, azimuth to the Capitol is 89.98 degrees, a discrepancy of just under a meter. In 1890 the Meridian Stone was set at the center of the Ellipse and it is an 18-inch-square granite post set flush with the ground. NGS gives its longitude as 77°0211. 55880W as of 2002, in 1923, the Zero Milestone was set on the north side of the Ellipse, intended to be on the same meridian and to be the zero mileage point for all United States roads. It is a granite pillar about 18 inches square and about 3.5 feet tall, NGS gives its longitude as 77°0211. 57375W as of 2002. The center of the White House, clark Mills equestrian statue of President Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Park, erected on the meridian in 1853. 16th Street Northwest, which extends due north from the White House, the meridian is sometimes identified as the 16th Street Meridian because of the location of this street. The following feature on this meridian no longer exists and it was a small freestone obelisk placed in 1804 on top of a hill 1.5 miles north of the Presidents House, hence the name Meridian Hill. It was at the end of 16th Street, just north of Florida Avenue, before 16th Street was extended northward about 1890
4.
Bureau of Medicine and Surgery
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The Bureau of Medicine and Surgery is an agency of the United States Department of the Navy that manages health care activities for the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps. BUMED operates hospitals and other care facilities as well as laboratories for biomedical research. Its headquarters is located at the Defense Health Headquarters in Falls Church, BUMED has 63,000 medical personnel and more than a million eligible beneficiaries. BUMED was one of the original five Navy bureaus formed in 1842 to replace the Board of Navy Commissioners and it is one of two bureaus still in existence. BUMED was housed at the Old Naval Observatory from 1942 until 2012, in 2005, Navy Medicine aligned its shore facilities into four overarching commands, Navy Medicine East, Navy Medicine West, Navy Medicine National Capital Area, and Navy Medicine Support Command. In 2012, Navy Medicine Support Command was renamed and realigned into the Navy Medicine Education and Training Command, with its non-training units becoming independent under BUMED. All three military medical commands were all moved to share the new Defense Health Headquarters facility in Falls Church with DHA, again as a result of the 2005 Base Realignment. The commanding officer of BUMED is the Surgeon General of the United States Navy, BUMED is divided into ten departments, each referred to with an alphanumerical code. Each of the corps is headed by a rear admiral, except for the Hospital Corps. The other department heads are mostly either rear admirals or civilians, USNS Mercy, San Diego, California USNS Comfort, Norfolk, Virginia 9
5.
Walter Reed National Military Medical Center
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It is one of the most prominent U. S. military medical centers in the Washington, D. C. metropolitan area and the United States, having served numerous U. S. presidents since the 20th century. Ground was broken by John McShain Builders for the Naval Medical Center on June 29,1939 by Rear Admiral Percival S. Rossiter, MC, President Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of the Tower on Armistice Day, November 11,1940. The original Medical Center was composed of the Naval Hospital, designed to hold 1,200 beds, and the Naval Medical School, the Naval Dental School and the Naval Medical Research Institute. In 1945, at the end of World War II, temporary buildings were added to accommodate up to 2,464 wounded American sailors, in November 1963, the autopsy of U. S. President John F. Kennedy was performed at Bethesda. On November 22,1963, President Kennedy was shot and killed while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas with his wife, Jacqueline, Texas Governor John Connally, the wounded president was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The Parkland doctors and local coroner insisted that they perform the autopsy, however, with concern for the security of the new president, Lyndon B. Johnson, the Secret Service demanded that the presidents body would be taken to Washington. This decision was made to overrule Texas law, an autopsy was performed at Bethesda Naval Hospital during the evening of November 22,1963. The manner in which the autopsy was conducted and photographic analysis of it have become the subject of controversy, franklin D. Roosevelt selected the site of the hospital, laid the cornerstone, and made formal dedication remarks at the hospitals opening on November 11,1940. When NNMC was dedicated in 1942, its intention was to provide medical care to military personnel only. With that, an official White House doctor was appointed by the President to sort out issues with him. Each president pays for any of his medical expenses personally, ronald Reagan, on July 13,1985, underwent surgery to remove polyps from his colon. At this time, Reagan was 76 years old, first Lady Nancy Reagan, on October 17,1987, underwent a mastectomy due to breast cancer. In August 1960, a $5.6 million expansion project was initiated and consisted of two wings attached to the main buildings east side. Completed in the summer of 1963, Buildings 7 and 8 provided space for 258 beds, the new inpatient buildings and the Naval Medical Center were consolidated into one command on September 1,1973, to form National Naval Medical Center. In 1979, the temporary buildings were replaced with a multi-level staff-parking garage. This addition made National Naval Medical Center one of the largest medical facilities in the country, the original Naval Medical Center tower was since listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the U. S. Department of the Interior. That merged facility was to be staffed by Army, Navy, groundbreaking took place on July 3,2008, with President George W. Bush officiating
6.
