...ter the accident. In that day the culvert was not wider than the avenue, and, even in 1845, the sidewalk had no pavement. The boards laid across had no handrail or other guide: so quickly has Washington sprung into a large, bustling, and well-ordered City! Then, the mall began in the first square below the Capitol grounds, and stretched for half a mile to the east, a grassy common, marshy, and at ...