Some notes on the making of this book: I have been fascinated by the discovery of cities from the aur, usually in helicopters, sometimes in blimps, balloons, fixed-wing aircraft and, occasionally, from structures or geographical positions from which I could look down to the metropolitan scene. Washington, of course, has been uniquely absorbing. My cameras took me to a wondering sense of our history and the expression of it in the memorials, the planning and the architecture spread out below me. I loved making this book.