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Boundary Channel is a channel off the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. The channel begins at the northwestern tip of Columbia Island extends southward between Columbia Island and the Virginia shoreline. It curves around the southern tip of Columbia Island before heading northeast to exit into the Potomac River. At the southwestern tip of Columbia Island, the Boundary Channel widens into the manmade Pentagon Lagoon .

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87-555: Columbia Island is in part natural, and in part man-made. About 1818, Analostan Island (now known as Theodore Roosevelt Island ) was largely rock and quite close to the D.C. shoreline. Due to deforestation and increased agricultural use upstream, the river eroded much of the northern bank of the Potomac River and widened the gap between Analostan Island and the shore. Simultaneously, large deposits of silt built up around Analostan Island. By 1838, Analostan had almost doubled in length toward

174-463: A houseboat anchored in the lagoon, was charged with her murder. It quickly became apparent that Holmes was insane (and had, in fact, escaped from a Virginia mental hospital in 1931). The phrase "Pentagon lagoon" was first used by the federal government in 1945, but the formal name "Pentagon Lagoon" was not used until 1946. When the Pentagon Lagoon was surveyed in 2000, the eastern entrance channel

261-589: A charter for a turnpike to connect his ferry landing with the Washington-Alexandria turnpike that Congress had chartered the previous year (and which would follow what became U.S. Route 1 and compete with his ferry for traffic). John Mason also diversified his income-producing activities, operating a ferry between Georgetown and the Virginia shore until construction of the Aqueduct Bridge in 1843 (superseded by

348-603: A columnist. In 2018, Khashoggi was murdered by Saudi agents in Istanbul . In October 2023, the Post announced it would cut 240 jobs across the organization by offering voluntary separation packages to employees. In a staff-wide email announcing the job cuts, interim CEO Patty Stonesifer wrote, "Our prior projections for traffic, subscriptions and advertising growth for the past two years — and into 2024 — have been overly optimistic". The Post has lost around 500,000 subscribers since

435-485: A former Democratic congressman from Ohio. To promote the newspaper, the new owners requested the leader of the United States Marine Band , John Philip Sousa , to compose a march for the newspaper's essay contest awards ceremony. Sousa composed " The Washington Post ". It became the standard music to accompany the two-step, a late 19th-century dance craze, and remains one of Sousa's best-known works. In 1893,

522-511: A front-page story which advertised the location at which white servicemen were planning to meet to carry out attacks on black Washingtonians. In 1929, financier Eugene Meyer , who had run the War Finance Corp. since World War I , secretly made an offer of $ 5 million for the Post, but he was rebuffed by Ned McLean. On June 1, 1933, Meyer bought the paper at a bankruptcy auction for $ 825,000 three weeks after stepping down as Chairman of

609-497: A major role in the resignation of President Richard Nixon , won the newspaper a Pulitzer Prize in 1973. In 1972, the "Book World" section was introduced with Pulitzer Prize-winning critic William McPherson as its first editor. It featured Pulitzer Prize-winning critics such as Jonathan Yardley and Michael Dirda , the latter of whom established his career as a critic at the Post . In 2009, after 37 years, with great reader outcries and protest, The Washington Post Book World as

696-429: A pseudonym. His wife Agnes Ernst Meyer was a journalist from the other end of the spectrum politically. The Post ran many of her pieces including tributes to her personal friends John Dewey and Saul Alinsky . In 1946, Meyer was appointed head of World Bank , and he named his son-in-law Phil Graham to succeed him as Post publisher. The post-war years saw the developing friendship of Phil and Kay Graham with

783-449: A series of individual stories..." He has been described as a "hands-off owner", holding teleconference calls with executive editor Martin Baron every two weeks. Bezos appointed Fred Ryan (founder and CEO of Politico ) to serve as publisher and chief executive officer. This signaled Bezos' intent to shift the Post to a more digital focus with a national and global readership. In 2015,

870-531: A standalone insert was discontinued, the last issue being Sunday, February 15, 2009, along with a general reorganization of the paper, such as placing the Sunday editorials on the back page of the main front section rather than the "Outlook" section and distributing some other locally oriented "op-ed" letters and commentaries in other sections. However, book reviews are still published in the Outlook section on Sundays and in

