Street lighting in Washington, D.C.
Congress has delegated a part of this authority to the Commission of Fine Arts, which controls the appearance of lighting standards in certain areas of the city.
[1] On July 9, 1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, created the national capital on the Potomac River.
The exact location was selected by President George Washington, who signed the bill into law on July 16.
[4] President Washington set the boundary of the new "Federal City" roughly where Pennsylvania Avenue NW is today.
[7] In the fall of 1800, Pennsylvania Avenue was cleared of underbrush, and a 6-foot-wide (1.8 m) raised footpath covered in stone chips was built.
[8][9][10] On March 3, 1803, President Thomas Jefferson ordered that Pennsylvania Avenue be widened and the road completed.
[11] Benjamin Henry Latrobe, the architect newly hired to supervise the avenue's reconstruction, built three lanes separated by four rows of Black Poplars.
[15] Congress passed legislation in 1842 ordering that Pennsylvania Avenue be lit with coal gas street lights.
[15] The first coal gas manufacturing plant was organized in the District of Columbia in 1848, nearly two decades after most major cities had them.
[18] Governor Henry D. Cooke rarely attended board of public works meetings, allowing Shepherd to dominate the body's deliberations.
With the city nearing bankruptcy,[17] Congress enacted legislation that repealed the Organic Act of 1871 on June 20, 1874.
After much legal wrangling, PEPCO won a contract in December 1896 to light streets east of Rock Creek.
[29] The United States Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) has statutory authority to review all the "design and aesthetics" of all construction within Washington, D.C. Beginning in 1897, many groups severely criticized the aesthetic quality of the buildings, bridges, and other sundry infrastructure of the District of Columbia.
[31][32][33][34] The 1910 legislation establishing the CFA gave the commission the power to only provide advice on the siting of monuments and memorials.
[35] On November 28, 1913, President Woodrow Wilson issued Executive Order 1862, which expanded the CFA's advisory authority to cover any "new structures...which affect in any important way the appearance of the City, or whenever questions involving matters of art and with which the federal government is concerned..."[36] Executive Order 3524, issued by President Warren G. Harding on July 28, 1921, further expanded the CFA's review to the design of coins, fountains, insignia, medals, monuments, parks, and statues, whether constructed or issued by the federal government or the government of the District of Columbia.
[39][40] In December 1922,[41] the CFA undertook an initiative to both improve the street lighting in certain areas of the District of Columbia as well as design an aesthetically pleasing and uniform lamppost.
The post simple in its design, contained room for electrical wires and equipment in its hollow shaft and base, and was easily cleaned.
[43] The two-arm model was initially rejected by the CFA, however, because the arms appeared "stuck on" and not integral to the design.
Under DDOT guidelines and regulations adopted in February 2013, different type of street lights are permitted to be used in the District of Columbia.
[47] DDOT regulations provide for the use of three type of lamps: sodium-vapor, metal halide, mercury-vapor, LED, fluorescent, and incandescent.
Glass globes (which cost $300 in 2013) are being phased out, as they can seriously injure individuals and cause property and automobile damage when they break.
[52] Under federal law and DDOT regulations, streets in the District of Columbia are classified as historic or non-historic.
