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Juan Manuel Fangio

Juan Manuel Fangio (, ; 24 June 1911 – 17 July 1995), was an Argentine racing driver. Nicknamed El Chueco ("the bowlegged" or "bandy legged one") or El Maestro ("The Master" or "The Teacher"), he dominated the first decade of Formula One racing, winning the World Drivers' Championship five times.

From childhood, he abandoned his studies to pursue auto mechanics. In 1938, he debuted in the newly-formed Argentine stock car racing series Turismo Carretera, competing in a Ford V8. In 1940, he competed with Chevrolet, winning the Grand Prix International Championship and devoted his time to the Turismo Carretera becoming its champion, a title he successfully defended a year later. Fangio then competed in Europe between 1947 and 1949, where he achieved further success.

One of the most successful drivers in Formula One history, he made his debut in the inaugural Formula One season to become a pioneer of the sport. He went on to win the World Drivers' Championship five times—a record that stood for 46 years—making him the only driver in F1 history to win titles with four different teams: Alfa Romeo (1951), Maserati (1954 and 1957), Mercedes-Benz (1954 and 1955), and Ferrari (1956). He holds the highest winning percentage in Formula One at 46.15%, winning 24 of 52 Formula One races he entered. Additionally, Fangio also holds the record for the highest pole percentage at 55.77%, achieving 29 pole positions from 52 entries. Fangio is the only Argentine driver to have won the Argentine Grand Prix, which he won four times in his career, more than any other driver. He is also the only Argentine to win the World Drivers' Championship.

After retirement, Fangio presided as the honorary president of Mercedes-Benz Argentina from 1987, a year after the inauguration of his museum, until his death in 1995. In 2011, on the centenary of his birth, Fangio was remembered around the world and various activities were held in his honor.

Early life
Fangio's grandfather, Giuseppe Fangio, emigrated to Buenos Aires from Italy in 1887. Giuseppe managed to buy his own farm near Balcarce, a small town near Mar del Plata in southern Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, within three years by making charcoal from tree branches. Giuseppe brought his family, with his 7-year son Loreto, later the racing driver's father, to Argentina from the small central Italian town of Castiglione Messer Marino in the Chieti province of the Abruzzo region. His mother, Herminia Déramo, was from Tornareccio, slightly to the north. Fangio's parents married on 24 October 1903 and lived on farms, where Herminia was a housekeeper and Loreto worked in the building trade, becoming an apprentice stonemason.

Fangio was born in Balcarce on 24 June 1911, San Juan's Day, at 12:10 am. His birth certificate was mistakenly dated 23 June in the Register of Balcarce. He was the fourth of six children. In his childhood he became known as El Chueco, the bandy-legged one, for his skill in bending his left leg around the ball to shoot on goal in football games.

Fangio started his education at School No. 4 of Balcarce, before transferring to School No. 1 and 18 Uriburu Av. When Fangio was 13, he dropped out of school and worked in Miguel Angel Casas auto mechanics' workshop as an assistant mechanic. When he was 16, he started riding as a mechanic for his employer's customers. He developed pneumonia that almost proved fatal, after a football game where hard running had caused a sharp pain in his chest. He was bed-ridden for two months, cared for by his mother.

After recovering, Fangio served compulsory military service at the age of 21. In 1932 he was enlisted at the Campo de Mayo cadet school near Buenos Aires. His driving skills caught the attention of his commanding officer, who appointed Fangio as his official driver. Fangio was discharged before his 22nd birthday, after taking his final physical examination. He returned to Balcarce where he aimed to further his football career. Along with his friend José Duffard he received offers to play at a club based in Mar del Plata. Their teammates at Balcarce suggested the two work on Fangio's hobby of building his own car, and his parents gave him space to do so in a rudimentary shed at the family home.

Early racing career
After finishing his military service, Fangio opened his own garage and raced in local events. He began his racing career in Argentina in 1936, driving a 1929 Ford Model A that he had rebuilt. In the Tourismo Carretera category, Fangio participated in his first race between 18 and 30 October 1938 as the co-driver of Luis Finocchietti. Despite not winning the Argentine Road Grand Prix, Fangio drove most of the way and finished fifth. In November of that year, he entered the "400 km of Tres Arroyos", but it was suspended due to a fatal accident.

During his time racing in Argentina, he drove Chevrolet cars and was Argentine National Champion in 1940 and 1941. One particular race, the 1940 Gran Premio del Norte, was almost 10,000 km (6,250 mi) long, one that Fangio described as a "terrible ordeal". This rally-style race started in Buenos Aires on 27 September, and ran up through the Andes and Bolivia to Lima, Peru, and then back to Buenos Aires, taking 15 days, ending on 12 October with stages held each day. This horrendously gruelling race was held in the most difficult and varied conditions imaginable—drivers had to traverse through hot and dry deserts, insect-ridden jungles with crushing humidity, and freezing cold and sometimes snowy mountain passes with 1000 ft cliff drops at extremely high altitude sometimes in total darkness, all on a mixture of dirt and paved roads. Early in the race Fangio hit a large rock and damaged the car's driveshaft, which was replaced in the next town. Later on at an overnight stop in Bolivia one of the townspeople crashed into Fangio's car and bent an axle—he and his co-driver spent all night fixing it. Following this repair the fan blade got loose and punctured the radiator, which meant another repair before it was later replaced. They drove 150 mi through scorching desert with no water, and during a night stint the headlights fell off and they were secured with his co-driver's necktie. The weather in the mountains was so cold that Fangio drove with his co-driver's arms around him for hours. These mountainous routes in Bolivia and Peru sometimes involved going up to altitudes of 14000 ft above sea level—a 40 percent reduction of air thickness, making breathing incredibly difficult and the engine being severely down on power. When Fangio finally got out of the mountains and back to Buenos Aires, after traversing all these external challenges, he had won the race, which was his first big victory.