957-568: A story about his past ties to a phone hacking scandal, have further shaken the newsroom's morale. Lewis continues to grapple with declining revenue and audience on the business front, seeking strategies to regain subscribers lost since the Trump era. Later that month, the paper ran a story allegedly exposing a connection between incoming editor Robert Winnett and John Ford, a man who "admitted to an extensive career using deception and illegal means to obtain confidential information." Winnett withdrew from

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1044-470: Is also an area of fresh-water tidal (estuarine) marsh , and a few small bedrock outcrops of metamorphic Piedmont rock, some along the tidal shore. The variety of freshwater estuarine intertidal habitats along the island's shores is particularly notable. The island is particularly known for its variety of birds and its showy displays of spring wildflowers . However, dozens of non-native invasive plants have become abundant there, often outcompeting

1131-480: Is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. , the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington metropolitan area and has a national audience. As of 2023, the Post  has 135,980 print subscribers and 2.5 million digital subscribers, both of which are the third-largest among U.S. newspapers after The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal . The Post

1218-539: Is maintained by the National Park Service , as part of the nearby George Washington Memorial Parkway . The land is generally maintained as a natural park, with various trails and a memorial plaza featuring a statue of Roosevelt. No cars or bicycles are permitted on the island, which is reached by a footbridge from Arlington, Virginia , on the western bank of the Potomac. According to the National Park Service : "In

1305-553: Is regarded as one of the leading daily American newspapers along with The New York Times , the Los Angeles Times , and The Wall Street Journal . The Post has distinguished itself through its political reporting on the workings of the White House, Congress, and other aspects of the U.S. government. It is considered a newspaper of record in the U.S. The Washington Post does not print an edition for distribution away from

1392-757: The East Coast . In 2009, the newspaper ceased publication of its National Weekly Edition due to shrinking circulation. The majority of its newsprint readership is in Washington, D.C., and its suburbs in Maryland and Northern Virginia. The newspaper's 21 current foreign bureaus are in Baghdad , Beijing , Beirut , Berlin , Brussels , Cairo , Dakar , Hong Kong , Islamabad , Istanbul , Jerusalem , London , Mexico City , Moscow , Nairobi , New Delhi , Rio de Janeiro , Rome , Seoul , Tokyo , and Toronto . In November 2009,

1479-606: The Mount Vernon Trail south from the intersection of Langston Boulevard and North Lynn Street in Rosslyn , near Key Bridge. The closest Washington Metro station to the island is the Rosslyn station . Several hiking trails provide access to the memorial and a variety of the island's natural habitats, including a boardwalk through a swampy and marshy area. The Washington Post The Washington Post , locally known as The Post and, informally, WaPo or WP ,

1566-724: The Pentagon Papers helped spur opposition to the Vietnam War . Reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein led the investigation into the break-in at the Democratic National Committee , which developed into the Watergate scandal and the 1974 resignation of President Richard Nixon . In October 2013, the Graham family sold the newspaper to Nash Holdings , a holding company owned by Jeff Bezos , for $ 250 million. As of 2024,

1653-562: The Post for two years before selling it in 1905 to John Roll McLean , owner of the Cincinnati Enquirer . During the Wilson presidency, the Post was credited with the "most famous newspaper typo " in D.C. history according to Reason magazine; the Post intended to report that President Wilson had been "entertaining" his future-wife Mrs. Galt, but instead wrote that he had been "entering" Mrs. Galt. When McLean died in 1916, he put

1740-516: The Post moved from the building it owned at 1150 15th Street to a leased space three blocks away at One Franklin Square on K Street . Since 2014 the Post has launched an online personal finance section, a blog, and a podcast with a retro theme. The Post won the 2020 Webby People's Voice Award for News & Politics in the Social and Web categories. In 2017, the newspaper hired Jamal Khashoggi as

1827-533: The Post with two remaining local competitors, the Washington Star ( Evening Star ) and The Washington Daily News . In 1972, the two competitors merged, forming the Washington Star-News. Following Graham's death in 1963, control of The Washington Post Company passed to his wife, Katharine Graham (1917–2001), who was also Eugene Meyer's daughter. Few women had run prominent national newspapers in

