America the Beautiful

For 19 years, the Christopher Columbus Memorial Fountain outside Washington, D.C.’s Union Station did not run. It sat there, dry, in one of the most important entrances to the nation’s capital, a dead fountain in front of the train station that greets members of Congress, tourists, commuters, foreign visitors, and schoolchildren coming to see the seat of their government. It stopped working in 2007 and remained broken through four presidencies. Then, this May, the water returned.

A civilization that can no longer make its fountains run has already accepted decay. A civilization that restores them has not yet surrendered.

The history of that fountain makes the point sharper. The Columbus Fountain stands before Union Station, designed by Daniel Burnham and sculpted by Lorado Taft, at a place America once understood to be the ceremonial gateway to the capital. Presidents, congressmen, students, tourists, and even Mr. Smith when he went to Washington, were greeted into the city by that splendid water and stone effigy of the Italian navigator.

The juxtaposition of the classical fountain’s placement opposite one of the grandest train halls of its day honored the spirit of Columbus with the meeting of the Old World and the New. Its inscription speaks of “high faith” and “indomitable courage.” When it was dedicated in 1912, Washington did not mark the occasion with a sterile ribbon-cutting or an ordinary press release. The city celebrated for three days. There were parades, concerts, prayers, wreaths, fireworks, the Marine Band, a 21-gun salute, and floats depicting the life and voyage of Columbus. Soldiers, sailors, Marines, Knights of Columbus, Italian societies, public officials, families, and ordinary citizens gathered in the capital. President Taft reviewed the parade at Union Station.