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The Federal Trade Commission occupies the block between 6th and 7th Streets on the south of Pennsylvania Avenue. At the corner of 6th and Pennsylvania, you look up at a statue symbolizing man harnessing trade.
As you walk out of the park, a little girl turns her back to the fountain and tosses a penny over her shoulder into the pool. Her grandmother says, "Now don't tell me what you wished for."
Instead, you cross the street again to take a look at a nice fountain in a small park in honor of Andrew Mellon. He was our Ambassador to Great Britain from 1932 to 1933 and a Secretary of the Treasury.
On your walk, you will see many United States flags. The Maple Leaf flag of Canada is the only flag you will see from another country and it is located on the grounds of the new Canadian Embassy on the other side of Marshall Park. The embassy is next to the city's Employment Services Building. It is a dull building that you walk right by without really noticing. Nothing catches your eye.
Instead, you find a life-size sculpture of two old men sitting by the side of the park playing chess. Lloyd Lillie made this sculpture. You and your friends take turns snapping pictures of each other pretending to tell the old man on the right, the one about to make a move, where to put his knight.
You cross Pennsylvania Avenue, passing a small, wild garden, to look at the statue of Civil War General George Meade in front of the United States Court House. Next to the courthouse is a quiet little park, rising by steps up a hill. The park is named after John Marshall, an early Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. You find a statue of him way in the back, but it doesn't interest you too much because you never heard of Justice Marshall.
You walk halfway up the block to see the one piece of art on display on Pennsylvania Avenue outside the museum. It is called "Untitled 1971-1977" by James Rosati. [Left photo] It is an odd sculpture. [Right photo] It looks like a series of metal heating vents. Maybe instead of "Untitled 1971-1977," Rosati should have called it: "Can't Think of a Title Although I Tried From 1971 to 1977."
The National Gallery of Art's East Building is on your left now, just across Third Street.
At Third Street, Pennsylvania Avenue opens up. It becomes the wide "Main Street of America." It has no wires overhead. The wires are underground. Traffic lights and signals are on the sides of the avenue and in the center. Every 4 years, the night before the President is sworn in, workers remove the lights from the center of Pennsylvania Avenue so the parade can march without being disrupted. All the crosswalks on Pennsylvania Avenue are made of brick.
From First to Third Avenue, the Avenue of the Presidents is not very impressive. It has one narrow lane of traffic in each direction. Cars are parked in four rows. Pennsylvania Avenue looks more like a parking lot than the grand boulevard of America that L'Enfant imagined 200 years ago.