In 1941, he beat Oscar Gálvez in the Grand Prix Getúlio Vargas in Brazil, which was a six-day, 3731 km public road race starting from and ending at Rio de Janeiro, going through various cities and towns all over Brazil such as São Paulo and Belo Horizonte. For the second time, Fangio was crowned champion of Argentine TC. In 1942, he took tenth place in the South Grand Prix. In April he won the race "Mar y Sierras", and then had to suspend activity due to World War II. In 1946, Fangio returned to racing with two races in Morón and Tandil driving a Ford T. In February 1947, Fangio competed at National Mechanics (MN) at the Retiro circuit, and on 1 March, he started the race for Rosario City Award. Subsequently, Fangio triumphed in the Double Back Window Race.

In October 1948, Fangio however suffered a personal tragedy in another gruelling race, this time 1948 South American Grand Prix, a point-to-point race from Buenos Aires to Caracas, Venezuela—a 20-day event covering a distance of 9580 km through Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and finally Venezuela. Fangio, with his co-driver Daniel Urrutia battled hard with brothers Juan and Oscar Galvez, and Domingo Marimon throughout. On the 10th day, on the Lima to Tumbes stage in northern Peru, on coastal roads along the Pacific Ocean, Fangio was driving at night in thick fog generated from the ocean in near-pitch black darkness when he approached a left-hand bend at 140 kph near the village of Huanchaco, not far from the small city of Trujillo. With his car's lights not helping him in the thick fog, he approached the bend too fast, lost control of the car and tumbled down an embankment, and Urrutia was thrown out of the car through the front windscreen. Oscar Galvez stopped to help Fangio, who had neck injuries, then soon found the badly injured Urrutia. Another competitor, Luciano Marcilla, stopped and took Fangio and Urrutia to the nearest hospital in the town of Chocope 50 km (31 mi) away. Fangio survived but 35-year-old Urrutia did not, suffering multiple fatal cervical and basal skull fractures. Domingo Marimon won the race, but the race was a disaster and was marred by the deaths of three spectators and three drivers (including Urrutia). Fangio believed he would never race again and entered a depressed state after the death of his friend, but he recovered, and his successes in Argentina caught the attention of the Argentine Automobile Club and the Juan Peron-led Argentine government, so they bought a Maserati and sent him to Europe in December 1948 to continue his career.

Overview
Fangio was the oldest driver in many of his Formula One races, having started his Grand Prix career in his late 30s. During his career, drivers raced with almost no protective equipment on circuits with no safety features. Formula One cars in the 1950s were for the time not only fast, but very physically and mentally demanding to drive; races were much longer than today and demanded incredible stamina. Tyres were very narrow and cross-ply, and far less forgiving; treads often stripped in a race, and spark plugs fouled. The drivers wore goggles with cloth helmets up to 1952, where from that year on helmets were made mandatory, so they wore pie-shaped crash hats made of paper-mache. The cars had no seatbelts, no roll-over protection, no bodywork to contain the driver (up until 1954) and the front-engined layout of these cars meant that the heated air from the engine and the gearbox would often blast the bodies of the drivers for the hours of the race, with the driveshaft spinning between their legs, and there were, of course, no electronic aids or computer intervention. At the end of a GP, drivers often suffered blistered hands caused by heavy steering and gear changing, and their faces were sometimes covered in soot from the inboard brakes. Despite Fangio's short career, he was one of the top GP drivers in history, rivalling Tazio Nuvolari.

Fangio had no compunction about leaving a team, even after a successful year or even during a season, if he thought he would have a better chance with a better car. As was then common, several of his race results were shared with teammates after he took over their car during races when his own had technical problems. His rivals included Alberto Ascari, Giuseppe Farina and Stirling Moss. Throughout his career, Fangio was backed by funding from the Argentine government of Juan Perón.

World championship successes

Fangio's first Grand Prix race was the 1948 French Grand Prix at Reims, where he started his Simca Gordini from 11th on the grid but retired. Fangio briefly returned to South America to compete in the aforementioned Buenos Aires to Caracas race, he then returned to Europe the following year, and raced in Sanremo; having upgraded to a Maserati 4CLT/48 sponsored by the Automobile Club of Argentina he dominated the event, winning both heats to take the aggregate win by almost a minute over Prince Bira. Fangio entered a further six Grand Prix races in 1949, winning four of them against top-level opposition.

Alfa Romeo and Monza accident
For the first World Championship of Drivers in 1950, Fangio was taken on by the Alfa Romeo team alongside Farina and Luigi Fagioli. With competitive racing cars following the Second World War still in short supply, the pre-war Alfettas proved dominant. Fangio won each of the three races he finished at Monaco, Spa and Reims-Gueux but Farina's three wins at races Fangio retired from and a fourth-place allowed Farina to take the title, even though Fangio was quicker than Farina, who was able to take advantage of Fangio's mechanical woes. Fangio's most notable victory that year was at Monaco, where he dodged a multi-car pile-up and easily won the race. In 1950s non-championship races Fangio took a further four wins at San Remo, Pau and the fearsome Coppa Acerbo at the 16-mile Pescara public road circuit, and two seconds from eight starts. At Pescara in 1950, going down a long straight called the Flying Kilometer, he was clocked doing 194 mph (310 km/h) in his Alfa. He also won a handful of races for the Argentine Automobile Club driving a Maserati 4CLT and a Ferrari 166.

Fangio won three more championship races for Alfa in 1951 in the Swiss, French and Spanish Grands Prix, and with the new 4.5-litre Ferraris taking points off his teammates Farina and various others, Fangio took the title at the final race in Spain, finishing six points ahead of Ascari at the Pedralbes street circuit. Fangio also finished second at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone after his horrendously fuel-inefficient Alfa had to make two lengthy pit stops for fuel, and he finished second at the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring after he lost first and second gear in his Alfa during an intense battle with Alberto Ascari.

