Talk:Washington, D.C. street design conspiracy theory/Archive1

There is evidence...
... that the streets of DC were designed by a Satanic conspiracy.

Driving in the District is, after all, hell. MDB (talk) 12:41, 7 June 2010 (UTC)


 * Yes, the streets are like spaghetti. Secret Squirrel (talk) 12:59, 7 June 2010 (UTC)

The Actual Conspiracy
The Founding Fathers and the architect decided to amuse themselves by putting in a few 'street patterns' whose only significance would be to puzzle map-readers in later generations.

The UK city of Bath apparently also has some 'Masonic arrangements.' 212.85.6.26 (talk) 19:05, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

J Street
There actually is no J Street in the alphabetic sequence, with several unsatisfying explanations:
 * Pierre L'Enfant hated Chief Justice John Jay
 * I and J were interchangeable in writing of the period.

For that matter, there's no B Street, but some early designs do seem to include them -- the names were changed to Independence and Constitution Avenues.

There isn't a X, Y, or Z Street, for probably practical reasons. Howard C. Berkowitz (talk) 07:24, 25 December 2011 (UTC)

Not A Conspiracy, just common themes of the day
Freemasonry has played a much greater role in society of the past. Its ideals of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity", helped shaped the thoughts of many great leaders of the time and since. This is not a Satanic conspiracy, but a philosophy of living that has played a big part in the culture of the United States, and its ideals as a nation.

Freemasonry also trades in a great number of symbols used as metaphors representing principles to build a nation by, as well as direct the common man. These symbols are derived from mathematics/geometry, and were incorporated into the street layout and architecture of DC, and many other cities, in the same way that corporate logos are incorporated into modern day architecture.

These serve as touchstones to remind people trained a certain way of certain ideas. In the past, these were ideals such as "Truth", "being square in your dealings with others", "being plumb", liberty and freedom and so forth. In our modern world, the golden arches remind us to eat hamburgers, the a peacock or searchlights remind you to watch a TV network.

The star (5 or 6 pointed), pentagram, pentagon, triangle, square, circle, pyramid (truncated or not), obelisk, the number 13, the number 33, and so forth are common symbols in freemasonry, and each have a specific meaning or meanings tied to morality pageants that teach certain principles of life. Given the strong Masonic influence on various US Presidents over the years, it should be no surprise that these symbols appear in the street layout of Washington, as reminders to future (Masonic) leaders to deal squarely and honestly with his constituents and the affairs of his nation.

So it is right to pull back from the nutters, as these symbols are by no means evidence of a satanic conspiracy.

But also don't be absolutely blind and say that it is pure chance, as it is not. It is like denying that a cross attached to a church is purely by chance, and has nothing to do with Christianity.

Washington was designed to have these symbols from day one.

As I say all of this, DC does not fully resemble its original plans, as many changes to its layout and territory have occurred since its inception and design by l'Enfant, including the star/pentagram "over" the White House. A perfect example of this is Alexandria, Virginia, which was originally part of DC, and completed the perfect square that DC was to have been, but was retroceded to Virginia in later times.
 * Which just goes to show the quality of "research" done by the typical conspiracy theorist. Sophie  Wilder  09:24, 20 April 2013 (UTC)