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1914-608: The Post 's average printed weekday circulation is 139,232, making it the third largest newspaper in the country by circulation. For many decades, the Post had its main office at 1150 15th Street NW. This real estate remained with Graham Holdings when the newspaper was sold to Jeff Bezos' Nash Holdings in 2013. Graham Holdings sold 1150 15th Street, along with 1515 L Street, 1523 L Street, and land beneath 1100 15th Street, for $ 159 million in November 2013. The Post continued to lease space at 1150 L Street NW. In May 2014, The Post leased

2001-688: The Potomac River in Washington, D.C. During the Civil War , it was used as a training camp for the United States Colored Troops . The island was given to the federal government by the Theodore Roosevelt Association in memory of the 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt . Until then, the island had been known as My Lord's Island , Barbadoes Island , Mason's Island , Analostan Island , and Anacostine Island . The island

2088-442: The 1930s landscape architects transformed Mason’s Island from neglected, overgrown farmland into Theodore Roosevelt Island, a memorial to America’s 26th president. They conceived a 'real forest' designed to mimic the natural forest that once covered the island. Today miles of trails through wooded uplands and swampy bottomlands honor the legacy of a great outdoorsman and conservationist." A small island, Little Island , lies just off

2175-508: The City of Alexandria and was renamed Arlington County). After Carter died in 1851, the island passed to William A. Bradley . Nonetheless, in 1854, the island again hosted an entertainment, this time given by the late John Mason's daughter Anna Maria (who had married Sydney Smith Lee in 1834) to mark a treaty opening Japan to foreign trade (Captain Lee having served under Commodore Matthew C. Perry on

2262-511: The Federal Reserve . He had bid anonymously, and was prepared to go up to $ 2 million, far higher than the other bidders. These included William Randolph Hearst , who had long hoped to shut down the ailing Post to benefit his own Washington newspaper presence. The Post 's health and reputation were restored under Meyer's ownership. In 1946, he was succeeded as publisher by his son-in-law, Philip Graham . Meyer eventually gained

2349-696: The Kennedys, the Bradlees and the rest of the " Georgetown Set", including many Harvard University alumni that would color the Post's political orientation. Kay Graham's most memorable Georgetown soirée guest list included British diplomat and communist spy Donald Maclean . The Post is credited with coining the term " McCarthyism " in a 1950 editorial cartoon by Herbert Block . Depicting buckets of tar, it made fun of Sen. Joseph McCarthy 's "tarring" tactics, i.e., smear campaigns and character assassination against those targeted by his accusations. Sen. McCarthy

2436-550: The Key Bridge in 1923), as well as from 1817 until 1838 serving as the last president of the Potowmack Company (founded in 1774 with George Washington as its first President and in order to deepen the Potomac's channel and build locks around the principal falls). Using federal funds and private funds raised by Georgetown merchants, a causeway from the Virginia shore to the island was constructed after debris from flooding in

2523-513: The Potomac River and enlarge Columbia Island, so on April 1, 1925, Secretary of War John W. Weeks ordered the expenditure of $ 114,500 to dredge the river between the Highway Bridge and the Lincoln Memorial . The dredged material was dumped on Columbia Island. By June 30, 1927, dredging of the Potomac River and the reshaping of Columbia Island was largely finished. Boundary Channel marks

2610-574: The Potomac River, separates the island from the Virginia bank of the Potomac, with the main channel of the Potomac between the island and Georgetown , part of Washington, D.C. Surrounding scenery includes the Potomac Gorge and Key Bridge , Georgetown , Rosslyn , and the Kennedy Center . The Virginia state line follows the southern bank of the river, so, despite the fact that the primary access to

2697-589: The Style section the rest of the week, as well as online. In 1975, the pressmen's union went on strike . The Post hired replacement workers to replace the pressmen's union, and other unions returned to work in February 1976. Donald E. Graham , Katharine's son, succeeded her as a publisher in 1979. In 1995, the domain name washingtonpost.com was purchased. That same year, a failed effort to create an online news repository called Digital Ink launched. The following year it

