Dreamscapes Travel & Lifestyle Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dreamscapes.ca/i/510262
SPRING/SUMMER 2015 DREAMSCAPES 55 nose is the original paint, harkening back to the sobering moment in August 1945 over Hiroshima when it became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb. WASHINGTON'S MANSION More than 300 years of history are on dis- play at Mount Vernon, once the home of America's first President and now the most popular historic home in America. The grounds at the lush, green estate are frozen in time circa 1799, the year of George Washington's death. The family mansion— the crown jewel of the estate—is furnished with many originals including the office chair Washington used during his presi- dency and the custom-made, extra-long bed where he took his final breath. Costumed interpreters lead visitors through his book-stuffed study where Washington hosted several of the nation's Founding Fathers, including James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. A frame on the wall holds an original key to the Bastille, a gift from the Marquis de Lafayette in 1790 to mark the special relationship between the young America and one of the agents of the French Revolution. ON HALLOWED GROUND In the era of the American Civil War, two main rail lines converged at Manassas Junction and the side that controlled those rail lines would dominate the crucial movement of troops and supplies. Just four months after President Lincoln took office and declared secession by the states illegal, the first major land battle of the Civil War took place on the green hills at Manassas National Battlefield Park. It was here that the two armies of a divided nation clashed as never before. For those tracing the markings of the Civil War, two conflicts at Manassas earned it a stop on the official Journey Through Hallowed Ground route and des- ignation as a national park site. This history-rich National Scenic Byway—"the most eventful corner of the United States"—stretches 300 kilometres from Gettysburg in Pennsylvania to Monticello in Virginia. The park commemorates the two Battles of Manassas.