With the 1952 World Championship being run to Formula Two specifications, Alfa Romeo did not have a car for the new formula and were unable to use their supercharged Alfettas, so they withdrew. As a result, the defending champion found himself without a car for the first race of the championship and remained absent from F1 until June, when he drove the British BRM V16 in non-championship F1 races at the public road circuits at Albi in France and Dundrod in Northern Ireland. Fangio had agreed to drive for Maserati in a non-championship race at Monza the day after the Dundrod race, but having missed a connecting flight he decided to drive through the night on pre-motorway mountain roads through the Alps from Lyon, arriving half an hour before the start. Arriving at Monza at 2 p.m., he was badly fatigued and with the race starting at 2:30 p.m., Fangio started the race from the back of the grid but lost control on the second lap, crashed into a grass bank, and was thrown out of the car as it flipped end over end, smashing through trees. He was taken to a hospital in Milan with multiple injuries, the most serious being a broken neck, and spent the rest of 1952 recovering in Argentina. Nino Farina, who had won the race, visited Fangio in hospital and gifted him with the winner's laurel wreath.

Maserati and sports car racing successes
In Europe, and back to full racing fitness in 1953, Fangio rejoined Maserati for the championship season, and against the dominant Ferraris led by Ascari he took a lucky win at Monza. Fangio's car had a bad vibration all throughout practice, and he offered the Maserati mechanics 10% of his winnings if they fixed the vibration; they did, and Fangio qualified second, and won the race, setting fastest lap and beating Nino Farina by just 1.4 seconds. Along with that win, Fangio secured three second-places to finish second in the Championship, and also came third first time out in the Targa Florio. He also competed and won one of two heats in the Albi Grand Prix, again with BRM and driving the fearsome and powerful Type 15, a car with a 600 hp supercharged V16 that was difficult to drive.

He also competed in one of the most dangerous and prestigious races in Europe: the Mille Miglia, a 1000 mi race on open public roads covering nearly all of northern Italy driving an Alfa Romeo 6C 3000 CM entered by the factory. The Mille Miglia and also another championship race in 1953, the Carrera Panamericana in Mexico were much like the races he competed in South America in the 1940s (except all the roads used in Italy and Mexico were paved). At the Mille Miglia, the Alfa team was expected to win, and after Farina, Karl Kling and Consalvo Sanesi all crashed, Fangio was leading when he reached Rome, pushing very hard from when he started in Brescia. Fangio then suffered left front steering arm failure near Bologna and only had consistent steering on the right front; this allowed Mille Miglia expert Giannino Marzotto to catch and beat Fangio by 12 minutes, even though the Argentine driver drove hard to keep up with Marzotto. He ended 1953 by winning the dauntingly dangerous and difficult 2,000 mi (3,200 km) Carrera Panamericana in Mexico driving a Lancia D24; Fangio was able to win this 5-day open public road rally that started at the Guatemala-Mexico border and ended at the Mexico-United States border in Ciudad Juarez, setting a new race time completion record of 18.5 hours (despite Fangio not winning a single stage), some 9 hours faster than the winner of the first event in 1950. The race was marred by multiple spectator fatalities, and the death of 50-year-old Felice Bonetto, like Fangio driving a works Lancia, on the third day of the competition in the town of Silao.

Mercedes-Benz
In 1954 Fangio raced for Maserati until Mercedes-Benz entered competition in mid-season. He won his home Grand Prix in Buenos Aires and at Spa with the iconic 250F. Mercedes-Benz's first race was the French Grand Prix at the fast, straight dominated Reims public road circuit, and he won the race with the streamlined, closed-wheel W196 Monoposto- a car that although difficult to drive was ahead of its time. Fangio spent the race battling with teammate Karl Kling down Reims's long straights. Fangio failed to win at Silverstone, with the closed-wheel car designed for straight-line speed struggling at the high speed corner-dominated circuit. Fangio got the more nimble open-wheeled W196 for the Nürburgring, and won the race, as he did at Bremgarten and then at Monza, the latter with the streamlined car. Monza was a particularly brutal race in that Alberto Ascari had turned up with the new Lancia, and young British up-and-comer Stirling Moss in a private Maserati was also competitive during the race. Ascari and Moss both passed Fangio and raced each other hard until Ascari dropped out with engine problems. Moss's engine blew up near the end of the race and Fangio took victory. Winning eight out of twelve races (six out of eight in the championship) and winning his second championship in that year, he continued to race with Mercedes—driving a further developed W196 with improved performance in 1955 in a team that included Moss.

For 1955, Fangio subjected himself to a training programme which was strenuous in an effort to keep up his fitness levels high which was comparable to his younger rivals. He won a particularly brutal race at the Gran Premio de la República Argentina. This race was run in Buenos Aires during a gruelling 40 °C heat wave, and with track temperature of over 57 °C few drivers other than Fangio were able to complete the race. The W196's chassis had heated up and Fangio's right leg rubbed against the chassis structure, but even after receiving severe burns he kept going; it took him three months to recover from his injuries. 1955 also saw Fangio attempt the Mille Miglia again, this time without a navigator, driving a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR. After leaving at 6:58 a.m., the car's advanced engine began developing problems when he got to Pescara. The Mercedes mechanics apparently found nothing, and sent him off. Fangio was losing time to Moss and Hans Herrmann, and when he got to Rome the engine was still not running smoothly. Again Fangio was sent away by the mechanics. And when he got to Florence, a few loud bangs were heard, so the mechanics raised the bonnet and they found that one of the fuel injection pipes had broken, so Fangio's 300 SLR was running on seven cylinders instead of eight; this could not be repaired and Fangio drove back to Brescia with a misfiring engine, finishing in 2nd behind Moss. Fangio later surmised that Mercedes felt he could not win the race without a navigator so they did not put as much effort behind preparing his car as they did with the car of Moss, who had a navigator. At the end of the second successful season (which was overshadowed by the 1955 Le Mans disaster in which 83 spectators were killed, an accident which happened right in front of and nearly killed him) Mercedes withdrew from racing and after four attempts, Fangio never raced at Le Mans again. A number of races were cancelled after this race except for Britain and Italy (which both already had circuits with new and updated safety facilities), which he finished in second in the former and won the latter, allowing him to win his third world championship. Mercedes's last race was the Targa Florio sportscar race, which Mercedes needed to win in order to beat Ferrari and Jaguar to the title; the German firm had skipped the first two races in Buenos Aires and Sebring, Florida. Fangio, driving with Kling finished second to Moss and Peter Collins, allowing Mercedes to win the title by two points over Ferrari.