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2784-487: The United States. In her autobiography, Katharine Graham described her own anxiety and lack of confidence when she stepped into a leadership role. She served as publisher from 1969 to 1979. Graham took The Washington Post Company public on June 15, 1971, in the midst of the Pentagon Papers controversy. A total of 1,294,000 shares were offered to the public at $ 26 per share. By the end of Graham's tenure as CEO in 1991,

2871-554: The Vietnam War in 1971 when it published the Pentagon Papers . In the mid-1970s, some conservatives referred to the Post as " Pravda on the Potomac " because of its perceived left-wing bias in both reporting and editorials. Since then, the appellation has been used by both liberal and conservative critics of the newspaper. In the PBS documentary Buying the War , journalist Bill Moyers said in

2958-518: The War. In 1902, Berryman published another famous cartoon in the Post – Drawing the Line in Mississippi . This cartoon depicts President Theodore Roosevelt showing compassion for a small bear cub and inspired New York store owner Morris Michtom to create the teddy bear. Wilkins acquired Hatton's share of the newspaper in 1894 at Hatton's death. After Wilkins' death in 1903, his sons John and Robert ran

3045-467: The acquisition. The combined newspaper was published from the Globe Building as The Washington Post and Union beginning on April 15, 1878, with a circulation of 13,000. The Post and Union name was used about two weeks until April 29, 1878, returning to the original masthead the following day. In 1889, Hutchins sold the newspaper to Frank Hatton , a former Postmaster General, and Beriah Wilkins ,

3132-473: The appointment of two white men to top editorial positions have sparked internal discontent, particularly given the lack of consideration for the Post's senior female editors. Additionally, Lewis' proposed division for social media and service journalism has met with resistance from staff. Recent reports alleging Lewis' attempts to influence editorial decisions, including pressuring NPR 's media correspondent to drop

3219-492: The authority of the U.S. Army, and later, the Freedmen's Bureau . Locals continued to call it "Mason's Island" until the memorial was built. Following the declaration of war against Spain in 1898, the island became a test site for a number of private experiments in electrical ignition of the explosives dynamite and joveite led by the chemist Charles Edward Munroe of Columbian University . Monroe's experiments, which explored

3306-474: The average water level. Boundary Channel was dredged and slightly widened in order to help provide this fill material. Due to silting and other issues, Boundary Channel is approximately 100 feet (30 m) wide as of 2013 (although the width varies). It is also quite shallow. Pentagon Lagoon is a shallow pool which is part of the Boundary Channel. It was originally constructed as part of the channel, and

3393-570: The bottom of the lagoon for this fill material. The Army also constructed a dike inland on the Virginia shoreline. The earth behind this dike was excavated to a depth 14 feet (4.3 m) below the Potomac River's average high tide. On what was to be the new shoreline, the Army and its contractors built cement plants and marshalling areas for the deposit of sand and gravel. The dike was then breached (and removed by dredge), allowing barges and other ships to deliver construction materials quickly and cheaply to

3480-605: The building site. More than 1,000,000 cubic yards (760,000 m) of earth and riverbottom were excavated, and Boundary Channel's lagoon enlarged by 30 acres (120,000 m). The Pentagon Lagoon was named by The Washington Post after a brutal murder there in September 1944. Virginia police found the nude body of 53-year-old Mrs. Margaret Fitzwater floating in the lagoon on the evening of September 24, 1944. Her throat had been slashed, and she had been raped . Within days, 60-year-old Gardner Tyler "Pop" Holmes, an eccentric who lived on

3567-510: The distance between Analostan/Theodore Roosevelt Island and Columbia Island (so that the "Virginia Channel" west of Analostan/Roosevelt Island would not flood easily). Dredged material was piled high on Columbia Island, helping to build it higher, lengthen and broaden it, and give it its current shape. The new island received its name about 1918 from an unnamed engineer working for the District of Columbia. An anonymous Corps of Engineers officer named

