No one agrees. Yet the first step in any coherent planning for the Mall is coming to some agreement in defining the Mall's boundaries and its relationship to the historic L'Enfant Plan of 1791 and McMillan Plan of 1901-1902. |
 |
|
The Mall has two historic plans, the L'Enfant Plan (white) and the expanded McMillan Plan (yellow), which provide the basis for defining the Mall's physical boundaries. However, the National Park Service defines the "Mall" and "National Mall" in at least four different ways (aqua, red, green, and pink) while DC Government has yet another definition (orange). Congress in 2003 (Public Law 108-126, Title II) defined the Mall as the "great cross-axis...which generally extends from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial, and from the White House to the Jefferson Memorial." However, a 2003 Congressional Research Service report states that there is "no statutory description or map of the Mall." |