Last years with Ferrari and Maserati
In 1956 Fangio moved to Ferrari to win his fourth title. Neither Enzo Ferrari nor the Ferrari team manager Eraldo Sculati had a warm relationship with Fangio, despite their shared success with the very difficult-to-drive Ferrari-developed Lancia car. Fangio took over his teammate's cars after he suffered mechanical problems in three races, the Argentine, Monaco and Italian Grands Prix. In each case the points were shared between the two drivers. After the Monaco Grand Prix, where Fangio struggled with the ill-handling Lancia-Ferrari he asked Ferrari if he could have one mechanic exclusively for his car, as Ferrari did not have his mechanics assigned to any of the cars, as Mercedes had. Ferrari granted Fangio's request, and the performance of Fangio's car improved substantially. In addition to winning in Argentina, Fangio won the British and German Grands Prix at Silverstone and the Nürburgring. At the season-ending Italian Grand Prix, Fangio's Ferrari teammate Peter Collins, who was in a position to win the World Championship with just 15 laps to go, handed over his car to Fangio. They shared the six points won for second place, giving Fangio the World title.

In 1957 Fangio returned to Maserati, who were still using the same iconic 250F which Fangio had driven at the start of 1954. Fangio started the season with a hat-trick of wins in Argentina, Monaco and France, before retiring with engine problems in Britain. He also won the 12 Hours of Sebring sportscar race in America driving a Maserati 450S with Jean Behra for the second year running. But at the Grand Prix after Britain, the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring circuit, Fangio needed to extend his lead by six points to claim the title with two races to spare. From pole position Fangio dropped to third behind the Ferraris of Mike Hawthorn and Collins but managed to get past both by the end of the third lap. Fangio had started with half-full tanks since he expected that he would need new tyres halfway through the race. In the event Fangio pitted on lap 13 with a 30-second lead, but a disastrous stop left him back in third place and 50 seconds behind Collins and Hawthorn. Fangio came into his own, setting one fastest lap after another, culminating in a record-breaking time on lap 20 a full eleven seconds faster than the best the Ferraris could do. On the penultimate lap Fangio got back past both Collins and Hawthorn, and held on to take the win by just over three seconds. With Musso finishing in fourth place, Fangio claimed his fifth title. This performance is often regarded as one of the greatest drives in Formula One history, and it was also Fangio's final victory in the sport. Fangio's record of five championships remained unbroken until 2003, when Michael Schumacher won his sixth championship.

After his series of consecutive championships he retired in 1958, following the French Grand Prix. Such was the respect for Fangio that during that final race, race leader Hawthorn, who had lapped Fangio, braked as he was about to cross the line so that Fangio could complete the 50-lap distance in his final race; he crossed the line over two minutes down on Hawthorn. Getting out of the Maserati after the race, he said to his mechanic simply, "It is finished." He was famous for winning races at what he described as the slowest possible speed, in order to conserve the car to the finish. Cars in the 1940s and 1950s were unpredictable in their reliability, with almost any component susceptible to breaking. He won 24 World Championship Grands Prix, 22 outright and two shared with other drivers, from 52 entries – a winning percentage of 46.15%, the highest in the sport's history (Alberto Ascari, who has the second-highest, holds a winning percentage of 40.63%). Both drivers were already experienced Grand Prix drivers before the world championship started.

Kidnapping
President Fulgencio Batista of Cuba established the non-Formula One Cuban Grand Prix in Havana in 1957. Fangio won the 1957 event, and had set fastest times during practice for the 1958 race. On 23 February 1958, two gunmen of Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement entered the Hotel Lincoln in Havana and kidnapped Fangio. Batista ordered the race to continue as usual while a crack team of police hunted down the kidnappers. They set up roadblocks at intersections, and guards were assigned to private and commercial airports and to all competing drivers.

Fangio was taken to three separate houses. His captors allowed him to listen to the race via radio, bringing a television for him to witness reports of a disastrous crash after the race concluded. In the third house, Fangio was allowed his own bedroom but became convinced that a guard was standing outside the bedroom door at all hours. The captors talked about their revolutionary programme, which Fangio had not wished to speak about, as he did not have an interest in politics. He later said: "Well, this is one more adventure. If what the rebels did was in a good cause, then I, as an Argentine, accept it." He was released after 29 hours, after being "treated very well".

The captors' motives were to force the cancellation of the race in an attempt to embarrass the Batista regime. When Fangio was handed over to the Argentine embassy soon after the race, many Cubans became convinced that Batista was losing his grip on power because he failed to track the captors down. The Cuban Revolution took over the government in January 1959, and the 1959 Cuban Grand Prix was cancelled. The Fangio kidnapping was dramatized in a 1999 Argentine film directed by Alberto Lecchi, Operación Fangio.

Later life and death

In the early 1950s, Fangio was involved in a road accident when he was forced to swerve to avoid an oncoming truck. The car, a Lancia Aurelia GT clipped a pole, spinning twice and threw Fangio out, which led him to sustain grazed elbows. One passenger stated the incident was the first time Fangio had been so terrified.

When Fangio attended the 1958 Indianapolis 500, he was offered $20,000 to qualify in a Kurtis-Offenhauser by the car's owner, George Walther, Jr (father of future Indy 500 driver Salt Walther). Fangio had previously attended the 500 in 1948 at which time he expressed his interest in competing the race. However, he was unable to qualify with a car that did not work properly. Walther allowed Fangio to stand aside (before a contract with BP came to light), still he did not want another driver to take over Fangio's position.

During the rest of his life after retiring from racing Fangio sold Mercedes-Benz cars, often driving his former racing cars in demonstration laps. Even before he joined the Mercedes Formula One team, in the mid-1950s, Fangio had acquired the Argentine Mercedes concession. He was appointed President of Mercedes-Benz Argentina in 1974, and its Honorary President for Life in 1987.

