By Fergus M. Bordewich.  ISBN 978-0-06-084238-3.  Copyright 2008.   Hardcover with 367 pages including notes and index, plus 16 pages of glossy black and white photographs. 

The creation of the American capital city was a triumph over a multitude of political and financial obstacles, including fraudulent real estate speculation and overextended financiers.  The building of the city required laborers, most of whom were enslaved, architects, and surveyors to progress from a mere swamp “producing nothing except myriads of toads and frogs (of enormous size)” to the home to the most influential power brokers in the world.