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3654-400: The end of 2020 and was set to lose $ 100 million in 2023, according to The New York Times . The layoffs prompted Dan Froomkin of Presswatchers to suggest that the decline in readership could be reversed by focusing on the rise of authoritarianism (in a fashion similar to the role the Post played during the Watergate scandal ) instead of staying strictly neutral, which Froomkin says places

3741-426: The entire company revenue stream. Executive editor Ben Bradlee put the newspaper's reputation and resources behind reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein , who, in a long series of articles, chipped away at the story behind the 1972 burglary of Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate complex in Washington. The Post 's dogged coverage of the story, the outcome of which ultimately played

3828-447: The highest area of the island (where the Mason mansion stood) is about 44 feet (13 m) above sea level. Spring floods coming down the Potomac from Appalachia inundate low-lying portions of island's shores regularly, usually several times each year, while much larger floods, often from the storm surges and intense, widespread rainfall from coastal hurricanes and tropical storms , flood

3915-561: The island and pulled down the house's remaining walls; today, only part of the mansion's foundation remains. Funds were finally designated by Congress in 1960. As with all historic areas administered by the National Park Service, the national memorial is listed on the National Register of Historic Places ; the listing first appeared on October 15, 1966. The memorial was dedicated on October 27, 1967. Designed by Eric Gugler ,

4002-494: The island as the century ended, pursuant to a 1773 will presented to the Fairfax County Circuit court in 1792 by his brother George Mason V, who died in 1796 so he and his other living brother, Thomas Mason , succeeded as their father's executors. John Mason built a mansion on the island around 1796 and planted crops for sale as well as gardens. The home was built and estate maintained with free black and slave labor. He

4089-807: The island is from Virginia, the island itself is entirely in the District of Columbia . The rocky western (upriver) and central portions of the island are part of the Piedmont Plateau , while the southeastern part is within the Atlantic Coastal Plain . At one point opposite Georgetown, the Atlantic Seaboard fall line between the Piedmont and the Coastal Plain can be seen as a natural phenomenon. The island has about 2.5-mile (4.0 km) of shoreline, and

4176-451: The island more deeply several times a century. The island's vegetation is quite diverse for a relatively small area, due to its geological and topographic variety, the frequency of floods, its land-use history (including various periods of landscaping ), and its location in an urban area in which many non-native species occur. Most of the island is deciduous forest of various kinds, including uplands, riparian shores, and swamps . There

4263-420: The island to John Carter. Four years later, Congress left retrocession to a referendum, which President James K. Polk authorized and Alexandria voters endorsed by a 763 to 222 vote on September 1, 1846 (despite opposition from the northern areas). After a further year of Congressional and Virginia General Assembly negotiations, the island became part of Alexandria County (the northern portion later separated from

4350-452: The island to his daughter Margaret Hammersley, upon his death in 1698 or 1699. The island was acquired by George Mason III in 1724. George Mason IV (then underage) inherited the island in 1735 upon the death of his father, and a ferry from the Virginia shore across the Potomac to Georgetown (the "Little River" and mouth of Rock Creek ) was moved from Awbrey's land to Mason's island in 1748. His son and executor John Mason , inherited

4437-536: The island. In 1931, the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Association purchased the island from the gas company with the intention of erecting a memorial honoring Roosevelt. On Dec 12, 1932 in a ceremony in the east room of the White House, President Hoover accepted the island as a shrine to Roosevelt and declared that would be known as Theodore Roosevelt Island. Congress authorized the memorial on May 21, 1932, but did not appropriate funds for

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4524-572: The last laugh over Hearst, who had owned the old Washington Times and the Herald before their 1939 merger that formed the Times-Herald . This was in turn bought by and merged into the Post in 1954. The combined paper was officially named The Washington Post and Times-Herald until 1973, although the Times-Herald portion of the nameplate became less and less prominent over time. The merger left

4611-660: The memorial for almost three decades. Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. , a landscape architect known for his wildlife conservation efforts, as well as designs for the National Mall and other areas in the National Capital area (and whom President Theodore Roosevelt had appointed to the McMillan Commission back in 1901), developed a plan for the island. By 1935, the Civilian Conservation Corps had cleared much of

