Capitol Issues

If you were not in San Francisco or Tokyo when the earthquakes hit, or in Naples when Vesuvius erupted, you cannot imagine the chaos that comes to Washington with a moderate snowfall. But it is a gentle and generally agreeable chaos. Snow on Washington’s pleasantly radiating streets is one of the few things that reduce Leviathan to an amiable muddle. The snow, which muffles sound, also seems to sop up the energy of the federal city.

There are too few snow tires in Washington, and too many Southerners who are not used to driving on snow. The Washington metropolitan area has grown too fast for its own good (and certainly too fast for the nation’s good) and, as a result, the expressways feeding the city arc congested and out of date the day they are opened. During working hours Washington—the city itself—has the highest automobile density of any city in the nation. (And, sad to tell, it has the highest density of PhDs, which is a national, not a local problem.) But when it snows, as it did in the final hours of the first session of the 93rd Congress, half the cars (and, happily, half the PhDs) cannot get into the city, and those that do get in are disorganized.

About the Author

George F. Will

George F. Will has been a columnist, beginning with National Review, since 1973.

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If you were not in San Francisco or Tokyo when the earthquakes hit, or in Naples when Vesuvius erupted, you cannot imagine the chaos that comes to Washington with a moderate snowfall. But it is a gentle and generally agreeable chaos. Snow on Washington’s pleasantly radiating streets is one of the few things that reduce Leviathan to an amiable muddle. The snow, which muffles sound, also seems to sop up the energy of the federal city.

There are too few snow tires in Washington, and too many Southerners who are not used to driving on snow. The Washington metropolitan area has grown too fast for its own good (and certainly too fast for the nation’s good) and, as a result, the expressways feeding the city arc congested and out of date the day they are opened. During working hours Washington—the city itself—has the highest automobile density of any city in the nation. (And, sad to tell, it has the highest density of PhDs, which is a national, not a local problem.) But when it snows, as it did in the final hours of the first session of the 93rd Congress, half the cars (and, happily, half the PhDs) cannot get into the city, and those that do get in are disorganized.