[lightning]

I've heard a alot of rumours about the Freemasons over the years and was wondering if any are true. The main one that sticks in my head, is that they were tantamount, if not solely responsible, for the design and lay-out of the city of Washington D.C.. Id that true?

[Ashlar2006]

Major Pierre L'Enfant , who some claim was a Freemason but there is no evidence to the fact that he was , was commissioned by George Washinton to design the city of Washington . As for the forming any symbols in the street plans , if any show up it is simply a matter of consequence or fanciful thinking . Take for example the "inverted pentegram" , it had NO particular meaning in 1792 and was not considered evil at the time . It was not until around 1861 that it was considered evil because of the writings of Eliphas Levi , which is quite a few years after the layout of Washington DC was completed . And these lines were unfinished to boot . If a Mason or Masons wanted to include an inverted pentegram in the street plan , wouldn't they have had the forsight to make it a complete pentegram ?

[Jason]

A little off topic, and do not mean to offend anyone, but I personally love to point out the evil dachshund in the streets of D.C. I think it provides a bit of humor, plus shows that if you look hard enough you can see just about anything. I also read a story there a lot more pentagrams in NYC streets then in DC.

[Ashlar2006]

I have an overhead picture of my city . In it you will find the general shape of a turtle in the street layouts . Does this mean the founders of my town worshiped the Mighty Box Turtle ? LOL , no it does not . It is just how the city was laid out to make it easier to get from point A to point B quickly and to get around topographical obstructions and existing buildings and to keep the governmental/important buildings in the center of this area as a matter of convenience .

[Ashlar2006]

Originally Posted by Jason

A little off topic, and do not mean to offend anyone, but I personally love to point out the evil dachshund in the streets of D.C. I think it provides a bit of humor, plus shows that if you look hard enough you can see just about anything. I also read a story there a lot more pentagrams in NYC streets then in DC.

If I am remembering correctly , one can find a "pentegram" in the layout of the streets of Paris , France . It all boils down to a consequential set of circumstances that lead to these things . If you have a building in which you will have a lot of traffic leading to and fro , you will need to lay out the roads just so as not to conjest the area . And if there are several buildings in different areas , you will want a way to connect these buildings so that it is easy to navigate in a straight shot if at all possible and in turn certain streets will form from an aerial view certain patterns without any forethought of it's designer , just a lucky happenstance.

[486]

And in old cities, where horse-drawn carriages were the original mode of transportation, some corners ("carriage corners") are wider than 90 degrees, meaning that complementary angles on the same "block" would be less than 90 degrees (making points from an aerial view).

[alice30]

Sometimes when I am laying on the ground looking at the could I could swear I see a pentagram shaped cloud. It is a good thing that the circle wasn't used to convey evil or we would not be able to use the wheel.

[Ashlar2006]

LOL , very true .

[Tensolator]

Chris Hodapp's "Solomon's Builders" gives an excellent researched explanation of the planning and building of Washington D.C. George Washington was activiley involved with L'Enfant in the aspects of planning. The Dachsund was snuck in by Hessian soldiers still angry over losing the War with the Colonies. (Sorry, I couldn't help it...)

[sukie]

Isn't the author Dan Brown responsible for most of these speculations? I know that my father was a Mason in his native Scotland and was very secretive about what his lodge did, but I would never have suspected him of anything untoward.