Washington DC was previously called Rome, and other odd details First Skippy pointed out here earlier that Washington DC was originally called Rome but I decided to continue a bit more on this.
Rome Maryland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome,_Maryland
In 1663, the property that would become the Capitol's site was inscribed in the Maryland property records as ?Rome,? its owner a man named Francis Pope. The southern boundary of this property was shaped by Tiber Creek named for the river that runs through Rome, Italy, the Tiber.
Of additional note is the following
On July 9, 1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, who signed the bill into law on July 16. Formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles (16 km) on each side
I have done extensive research on the beginnings of Washington, DC as my Burnes family owned much of the old downtown are of present-day Washington, DC. While conducting this research, I came across Francis Pope, one of the original owners of the land that became Washington, DC. Not only are we connected in that way, but Francis's wife, Margaret Porter, is probably the sister of another ancestor, Johanna Porter, the second wife of John Neville, who came to America on The Ark and The Dove. Below is from, "Original Patentees of Land at Washington," by Bessie Wilmarth Gahn:
"No. 7. Francis Pope, owner of "Rome" on the Tyber, June 5, 1663.
Here is a stunner.
"Moore writes of the Capital, not the Capitol! Perhaps he had never heard of Francis Pope, for certainly he would have mentioned "the Pope at Rome," or something to that effect in his verses. Yet, the popular interpretation has rooled on through the years, and many followers of the romantic now actually are convinced that Pope's "Rome" was on the site where our Nation's Capital Building now stands."
I'll close with a poem
"In fancy, now, beneath the twilight gloom, Come, let me lead thee o'er the second Rome Where tribunes rule, where dusky Davi* bow, And what was Goose creek once is Tiber now; This embryo Capital, where fancy sees Squares in morasses, oblelisks in trees Which second-sighted seers, even now adorn With shrines unbuilt and heroes yet unborn."
look at the murals on the walls and compare them to rome,the evidence is fascinating!!!
Link Provided: http://lunaticoutpost.com/Topic-Washington-DC-was-previously-called-Rome-and-other-odd-details