Fangio served as the flagman for the Argentine Grand Prix from 1972 to 1981, and for NASCAR's Winston 500 in 1975.

Fangio was the special guest of the 50th anniversary 1978 Australian Grand Prix at the Sandown Raceway in Melbourne (seven years before the Australian Grand Prix became a round of the World Championship in ). After awarding the Lex Davison Trophy to race winner Graham McRae (who stated that meeting Fangio was a bigger thrill than actually winning the race for the third time), Fangio drove his 1954 and 1955 World Championship-winning Mercedes-Benz W196 in a spirited three lap exhibition against three other cars, including the World Championship winning Brabham BT19 driven by Australia's own triple World Champion Jack Brabham. Despite his car being over ten years older than the Repco Brabham, Fangio pushed the Australian all the way to the flag. Before the "race", Fangio (who at 67 years of age and not having raced competitively in 20 years, still held a full FIA Super Licence) had stated his intention of racing and not just putting in a demonstration drive.

At the beginning of the 1980s, Fangio underwent successful bypass surgery to correct a heart condition. He had also been suffering from kidney failure for some time before his death.

In 1980, Konex Foundation granted him the Diamond Konex Award as the best Sportsman of the decade in Argentina. In 1981 Fangio travelled to Monza for the Italian Grand Prix, where he was reunited with his Tipo 159 Alfa Romeo from 1951 and the 1954 Lancia D50 for a couple of demonstrative laps. For the event Fangio was joined by old friends and fellow racers, including Toulo de Graffenried, Luigi Villoresi and Giorgio Scarlatti as well as former Alfa Romeo managers from the 1950s Paolo Marzotto and Battista Guidotti.

Following his retirement, Fangio was active in assembling automotive memorabilia associated with his racing career. This led to the creation of the Museo Juan Manuel Fangio, which opened in Balcarce in 1986.

Fangio was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990. He returned to the spotlight in 1994, when he publicly opposed a new Province of Buenos Aires law denying driving licences to those over 80 (which included Fangio). Denied a renewal of his card, Fangio reportedly challenged Traffic Bureau personnel to a race between Buenos Aires and seaside Mar del Plata (a 400 km (250 mi) distance) in two hours or less, following which an exception was made for the five-time champion.

In 1990, Fangio met Ayrton Senna, a Brazilian three-time world champion, who genuinely felt the encounter reflected the mutual affection of both drivers.

Fangio died in Buenos Aires in 1995, at the age of 84 from kidney failure and pneumonia; he was buried in his home town of Balcarce. His pallbearers were his younger brother Ruben Renato ("Toto"), fellow racing icons Stirling Moss and Jackie Stewart, compatriot champions José Froilán González and Carlos Reutemann, and the president of Mercedes-Benz Argentina at the time.

Personal life

Fangio was never married, but he was involved in a romantic relationship with Andrea Berruet, with whom he broke up in 1960. They had a son named Oscar  'Cacho' Espinosa (1938) who was acknowledged as the unrecognised son of Fangio in 2000. Five years later, in 2005, Rubén Vázquez (1942) also claimed to be the son of Fangio through a relationship with Catarina Basili, whom Fangio had dated during a brief separation from Berruet. In July 2015, an Argentine court ruling ordered exhumation of Fangio's body after Espinosa's and Vázquez's claims to be the unacknowledged sons of the former race car driver. In December 2015, the Court confirmed that Espinosa was indeed Fangio's son, and in February 2016, it was confirmed that Rubén Vázquez was also Fangio's son. In June 2016, a DNA analysis concluded that Juan Carlos Rodríguez (1945) was the brother of Espinosa on paternal side with a 97.5% certainty. He was born from another brief relationship with Susana Rodríguez, who was 16 years old at the time. Fangio's paternity was ratified in May 2021 with a 99.9997% probability.

His nephew, Juan Manuel Fangio II, is also a successful racing driver.

Legacy
Fangio's record of five World Championship titles stood for 46 years before German driver Michael Schumacher surpassed it in 2003. Schumacher said, "Fangio is on a level much higher than I see myself. What he did stands alone and what we have achieved is also unique. I have such respect for what he achieved. You can't take a personality like Fangio and compare him with what has happened today. There is not even the slightest comparison." When Lewis Hamilton equaled Fangio's five titles in 2018 he praised Fangio calling him the "Godfather of our sport".

In October 2020, The Economist ranked champion drivers by the relative importance of car quality to driver skill. According to this ranking, Fangio is Formula 1's best driver of all time.

In November 2020, Carteret Analytics used quantitative analysis methods to rank Formula One drivers. According to this ranking, Fangio is Formula 1's best driver of all time. Similar mathematical analysis has also placed Fangio as the greatest of all time, once the era of racing was considered.

In his home country of Argentina, Fangio is revered as one of the greatest sportsmen the nation has ever produced. Argentines often refer to him as El Maestro, el mejor, which translates into The Master, the best one.

The first Michel Vaillant story was partly based on an imaginary conflict stirred up by fictional newspaper The New Indian on Fangio winning the World Championship at the Indy 500.

Six statues of Fangio, sculpted by Catalan artist Joaquim Ros Sabaté, stand at race venues around the world: Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires; Monte Carlo, Monaco; Montmeló, Spain; Nürburgring, Germany; Stuttgart-Untertürkheim, Germany; and Monza, Italy.

The Museo Juan Manuel Fangio was established in Balcarce (Fangio's birthplace) in 1986.

Argentina's largest oil company, Repsol YPF, launched the "Fangio XXI" gas brand. The Zonda 2005 C12 F, also known as the Zonda Fangio, was designed in honour of Fangio and was released 10 years after his death. Maserati created a special website in 2007 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his fifth and final world championship triumph. A Mercedes-Benz W196R Formula 1 race car, driven by Fangio in his World Championship-qualifying Grand Prix races in 1954 and 1955 was sold for a record $30 million at an auction in England on 12 July 2013.