4698-455: The memorial includes a 17-foot (5.2 m) statue by sculptor Paul Manship , four large stone monoliths with some of Roosevelt's more famous quotations, and two large fountains. The Potomac River surrounding the island is at sea level, part of the Chesapeake Bay estuary , with the river water fresh but tidal . A narrow channel, unofficially referred to as "Little River" by local users of

4785-562: The native species. Theodore Roosevelt Island is accessible by a footbridge from a parking lot along the Virginia bank of the Potomac River, just north of the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge , which crosses but does not allow access to the island. Cars can enter this parking lot only from the northbound lanes of the George Washington Memorial Parkway. Pedestrians can reach the parking lot and footbridge by following

4872-513: The new President Lyndon B. Johnson , "I don't have much influence with the Post because I frankly don't read it. I view it like the Daily Worker ." Ben Bradlee became the editor-in-chief in 1968, and Kay Graham officially became the publisher in 1969, paving the way for the aggressive reporting of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate scandals . The Post strengthened public opposition to

4959-489: The newspaper announced the closure of three U.S. regional bureaus in Chicago , Los Angeles and New York City , as part of an increased focus on Washington, D.C. –based political stories and local news. The newspaper has local bureaus in Maryland (Annapolis, Montgomery County, Prince George's County, and Southern Maryland) and Virginia (Alexandria, Fairfax, Loudoun County, Richmond, and Prince William County). As of March 2023,

5046-637: The newspaper had won the Pulitzer Prize 76 times for its work, the second-most of any publication after The New York Times . It is considered a newspaper of record in the U.S. Post journalists have received 18 Nieman Fellowships and 368 White House News Photographers Association awards. The paper is well known for its political reporting and is one of the few remaining American newspapers to operate foreign bureaus , with international breaking news hubs in London and Seoul . The Washington Post

5133-452: The newspaper in a trust, having little faith that his playboy son Edward "Ned" McLean could manage it as part of his inheritance. Ned went to court and broke the trust, but, under his management, the newspaper slumped toward ruin. He bled the paper for his lavish lifestyle and used it to promote political agendas. During the Red Summer of 1919 the Post supported the white mobs and even ran

5220-551: The newspaper moved to a building at 14th and E streets NW, where it would remain until 1950. This building combined all functions of the newspaper into one headquarters – newsroom, advertising, typesetting, and printing – that ran 24 hours per day. In 1898, during the Spanish–American War , the Post printed Clifford K. Berryman 's classic illustration Remember the Maine , which became the battle-cry for American sailors during

5307-402: The newspaper's coverage during the run-up to the 2008 presidential election , former Post ombudsman Deborah Howell wrote: "The opinion pages have strong conservative voices; the editorial board includes centrists and conservatives; and there were editorials critical of Obama. Yet opinion was still weighted toward Obama." According to a 2009 Oxford University Press book by Richard Davis on

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5394-433: The organization would embrace artificial intelligence to improve the paper's financial situation, telling staff it would seek "AI everywhere in our newsroom." In June 2024, Axios reported the Post faced significant internal turmoil and financial challenges. The new CEO, Lewis, has already generated controversy with his leadership style and proposed restructuring plans. The abrupt departure of executive editor Buzbee and

5481-449: The original Virginia shoreline. It separates Columbia Island to the east from Virginia in the west and south, and is roughly a mile long. The channel is part of the Potomac River. In 1936, Boundary Channel was 100 to 200 feet (30 to 61 m) in width and 4 to 6 feet (1.2 to 1.8 m) in depth. No lagoon existed at this time. Broundary Channel was changed again after ground was broken for The Pentagon on September 11, 1941. The Pentagon

5568-420: The paper into an undistinguished secondary role in competition with other contemporary media. As part of the shift in tone, in 2023 the paper closed down the "KidsPost" column for children, the "Skywatch" astronomy column, and the "John Kelly's Washington" column about local history and sights, which had been running under different bylines since 1947. In May 2024, CEO and publisher William Lewis announced that

5655-465: The position shortly thereafter. In 1933, financier Eugene Meyer bought the bankrupt Post , and assured the public that neither he nor the newspaper would be beholden to any political party. But as a leading Republican who had been appointed Chairman of the Federal Reserve by Herbert Hoover in 1930, his opposition to Roosevelt 's New Deal colored the paper's editorials and news coverage, including editorializing news stories written by Meyer under

