For the record, the City of Washington and the District of Columbia were not originally identical - Washington used to only cover a small part of the District - but they've been geographically coterminous and had a single government since home rule was passed in 1973
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So in the modern day they are, for all legal and practical purposes, the same entity
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(You can still find old markings in Old Town Alexandria across the river from when this was not the case, when the two cities in DC were Washington and Alexandria, before the Virginia side was retroceded in 1846 "Alexandria, DC Fire Department", etc)
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Fun fact - the primary reason for the Virginia retrocession is that abolitionists in Congress were pushing for an end to the slave trade in the District, and Old Town Alexandria had one of the region's largest slave markets and didn't want to see business disrupted
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Replying to @arthur_affect @FieryDarkstar
This, I did know, like many weird things about DC history, it was weird nonsense to preserve racism.
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Replying to @jamari_oneal @FieryDarkstar
The Virginia side of Rt. 1 is still called the fucking Jefferson Davis Highway!
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When I was a DC tour guide there was this Southern lady who gave me shit one day "Why are all these statues of Union generals? Where's General Lee?" "Well, ma'am, Washington DC was the capital of the Union, so after the war they put up honors for the Union leadership"
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*deep breath* "If you cross the river to Alexandria, which was on the Confederate side during the war - a very unique historical situation, with both sides' capitals so close to the border - you'll actually find many Confederate memorials"
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"But why aren't they here? In the capital? This is supposed to be the capital for all Americans, North and South I think not having a memorial for General Lee is very disrespectful"
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*biting my tongue so fucking hard* "Well it's a unique thing, ma'am, for the two sides in a civil war to come together again as they did in our country Feelings are often very bruised after a war, in most countries it would be rare to find memorials to the defeated side at all"
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"However, Arlington House, the former Lee-Custis mansion, although it is also technically over the river in Virginia, sits at the heart of Arlington National Cemetery and is today considered a memorial to General Lee Now THAT is itself a colorful history"
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"You see, during the war, Union General Montgomery Meigs -" "Are we going to see that on this tour?" "No, ma'am, as I said, Arlington National Cemetery is across the river, we have a separate tour -" "Well I think it sends a bad message to have no Confederate memorials in DC"
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It's like Jesus fucking Christ they lost the goddamn war and they've been given everything back and more and they're still not fucking happy Why in God's name should DC have put up memorials to the army that wanted to burn it to the fucking ground
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