“Draining the swamp” has become a popular phrase these days signifying clearing out the deadwood and corruption that is the U. S. government.  But I repeat myself.  But why that particular phrase?

I submit that this phrase originates with the fact that Washington, D. C., the capital of the nation, is actually built on a swamp.

Current Map of Washington, D.C.

This is probably not news to folks who paid attention to history lessons in school, but it could be that this bit of trivia has escaped the notice of many, or it’s just been forgotten as being insignificant.

A complete history of the city can be found here at the excellent Encyclopedia Brittanica.  For the sake of this article, we’ll focus only on the “swampy” nature of the city.

For starters, the city was designated by Congress on land that was ceded by both the state of Maryland and the Commonwealth of Virginia (the Virginia land was ceded back later).  This land was a peninsula at the confluence of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers.  This low-lying land coupled with the high humidity climate have rendered the perception that D. C. lies on a swamp.

I should note here that in the days preceding air-conditioning, foreign diplomats both before and after the revolution, considered a posting to D. C. as a tropical assignment!

To add to the image, the area surrounding the building(s) comprising the Department of State is known as Foggy Bottom.  Again, Brittanica states,

Its name derives from its origin as a neighbourhood of wharves, warehouses, brickyards, breweries, gas works, and an early 19th-century glassblowing factory: a combination of industrial smoke and humidity occasionally produced a blanket of fog.

This combination of real or imagined images and metaphors have given rise to the concept of a swamp.  Fitting, if you will, as the home of creepy, slimy dwellers who make up nearly the entirety of the government!  And perhaps needing of some drainage!