The second image that clearly showed a design for the rails was a drawing made by James Dinsmore in ca. 1808 and it appears to be a concept drawing that he sent to President Madison. The drawing shows a railing over the North Wing that features two different styles of panels combined into a single railing. The first panel design includes a large, single X that is embellished with an elongated hexagon in the center while the second design used a large central X embellished with smaller bars that mimic the legs of the larger X. In addition to the different rail patterns found in the drawing, when the architects transformed Dinsmore's sketch into a measured drawing, it was discovered that the rail it depicted would have needed five panels to span the wing and not the four seen in the ca. 1830 drawing.
©The Library of Virginia
|