The people’s fortress

Less than a month after a deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Capitol Police have been calling for “permanent fencing” around the building, which houses America’s federal legislature and stands among the symbols of democracy around the world. But local leaders and members of Congress from both the Democratic and Republican parties are vowing to defend the openness and accessibility of “the people’s house” while advocating for better security, including from Capitol Police.

Scott W. Berg is the author of Grand Avenues: The Story of Pierre Charles L’Enfant, the French Visionary Who Designed Washington, D.C.—on how L’Enfant laid out the capital’s streets, squares, and buildings with the explicit intention of reflecting a new nation’s democratic ideals. Berg says that while the “tension between security and freedom” is as old as America itself, Washington was created intentionally as a public place. The idea of permanent fencing would have been unthinkable to L’Enfant, as much as it’s in keeping with a broad security buildup in Washington in recent decades. Berg was shaken by the Capitol riot and shares a widespread desire for better security on the grounds. He even wonders whether contemporary anxieties would make L’Enfant rethink his planning. Still, he’d have the U.S. government reconsider the balances it’s striking among security, accessibility, and aesthetics, because this balance helps shape American democracy—as it has for 245 years …

Graham Vyse: What’s your reaction to the news that the U.S. Capitol Police may keep up massive fencing around the Capitol building?

Scott W. Berg: I hope it’s not permanent. That would be sad—if also, unfortunately, not entirely unexpected. We’ve gone down this road now: The fencing is a bad architectural move, but when you consider it in the context of everything that’s been happening in the United States lately—or ever since 9/11, really—I worry there’s a sense of inevitability about it now … that this is just the way it’s going to be. In the early 1900s, presidents were still opening the doors of the White House on New Year’s Day to shake hands with everybody. Obviously, that didn’t last. Our capacity for violence has outmoded it.