Central Intelligence Agency
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As one of the principal members of the U. S. Intelligence Community, the CIA reports to the Director of National Intelligence and is focused on providing intelligence for the President. Though it is not the only U. S. government agency specializing in HUMINT and it exerts foreign political influence through its tactical divisions, such as the Special Activities Division. Despite transferring some of its powers to the DNI, the CIA has grown in size as a result of the September 11 attacks. In 2013, The Washington Post reported that in fiscal year 2010, the CIA has increasingly expanded its roles, including covert paramilitary operations. One of its largest divisions, the Information Operations Center, has shifted focus from counter-terrorism to offensive cyber-operations, when the CIA was created, its purpose was to create a clearinghouse for foreign policy intelligence and analysis. Today its primary purpose is to collect, analyze, evaluate, and disseminate foreign intelligence, warning/informing American leaders of important overseas events, with Pakistan described as an intractable target. Counterintelligence, with China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, the Executive Office also supports the U. S. military by providing it with information it gathers, receiving information from military intelligence organizations, and cooperates on field activities. The Executive Director is in charge of the day to day operation of the CIA, each branch of the military service has its own Director. The Directorate has four regional groups, six groups for transnational issues. There is a dedicated to Iraq, regional analytical offices covering the Near East and South Asia, Russia and Europe, and the Asian Pacific, Latin American. The Directorate of Operations is responsible for collecting intelligence. The name reflects its role as the coordinator of intelligence activities between other elements of the wider U. S. intelligence community with their own HUMINT operations. This Directorate was created in an attempt to end years of rivalry over influence, philosophy, in spite of this, the Department of Defense recently organized its own global clandestine intelligence service, the Defense Clandestine Service, under the Defense Intelligence Agency. This Directorate is known to be organized by regions and issues. The Directorate of Science & Technology was established to research, create, many of its innovations were transferred to other intelligence organizations, or, as they became more overt, to the military services. For example, the development of the U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft was done in cooperation with the United States Air Force, the U-2s original mission was clandestine imagery intelligence over denied areas such as the Soviet Union. It was subsequently provided with signals intelligence and measurement and signature intelligence capabilities, subsequently, NPIC was transferred to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
7.
Office of Strategic Services
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The Office of Strategic Services was a wartime intelligence agency of the United States during World War II, and a predecessor of the modern Central Intelligence Agency. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branches of the United States Armed Forces, other OSS functions included the use of propaganda, subversion, and post-war planning. It had no direction, coordination, or control. The US Army and US Navy had separate code-breaking departments, Signal Intelligence Service, the FBI was responsible for domestic security and anti-espionage operations. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was concerned about American intelligence deficiencies, Colonel Donovan was employed to evaluate the global military position to offer suggestions concerning American intelligence requirements because the U. S. did not have a central intelligence agency. Thereafter the organization was developed with British assistance, Donovan had responsibilities but no actual powers, until some months after Pearl Harbor, the bulk of OSS intelligence came from the UK. The British immediately made available their short-wave broadcasting capabilities to Europe, Africa, during the war, the OSS supplied policymakers with facts and estimates, but the OSS never had jurisdiction over all foreign intelligence activities. The FBI was left responsible for work in Latin America. At the height of its influence during World War II, the OSS employed almost 24,000 people, OSS officer Archimedes Patti played a central role in OSS operations in French Indochina and met frequently with Ho Chi Minh in 1945. One of the greatest accomplishments of the OSS during World War II was its penetration of Nazi Germany by OSS operatives, the OSS was responsible for training German and Austrian individuals for missions inside Germany. Some of these agents included exiled communists and Socialist party