Post-World War II Grandes Épreuves results
(key)

Complete Formula One World Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) * Shared drive.

† Car ran with streamlined, full-width bodywork.

Complete non-championship Formula One results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Formula One records
Fangio holds the following Formula One records:

title: Juan Manuel Fangio


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Pennsylvania Avenue

Pennsylvania Avenue is a primarily diagonal street in Washington, D.C. that connects the United States Capitol with the White House and then crosses northwest Washington, D.C. to Georgetown. Traveling through southeast Washington from the Capitol, it enters Prince George's County, Maryland, and becomes MD Route 4 (MD 4) and then MD Route 717 in Upper Marlboro, and finally Stephanie Roper Highway.

The section of the avenue between the White House, which is sometimes referred to by its address "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue", and the Capitol forms the basis for the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site and is sometimes referred to as "America's Main Street"; it is the location of official parades and processions, and periodic protest marches. Pennsylvania Avenue is an important commuter road and is part of the National Highway System.

Route
The avenue runs for 5.8 mi in Washington, D.C., but the 1.2 mi of Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House to the United States Capitol building is far and away the most famed section of the avenue. It continues within the city for 3.5 mi, from the southeast corner of the Capitol grounds through the Capitol Hill neighborhood, and over the Anacostia River on the John Philip Sousa Bridge. Crossing most of Prince George's County, Maryland, it ends 9.5 mi from the Washington, D.C. border in Maryland at the junction with MD 717 in Upper Marlboro, where the name changes to Stephanie Roper Highway, for a total length of 15.3 mi. Stephanie Roper Highway used to be Pennsylvania Avenue, but was renamed in 2012. In addition to its street names, in Maryland it is designated as Maryland Route 4.

Northwest of the White House, Pennsylvania Avenue runs for 1.4 mi to its end at M Street N.W. in Georgetown, just beyond the Pennsylvania Avenue Bridge over Rock Creek. From 1862 to 1962, streetcars ran the length of the avenue from Georgetown to the Anacostia River.

18th century
Although Pennsylvania Avenue extends six miles (10 km) in Washington, D.C., the expanse between the White House and the United States Capitol constitutes the ceremonial heart of the nation. It was designed by Pierre Charles L'Enfant, and was one of the earliest streets constructed in the city. The width of the avenue was set at 160 feet, identical to the narrowest points of the Champs Elysees in Paris that L'Enfant is likely to have examined. The first documented reference to the street as Pennsylvania Avenue was in a 1791 letter from Thomas Jefferson. One theory behind the avenue's name is that it was named for Pennsylvania as consolation for moving the capital from Philadelphia in 1800 and in recognition of Pennsylvania's historical significance in the nation's founding. Both Jefferson and Washington considered Pennsylvania Avenue an important feature of the new capital. The stretch outside the White House was established in 1804 when President Jefferson ordered the road to be cut through President’s Park. For decades, Pennsylvania Avenue was a wide dirt road ridiculed by Jefferson as "The Great Serbonian Bog", he planted it with rows of fast-growing Populus nigra.[citation needed]

19th century
In 1832, in an effort to tame dust and dirt on Pennsylvania Avenue, it was paved using the macadam method. But over the years, other pavement methods were trialed on the avenue: cobblestones in 1849 followed by Belgian blocks and then, in 1871, wooden blocks.

Pennsylvania Avenue once provided an unobstructed view between the White House and the Capitol. The construction of an expansion to the Treasury Building blocked this view, and supposedly President Andrew Jackson did this on purpose. Relations between the president and Congress were strained, and Jackson did not want to see the Capitol out his window, though in reality the Treasury Building was simply built on what was cheap government land.

In 1876, as part of an initiative begun by President Ulysses S. Grant to see the city's streets improved, Pennsylvania Avenue was paved with asphalt by Civil War veteran William Averell using Trinidad and Guanoco lakes asphalt.

20th century
In 1959, Pennsylvania Avenue was extended from the Washington, D.C. border with Maryland to Dower House Road in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.

On September 30, 1965, portions of the avenue and surrounding area were designated the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site. The National Park Service administers this area which includes the United States Navy Memorial, Old Post Office Tower, and Pershing Park. After the Great Depression in the 1930s and the move of affluent families to suburbs in the 1950s, Pennsylvania Avenue became increasingly blighted. John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson tried to redevelop the street as part of the New Frontier and Great Society reforms, but the avenue further declined after the 1968 Washington, D.C., riots in the aftermath of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

In 1972, Congress created the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation (PADC) to rehabilitate the street between the Capitol and the White House, an area seen as blighted. The new organization was given the mandate of developing Pennsylvania Avenue "in a manner suitable to its ceremonial, physical, and historic relationship to the legislative and executive branches of the federal government".

In the 1980s, renovations were made to the Willard Hotel, the Old Post Office, and Washington Union Station, each located on or adjacent to Pennsylvania Avenue.

21st century
In 2010, the District of Columbia designated Pennsylvania Avenue from the southwestern terminus of John Philip Sousa Bridge to the Maryland state line to be a "D.C. Great Street". The city spent $430 million to beautify the street and improve the roadway.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses along Pennsylvania Avenue faced significant challenges and closures. With reduced tourism, remote work trends keeping office buildings quieter, and a historical lack of the avenue itself being a primary destination, many establishments struggled to sustain operations. The combination of decreased foot traffic and shifting consumer behavior further strained local businesses, leading to closures as they struggled to adapt to the new economic realities.

In 2022, the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) launched the Pennsylvania Avenue Initiative to revitalize the iconic thoroughfare by transforming it into a dynamic public space and transportation corridor. Accelerated by the changes brought about by remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic, the initiative aims to re-imagine Pennsylvania Avenue from its current eight-lane design predominantly catering to cars to a more inclusive and equitable space. This vision includes accommodating a variety of activities and users, such as pedestrians, cyclists, buses, emergency vehicles, and delivery trucks, alongside hosting events and fostering community engagement.

