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Article: Surveyor Banneker helped lay out D.C.
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- February 4, 1988
CopyrightCopyright (null) Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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The street plan for Washington, D.C., was laid out almost two
centuries ago with the help of a man who became the first black
presidential appointee.
Benjamin Banneker was born a free man near Baltimore in 1731.
He learned to read from his English grandmother, who had been an
indentured servant.
As a young man, he showed exceptional talent for mathematics and
anything mechanical. Before he was 22, he designed and built an
unusual clock, perhaps the first of its kind in America. Made of
wood, unlike the timepieces that required imported parts, his clock
reportedly ran for more than 20 years.
With books borrowed from a neighbor, Banneker learned enough
about mathematics and astronomy ...