and continually hampered the work of rebuilding. However, the old buildings were slowly replaced, new ones were constructed, and the Government was soon comfortably housed. But the city itself developed with woful languor. The few attempts to beautify it failed. By 1860, there were but two or three miles of poorly constructed pavements. Most of the streets were worse than country roads. In summer the dust rose in clouds and blinded and choked those who ventured forth, while in winter the mud was so deep that at times the streets were well-nigh impassable. Until 1862 there were no street railways.
Charles Dickens, who was a visitor to Washington during its period of struggle and reconstruction, drew this startling picture of the capital:
"Take the worst parts of the City Road and Pentonville,
or the straggling outskirts of Paris, where the houses
are smallest, preserving all their oddities, but especially
the small shops and dwellings, occupied in Pentonville
(but not in Washington) by furniture-brokers, keepers of
poor eating-houses, and fanciers of birds. Burn the
whole down; build it up again in wood and plaster;
widen it a little; throw in part of St. John's Wood; put
green blinds outside all the private houses, with a red
curtain and a white one in every window; plough up all