To achieve this transformation, the initiative involves collaborative efforts between NCPC and consulting teams like HR&A Advisors. They are tasked with updating traffic studies to explore reallocating roadway space for new sidewalks, bike lanes, transit-only lanes, mid-block crossings, and other streetscape elements. Additionally, the initiative prioritizes refining early design concepts into preferred alternatives based on economic feasibility, stakeholder input, and environmental considerations. Ultimately, the goal is to elevate Pennsylvania Avenue's status as a premier public space in Washington, DC, comparable to other renowned urban boulevards around the world.

In 2024, NCPC is expected to announce a second consultant team to help develop the New Pennsylvania Avenue Plan that will address design and infrastructure improvements along the corridor and adjoining public spaces.

Presidential inaugurations
Ever since an impromptu procession formed around Jefferson's second inauguration, every U.S. president except Ronald Reagan in his second inauguration in January 1985 has paraded down Pennsylvania Avenue after taking the oath of office. Reagan paraded up the avenue for his first inauguration in January 1981 but not following his second inauguration in 1985 because freezing temperatures and high winds made it dangerous.

Presidential funeral processions
From William Henry Harrison to Gerald Ford, the funeral corteges of seven of the eight presidents who died in office and two former presidents followed this route. Franklin Roosevelt was the only president who died in office whose cortege did not follow this route.

Abraham Lincoln's funeral cortege solemnly proceeded along Pennsylvania Avenue in 1865; only weeks later, the end of the American Civil War was celebrated with the Grand Review of the Armies when the Army of the Potomac paraded more joyously along the avenue. The funeral processions of both Lyndon B. Johnson and Ford funeral corteges proceeded down Pennsylvania Avenue. For Lyndon Johnson, the cortege was along Pennsylvania Avenue from U.S. Capitol to National City Christian Church, where he often worshiped and where his funeral was held. Ford's funeral went up Pennsylvania Avenue, pausing at the White House en route to Washington National Cathedral, where his funeral was held.

Protests and celebrations
In addition to serving as a location for official functions, Pennsylvania Avenue is a traditional parade and protest route of ordinary citizens. During the depression of the 1890s, Jacob Coxey marched 500 supporters down Pennsylvania Avenue to the U.S. Capitol to demand federal aid for the unemployed. Similarly, on the eve of Woodrow Wilson's 1913 inauguration, Alice Paul masterminded a parade, the Woman Suffrage Procession, highlighting the women's suffrage movement. In July 1932, a contingent of the Bonus Expeditionary Force carried flags up Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House, where they formed picket lines.

Pennsylvania Avenue also has served as a background for more lighthearted celebrations, including a series of Shriner's parades in the 1920s and 1930s. Thomas and Concepcion Picciotto are the founders of the White House Peace Vigil, the longest-running anti-nuclear peace vigil in the nation at Lafayette Square on the 1600 block of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Security measures
After the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, the Secret Service closed the portion of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House to all vehicular traffic. Pedestrian and bicycle traffic, however, was still permitted on the sidewalk. After the September 11 attacks, all traffic in front of the White House was prohibited, and traffic near the White House is redirected to H Street or Constitution Avenue, both of which eventually link back with Pennsylvania Avenue.

In 2002, the National Capital Planning Commission invited several prominent landscape architects to submit proposals for the redesign of Pennsylvania Avenue at the White House, with the intention that the security measures would be woven into an overall plan for the precinct and a more welcoming public space might be created. The winning entry by a firm run by Michael Van Valkenburgh proposed a very simple approach to planting, paving, and the integration of required security steps. Construction was completed in 2004.

Sites of interest
From east to west:

 * John Philip Sousa Bridge
 * Barney Circle
 * United States Capitol
 * Peace Monument
 * National Gallery of Art, East Building
 * John Marshall Park
 * Embassy of Canada
 * Newseum
 * Federal Trade Commission Building
 * National Archives Building
 * United States Navy Memorial
 * J. Edgar Hoover Building (FBI headquarters)
 * Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building (Department of Justice headquarters)
 * 1001 Pennsylvania Avenue (World headquarters of The Carlyle Group)
 * Old Post Office Pavilion
 * Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center

 * John A. Wilson Building
 * Freedom Plaza
 * National World War I Memorial
 * Treasury Building
 * White House
 * Lafayette Square
 * Blair House
 * Renwick Gallery
 * World Bank
 * Embassy of Mexico
 * George Washington University
 * International Finance Corporation
 * Washington Circle
 * Spanish Embassy
 * Rock Creek Park
 * Georgetown

The National Theatre and Warner Theatre use Pennsylvania Avenue mailing addresses, although the theaters are nearby on E Street and 13th Street respectively.

Metrobus
The following Metrobus routes travel along the street (listed from west to east):
 * 30N (Branch Ave. SE to Independence Ave. SE, then 7th St. N.W. to 15th St. N.W., then H St. N.W. to M St. N.W.)
 * 30S (Minnesota Ave. SE to Independence Ave. SE, then 7th St. N.W. to 15th St. N.W., then H St. N.W. to M St. N.W.)
 * 38B (Eye St. N.W. to M St. N.W.)
 * 33 (9th St. N.W. to 15th St. N.W., then H St. N.W. to M St. N.W.)
 * 31, D5 (Washington Circle to M St. N.W.)
 * 36 (Branch Ave. SE to Independence Ave. SE, then 7th St. N.W. to 15th St. N.W., then H St. N.W. to Washington Circle)
 * 32 (Minnesota Ave. SE to Independence Ave. SE, then 7th St. N.W. to 15th St. N.W., then H St. N.W. to Washington Circle)
 * 39 (Limited stop service from Southern Ave. to Independence Ave., then 7th St. N.W. to 15th St. N.W., then Eye St. N.W. to Washington Circle)
 * 37 (Limited stop service from 7th St. N.W. to 15th St. N.W.)
 * 16C (6th St. N.W. to 12th St. N.W.)
 * P6 (4th St. N.W. to 11th St. N.W.)
 * 34 (Minnesota Ave. SE to Independence Ave. SE)
 * M6 (Alabama Ave. SE to Potomac Ave. SE)
 * B2, V4 (Minnesota Ave. SE to Potomac Ave. SE)
 * V12 (Brooks Dr. to Shadyside Ave.)
 * K12 (Forestville Rd. to Parkland Dr., then Walters La. to Donnell Dr.)
 * J12 (Eastbound only from Forestville Rd. to Old Marlboro Pike)

DC Circulator
The DC Circulator travels along the street:
 * Georgetown-Union Station (20th St. N.W. to M St. N.W.)

