The Restoration of the Name of Jefferson Davis to the Cabin John Bridge, Washington, District of Columbia: Being the Official Correspondence Leading to this Restoration

Confederated Southern Memorial Association (U.S.)

ene 1909 · Confederated southern memorial association

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The bridge design process had begun in 1853, during the administration of President Franklin Pierce and the Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis. Captain Meigs' 1861 order also called for a tablet on the west bridge abutment, with the title, "Washington Aqueduct" and listing the political leaders that were in office both at the start of the project and at its completion (i.e., Pierce and Davis; President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of War Simon Cameron). By 1862, however, Davis had left the Union to become President of the Confederate States of America. There was resentment among some members of Congress about the inscription of Davis' name on the bridge, and this led to an order that his name be removed from the tablet. The Department of the Interior, which was managing the aqueduct at that time, ordered the removal of the inscription. In 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt was asked by various constituents to restore Davis' name to the tablet. Roosevelt ordered the restoration.