As the United States marks its 250th anniversary, WTOP presents “250 Years of America,” a multipart series examining the innovations, breakthroughs and pivotal moments that have shaped the nation since 1776.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield Federal Employee Program is proud to partner with WTOP to bring you this series.
Over the last two and a half centuries, America has been the land of the free thanks to the brave members of the United States Armed Forces.
For over a hundred years, their service has been met with our nation’s deepest gratitude at two local institutions, starting with the ward on Georgia Avenue that was named after the army physician who saved countless lives by proving yellow fever was transmitted by mosquitoes.
Walter Reed was born in the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1851 and by the age of 17 had earned a medical degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine. To this day, Reed is the youngest student to do so.
As impressive as that is, Reed’s real claim to medical history was proving yellow fever was caused by mosquitoes and not caused by bad air, unclean areas or the clothing or bedding of the sick.
The discovery in 1900 by Reed and his team not only saved countless lives but was crucial to finishing the Panama Canal, as yellow fever and malaria had killed over 20,000 workers before the breakthrough.
Only two years later, Reed died from complications of an appendectomy in Washington, D.C. at the Army General Hospital at the Washington Barracks, which is now known as Fort McNair.
This medical center was very familiar to Reed, as he not only taught at the Army Medical School there, but it was also the site of preliminary research that led to his groundbreaking work on yellow fever.
Seven years later, thanks to Maj. William Borden, a new hospital was named in Reed’s honor.
This was a labor of love for Borden, who personally lobbied Congress for the money to build the hospital.
Not only were the two men very close friends, but Borden was also the surgeon who performed Reed’s fatal appendectomy surgery.
Over the next decade the Walter Reed Army General Hospital would go from 80 beds to 2,500 due to the first World War and the Spanish Flu.
Under Gen. John J. Pershing, the facility became home to the Army Medical School, and on the 100th anniversary of Reed’s birth, it was officially renamed the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Moving to the President’s hospital at the tower on Wisconsin Avenue
President Franklin D. Roosevelt not only influenced the look and location of memorials and buildings like the Jefferson Memorial and the Pentagon, he personally traveled to 80 locations around the D.C. region to personally choose the home of the new Naval Hospital.
This was very important to the man who spent seven years as the Assistant Secretary of Navy.
Roosevelt wanted the site to be the home to Navy medical training and research, a medical library and care for personnel.
“We will build it here,” Roosevelt said, while leaning over the side of his car and striking the ground with his walking cane.
“Here,” was a cabbage patch in Bethesda, Maryland.
Roosevelt wanted the tower, which was inspired by the Nebraska State Capitol, to be like a high church tower in an English countryside.
Remember, at the time this was farmland, decades before the traffic backups on Rockville Pike that we are used to today. At the time it reminded Roosevelt of Warm Springs, Georgia, where he was treated for polio.
On Aug. 31, 1942, the 100th anniversary of the U.S. Naval Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Roosevelt personally dedicated the National Naval Medical Center.
“Let this hospital then stand, for all men to see throughout all the years, as a monument to our determination to work and to fight until the time comes when the human race shall have that true health in body and mind and spirit which can be realized only in a climate of equity and faith,” Roosevelt said.
Now both of those medical centers are one, bringing the joint legacies of the Army and Navy, along with integrating Air Force personnel, to create the tri-service Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
As we celebrate the nation’s 250th, we honor not only the men and women who defend our country, but also salute those who help to heal the brave.
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