5742-491: The south. By 1884, the new southern part of Analostan Island was defined and built up, and supported a well-established wetland . Gradually, however, the river eroded the center of Analostan Island, severing Columbia Island from its parent body. Between 1911 and 1922, the Potomac River was repeatedly dredged by the United States Army Corps of Engineers to deepen the channel and alleviate flooding. Dredging widened

5829-610: The southern tip; Georgetown and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts are respectively across the main channel of the Potomac to the north and the east. The Nacotchtank Indians, formerly of what is now Anacostia (in Washington, D.C.), temporarily moved to the island in 1668, giving its first recorded name, "Anacostine". The island was patented in 1682 as Anacostine Island by Captain Randolph Brandt (or Brunett), who left

5916-417: The stock was worth $ 888 per share, not counting the effect of an intermediate 4:1 stock split. Graham also oversaw the Post company's diversification purchase of the for-profit education and training company Kaplan, Inc. for $ 40 million in 1984. Twenty years later, Kaplan had surpassed the Post newspaper as the company's leading contributor to income, and by 2010 Kaplan accounted for more than 60% of

6003-463: The three major trans-Potomac routes, and soon fortified the county as part of the military defenses of the nation's capital. Mason's Island soon became a U.S. Army training camp called Camp Greene . Following President Lincoln's decision to allow African Americans to join the U.S. Army, the 1st United States Colored Infantry used the island to train its soldiers. From 1864 to 1865, the camp housed as many as 1,200 formerly enslaved people , first under

6090-432: The use of the explosives for mining waterways and roadways and preparing ground for rapid entrenchment, were conducted in secret and without alerting the District of Columbia Police Department, which investigated citizens' reports of Spanish spy activity and found the explosives and detonators buried on the island. From 1913 to 1931, Washington Gas Light Company owned the island, and allowed vegetation to grow unchecked on

6177-436: The voyage which resulted in the treaty). In 1861, Alexandria County had about 10,000 residents, three-quarters of whom lived in the city portion, and about half of those in the country portion were enslaved or "free colored". Union forces occupied the island, Mason's former mansion, and the rest of the formerly retroceded area on the night of May 23–24, hours after Virginia voters ratified secession. Three federal units covered

6264-572: The war, while contrary information got lost". On March 23, 2007, Chris Matthews said on his television program, " The Washington Post is not the liberal newspaper it was [...] I have been reading it for years and it is a neocon newspaper". It has regularly published a mixture of op-ed columnists, with some of them left-leaning (including E. J. Dionne , Dana Milbank , Greg Sargent, and Eugene Robinson ), and some of them right-leaning (including George Will , Marc Thiessen , Michael Gerson and Charles Krauthammer ). Responding to criticism of

6351-497: The waterway between Columbia Island and Virginia the "Boundary Channel". Boundary Channel was further defined in the late 1920s. In 1925, Congress authorized construction of the Arlington Memorial Bridge across the Potomac River. Preliminary designs for the bridge showed it terminating on Columbia Island, which necessitated additional expansion of the island. The Corps of Engineers had already planned to continue dredging

6438-617: The west tower of One Franklin Square , a high-rise building at 1301 K Street NW in Washington, D.C. Mary Jordan was the founding editor, head of content, and moderator for Washington Post Live , The Post's editorial events business, which organizes political debates, conferences and news events for the media company, including "The 40th Anniversary of Watergate" in June 2012 that featured key Watergate figures including former White House counsel John Dean , Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee , and reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein , which

6525-414: The winter of 1784 changed the Potomac River's main channel from the island's western side to the eastern side and increased silt which threatened the nearby Georgetown port. Alexandria merchants objected to the causeway and it proved a sticking point in their calls for retrocession of 26 square miles of land Virginia had given to establish the federal city as the century began. The first retrocession attempt

6612-538: The year prior to the Iraq War there were 27 editorials supporting the Bush administration 's desire to invade Iraq. National security correspondent Walter Pincus reported that he had been ordered to cease his reports that were critical of the administration. According to author and journalist Greg Mitchell : "By the Post 's own admission, in the months before the war, it ran more than 140 stories on its front page promoting

