The first work on the bridge proper began in 1857, while Jefferson Davis was Secretary of War. As the construction of this enormous undertaking was under the supervision of the War Department, his name was cut on the tablet in the western end of the bridge.
The War between the States was declared 1861. Jefferson Davis, then member of Congress, resigned and returned to the South, where he was made President of the new government—the Confederate States of America—and was the only President during the existence of that government, 1861 to 1865.
Owing to the pressure incident to war, on June 18, 1862, Congress transferred the work of construction of the bridge from the War Department to the Department of the Interior, of which Caleb B. Smith was secretary, with William R. Hutton as chief engineer. Feeling ran high in Washington against Jefferson Davis for casting his lot in war with his own people, the Confederates, and in 1862 his name disappeared from the tablet in the Cabin John Bridge.
In 1892, twenty-seven years after the Confederate War, the former chief engineer of the bridge—General M. C. Meigs—died. At once rumor renewed the old story to the effect that he (General Meigs) had ordered the name of Jefferson Davis erased from the bridge. On September 8th of that year (1892 a card was published in Washington (D. C.) newspapers by William R. Hutton, chief engineer of the bridge in 1862 (the year the name was erased), when the construction was under the Department of the Interior—a card stating that when the construction of the bridge was transferred to the Department of the Interior, the first order given him (Hutton) by Caleb B. Smith was to erase the name of Jefferson Davis. Chief Engineer Hutton continues: "Not taking seriously the Secretary's remarks, I did nothing in the matter." He further states that a week later the contractor, Robert McIntyre, "arrived to resume work on the bridge"; the Secretary gave McIntyre the order, and that McIntyre's "first work was to remove Mr. Davis' name."
It is hoped that this clear statement of Chief Engineer Hutton as the final explanation of this unfortunate act will be accepted