members, labor activists, anti-Nazi prisoners-of-war, the OSS also recruited and ran one of the wars most important spies, the German diplomat Fritz Kolbe. In 1943, the Office of Strategic Services set up operations in Istanbul, turkey, as a neutral country during the Second World War, was a place where both the Axis and Allied powers had spy networks. The railroads connecting central Asia with Europe as well as Turkeys close proximity to the Balkan states placed it at a crossroads of intelligence gathering, the goal of the OSS Istanbul operation called Project Net-1 was to infiltrate and extenuate subversive action in the old Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires. Head of operations at OSS Istanbul was a banker from Chicago named Lanning Packy Macfarland who maintained the story as a banker for the American lend-lease program. Macfarland hired Alfred Schwarz, a Czechoslovakian engineer and businessman who came to be known as Dogwood, Dogwood in turn hired a personal assistant named Walter Arndt and established himself as an employee of the Istanbul Western Electrik Kompani. Through Schwartz and Arndt the OSS was able to infiltrate anti-fascist groups in Austria, Hungary, through this process information about the Nazi regime made its way to Macfarland and the OSS in Istanbul and eventually to Washington. While the OSS Dogwood-chain produced a lot of information, its reliability was increasingly questioned by British intelligence, eventually by May 1944 through collaboration between the OSS, British intelligence, Cairo and Washington the entire Dogwood-chain was found to be unreliable and dangerous. Planting phony information into the OSS was intended to misdirect the resources of the Allies, schwartzs Dogwood-chain, which was the largest American intelligence gathering tool in occupied territory, was shortly thereafter shut down
8.
National Park Service
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It was created on August 25,1916, by Congress through the National Park Service Organic Act and is an agency of the United States Department of the Interior. As of 2014, the NPS employs 21,651 employees who oversee 417 units, the National Park Service celebrated its centennial in 2016. National parks and national monuments in the United States were originally individually managed under the auspices of the Department of the Interior, the movement for an independent agency to oversee these federal lands was spearheaded by business magnate and conservationist Stephen Mather, as well as J. Horace McFarland. With the help of journalist Robert Sterling Yard, Mather ran a publicity campaign for the Department of the Interior and they wrote numerous articles that praised the scenic and historic qualities of the parks and their possibilities for educational, inspirational, and recreational benefits. This campaign resulted in the creation of a National Park Service, Mather became the first director of the newly formed NPS. On March 3,1933, President Herbert Hoover signed the Reorganization Act of 1933, the act would allow the President to reorganize the executive branch of the United States government. It wasnt until later that summer when the new President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Roosevelt agreed and issued two Executive orders to make it happen. In 1951, Conrad Wirth became director of the National Park Service, the demand for parks after the end of the World War II had left the parks overburdened with demands that could not be met. In 1952, with the support of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, he began Mission 66, New parks were added to preserve unique resources and existing park facilities were upgraded and expanded. In 1966, as the Park Service turned 50 years old, emphasis began to turn from just saving great and wonderful scenery, Director George Hartzog began the process with the creation of the National Lakeshores and then National Recreation Areas. Since its inception in 1916, the National Park Service has managed each of the United States national parks, Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the United States. In 1872, there was no government to manage it. Yosemite National Park began as a park, the land for the park was donated by the federal government to the state of California in 1864 for perpetual conservation. Yosemite was later returned to federal ownership, at first, each national park was managed independently, with varying degrees of success. In Yellowstone, the staff was replaced by the U. S. Army in 1886. Due to the irregularities in managing these national treasures, Stephen Mather petitioned the government to improve the situation. In response, Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane challenged him to lobby for creating a new agency, Mather was successful with the ratification of the National Park Service Organic Act in 1916. Later, the agency was given authority over other protected areas, the National Park System includes all properties managed by the National Park Service
9.