6699-484: Was 7.5 feet (2.3 m) deep. Depths of 5 to 8 feet (1.5 to 2.4 m) were common in front of the Columbia Island Marina, while 2 to 7 feet (0.61 to 2.13 m) was common elsewhere in the lagoon. The following bridges cross Boundary Channel, listed from south to north: Theodore Roosevelt Island Theodore Roosevelt Island is an 88.5-acre (358,000 m ) island and national memorial located in

6786-624: Was an active member of the Agricultural Society of Georgetown and the Columbia Agricultural Society of Washington, and able to manufacture almost everything needed for home consumption (including cotton) on the island. He also entertained lavishly on the island, including a 1798 party to honor then-uncrowned Louis Philippe I , and an 1811 fete for his son John Murray Mason before he left to study in Paris. In 1809 John Mason secured

6873-915: Was attempting to do for the Senate what the House Un-American Activities Committee had been doing for years—investigating Soviet espionage in America . The HUAC made Richard Nixon nationally known for his role in the Hiss / Chambers case that exposed communist spying in the State Department . The committee had evolved from the McCormack - Dickstein Committee of the 1930s. Phil Graham's friendship with John F. Kennedy remained strong until their deaths in 1963. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover reportedly told

6960-551: Was being built on land just south of the Boundary Channel. But the ground to the northwest, north, northeast, and east of the building site was so low that, for a time, the Corps of Engineers considered building a levee to protect it from floods. But General Brehon B. Somervell , the Army officer in charge of the Pentagon's construction, decided instead to raise the ground by at least 8 feet (2.4 m) to 18 feet (5.5 m) or more above

7047-407: Was founded in 1877 by Stilson Hutchins (1838–1912); in 1880, it added a Sunday edition, becoming the city's first newspaper to publish seven days a week. In April 1878, about four months into publication, The Washington Post purchased The Washington Union , a competing newspaper which was founded by John Lynch in late 1877. The Union had only been in operation about six months at the time of

7134-430: Was founded in 1877. In its early years, it went through several owners and struggled both financially and editorially. In 1933, financier Eugene Meyer purchased it out of bankruptcy in 1933 and revived its health and reputation; this work was continued by his successors Katharine and Phil Graham , Meyer's daughter and son-in-law, respectively, who bought out several rival publications. The Post 's 1971 printing of

7221-513: Was held at the Watergate hotel. Regular hosts include Frances Stead Sellers . Lois Romano was formerly the editor of Washington Post Live . The Post has its own exclusive Zip Code , 20071. Arc XP is a department of The Washington Post , which provides a publishing system and software for news organizations such as the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times . The newspaper

7308-400: Was in 1804, and another major failed attempt occurred in 1824. However, by 1831, water stagnation caused the Mason family to move from the island. (Through his ownership, John Mason, who opposed retrocession, also had a Georgetown residence at the corner of 25th Street, L Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, which became the site of Columbia Hospital in 1932). In 1842, then elderly John Mason sold

7395-409: Was originally quite small as well as unnamed. During construction of the Pentagon in 1941, the U.S. Army not only needed a source of fill material to raise the land around the Pentagon, but also needed a way for river barges to deliver concrete, gravel, and sand to the construction site. With unused Columbia Island nearby, the Corps of Engineers quickly removed a portion of the island as well as dredged

7482-400: Was renamed Graham Holdings shortly after the sale. Nash Holdings, which includes the Post , is operated separately from technology company Amazon , which Bezos founded and where he is as of 2022 executive chairman and the largest single shareholder, with 12.7% of voting rights. Bezos said he has a vision that recreates "the 'daily ritual' of reading the Post as a bundle, not merely

7569-410: Was shut down and the first website was launched in June 1996. In August 2013, Jeff Bezos purchased The Washington Post and other local publications, websites, and real estate for US$ 250   million , transferring ownership to Nash Holdings LLC, Bezos's private investment company. The paper's former parent company, which retained some other assets such as Kaplan and a group of TV stations,

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