Pierre Charles L'Enfant

This remarkable French art student at age 22 joined a group of French volunteers to the American War of Independnece. He saw action in Savannah and Charleston and ended the war with the rank of major. He was commisioned by George Washington to plan the nation's new capital - Washington DC. He chose the meeting place for Congress on the highest spot (Capital Hill) and the President's House on a ridge overlooking the Patomac River with a long promenade (the Mall) on a flat terrace between the two, overlaid by broad diagonal avenues. (Re: "Grand Avenues" by Scott W. Berg)