During World War I, the federal government built a number of temporary office buildings in Washington to hold all the new workers. The group shown in this photograph stretched across the Mall from north to south just east of 7th Street, visible beyond the National Museum of Natural History on the left and the Smithsonian Castle on the right. The smokestacks of the power plant were set apart so they did not obstruct the view of the Washington Monument from the Capitol. This complex was slowly dismantled, with the power plant and central buildings removed by 1936.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. View original.