Heritage Documentation Programs
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These programs were established to document historic places in the United States. Records consist of measured drawings, archival photographs, and written reports, in 1933, NPS established the Historic American Buildings Survey following a proposal by Charles E. Peterson, a young landscape architect in the agency. It was founded as a constructive program for architects, draftsmen. Guided by field instructions from Washington, D. C. the first HABS recorders were tasked with documenting a representative sampling of Americas architectural heritage, by creating an archive of historic architecture, HABS provided a database of primary source material and documentation for the then-fledgling historic preservation movement. Earlier private projects included the White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs, notable HABS photographers include Jack Boucher, who worked for the project for over 40 years. The Historic American Engineering Record program was founded on January 10,1969, by NPS, HAER documents historic mechanical and engineering artifacts. Since the advent of HAER, the program is typically called HABS/HAER. Today much of the work of HABS/HAER is done by student teams during the summer, eric DeLony headed HAER from 1971 to 2003. In October 2000, NPS and the American Society of Landscape Architects established a sister program, a predecessor, the Historic American Landscape and Garden Project, recorded historic Massachusetts gardens between 1935 and 1940. That project was funded by the Works Progress Administration, but was administered by HABS, the permanent collection of HABS/HAER/HALS are housed at the Library of Congress, which was established in 1790 as the replacement reference library of the United States Congress. It has since expanded to serve as the National Library of the United States, U. S. publishers are required to deposit a copy of every copyrighted and published work, book monograph. As a branch of the United States Government, its works are in the public domain in the US. Many images, drawings, and documents are available through the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog, including proposed, demolished, and existing structures, locales, projects, and designs. Jack Boucher, former HABS/HAER photographer Jet Lowe, former HAER photographer National Register of Historic Places HAER,30 Years of Recording Our Technological Heritage, IA, The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology. Documenting Complexity, The Historic American Engineering Record and Americas Technological History, IA, The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology. National Park Service−NPS, official Heritage Documentation Programs website
10.
Historic districts in the United States
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Buildings, structures, objects and sites within a historic district are normally divided into two categories, contributing and non-contributing. Districts greatly vary in size, some have hundreds of structures, the U. S. federal government designates historic districts through the United States Department of Interior under the auspices of the National Park Service. Federally designated historic districts are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, state-level historic districts may follow similar criteria or may require adherence to certain historic rehabilitation standards. Local historic district designation offers, by far, the most legal protection for historic properties because most land use decisions are made at the local level, local districts are generally administered by the county or municipal government. The first U. S. historic district was established in Charleston, South Carolina in 1931, Charleston city government designated an Old and Historic District by local ordinance and created a board of architectural review to oversee it. New Orleans followed in 1937, establishing the Vieux Carré Commission, other localities picked up on the concept, with the city of Philadelphia enacting its historic preservation ordinance in 1955. The Supreme Court case validated the protection of resources as an entirely permissible governmental goal. In 1966 the federal government created the National Register of Historic Places, conference of Mayors had stated Americans suffered from rootlessness. By the 1980s there were thousands of federally designated historic districts, Historic districts are generally two types of properties, contributing and non-contributing. In general, contributing properties are integral parts of the historic context, in addition to the two types of classification within historic districts, properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places are classified into five broad categories. They are, building, structure, site, district and object, all but the eponymous district category are also applied to historic districts listed on the National Register. A listing on the National Register of Historic Places is governmental acknowledgment of a historic district, however, the Register is an honorary status with some federal financial incentives. The National Register of Historic Places defines a historic district per U. S. federal law, a district may also comprise individual elements separated geographically but linked by association or history. Districts established under U. S. federal guidelines generally begin the process of designation through a nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, the National Register is the official recognition by the U. S. government of cultural resources worthy of preservation. While designation through the National Register does offer a district or property some protections, if the federal government is not involved, then the listing on the National Register provides the site, property or district no protections. If, however, company A was under federal contract the Smith House would be protected, a federal designation is little more than recognition by the government that the resource is worthy of preservation. Usually, the National Register does not list religious structures, moved structures, reconstructed structures, however, if a property falls into one of those categories and are integral parts of districts that do meet the criteria then an exception allowing their listing will be made. Historic district listings, like all National Register nominations, can be rejected on the basis of owner disapproval, in the case of historic districts, a majority of owners must object in order to nullify a nomination to the National Register of Historic Places
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