MTA Maryland Commuter Bus
The following MTA Maryland Commuter Bus routes travel along the street:
 * 904 (Anacostia Freeway to Independence Ave., then 7th St. NW to 11th St. NW)
 * 905 (7th St. N.W. to 11th St. N.W.)

Bus
The following routes of TheBus serve Pennsylvania Ave. in Prince George's County:
 * 24 (Old Silver Hill Rd. to Brooks Dr.)
 * 20 (Marlboro Pike to Donnell Dr.)

Washington Metro
The following Washington Metro stations have entrances located near Pennsylvania Avenue:
 * Potomac Avenue, Eastern Market, Federal Triangle, Foggy Bottom–GWU
 * Archives

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Pennsylvania Avenue


text:
Talk:Pennsylvania Avenue

Untitled
Here is a very good article that needs the information sifted out of it and made unplagiarised so it can be included in the page:

[from - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/may23.html]

 * It appears that this is all a product of the Library of Congress, which as an arm of the Federal Government makes this a public domain work. As such, it can be directly incorporated into the article, though common courtesy requires us to include a note acknowledging the LOC. --Polynova 22:08, 7 Dec 2004 (UTC)

 * I have now incorporated much of the LOC article into this one. I think the article is the best "street" article in Wikipedia. Take that Broadway and Wall Street! --Polynova 06:13, 8 Dec 2004 (UTC)

"At one time, Pennsylvania Avenue provided an unobstructed view between the White House and the Capitol. The construction of an expansion to the Treasury Building blocked this view . . . "

With all respect, most of this paragraph perpetuates myth and speculation. Outside of the time Washington DC was nothing but pasture and farmland, it was never possible to view the Capitol from the White House or vice versa. The White House is much too small for its site and is, in fact, situated too far to the north to receive the PA Ave axis from the Capitol. This is quite obvious when viewed from the Old Post Office tower; with or without the Treasury, the vista terminates 50 feet or more to the south of the South Portico. According to the eminent White House historian William Seale, George Washington knew that Hoban's small building would be an inadequate focus and so therefore deliberately sited the residence at the intersection of the northern axes of the NY and PA Ave vistas.

While I think this entire paragraph should be omitted, there may be some worth to including it only as an example of the many old wives' tales surrounding the White House (such as the one about how it received its distinctive color and therefore its name because of being painted after the British burned it). —Preceding unsigned comment added by Quarterczar (talk • contribs)

 * I have to disagree. The Andrew Jackson story may be a myth, but the White House is very clearly along the PA Ave axis as seen in any map of DC or satellite photo. --dm (talk) 19:00, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

Unobstructed View
Hi, from a satellite image the White House may appear to be on axis but it is not. Please refer to William Seale's magnificent, two-volume work, "The President's House" pp 34-35 which, in turn, refers to L'Enfant's personal papers.

I hope it is OK to quote here in Wikipedia, so here goes:

"The main question was where to place a smaller house in the vast space allotted by L'Enfant. (L'Enfant's) palace had been designed to fit the site precisely.  Even with the (2/5s) increase, Hoban's house was swallowed in the area . . . Should this building be centered in the area?  It could not be shifted to the east or the west.  Should it be set as far north as possible, or as far south?

". . . Washington walked around, calculated, and recalculated . . . At last he made his decision. The north wall of Hoban's house would be carried entirely 'up to the post fixed by Mjr L'Enfant for the center of the North front' of the palace.  In other words, the front door would be where L'Enfant had meant his front door to be.

"The President's decision largely withdrew the house from the Pennsylvania Avenue axis to the Capitol, a move that did not rest well at all with the commissioners. Their subtle reference to their doubt in the records suggests that, left to their own devices, they might have framed the house in the view of the Capitol, and thus have gained also a vista from the President's House to the Capitol.  The projection of the Blue Room, really more a semicircle than a bow, compensates somewhat by stretching the south facade almost to the edge of this vista . . ."

On pp 207-208, there is also a more specific reference to the view from the Capitol and Andrew Jackson's supposed role in destroying it:

"History has long abused the general for this act, claiming that he blocked the view of the White House from the Capitol, down Pennsylvania Avenue. The truth is, in locating the new Treasury he rescued the White House from a far worse fate, the crowding of its site by an executive complex.  He has also taken an unjust beating with regard to the view from the avenue . . . General Washington had personally set the smaller house by Hoban to the north, pulling it to the very edge of the avenue's frame, where it was barely visible . . . Jefferson's sensitivity was understandably offended by the way the White House shrank back wretchedly from the commanding axis, so he cut off what little view there was with a curving driveway and dense plantings.

"In siting the new Treasury building, Jackson really sacrificed nothing, but corrected an old shortcoming by giving Pennsylvania Avenue at last its architectural terminus."

I can send you a picture taken from the top of the Old Post Office tower which clearly shows the White House on Axis with PA Ave on the north but not from the south, even with the projection of the South Portico.

On a different note, I'm curious why you deleted my addition of Blair House to the sites of interest. It's on Pennsylvania Avenue and it certainly is a point of interest. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Quarterczar (talk • contribs) 23:15, 16 March 2007 (UTC).

 * I'd like to see the photo because I don't think I'm following you. What does it mean to be on axis from the north but not on the south? The quotes from the book suggest that the White House was not centered, but still visible, in the view from the Capitol. This wouldn't affect the Andrew Jackson story as it suggests he wanted the view of the Capitol blocked. Even if the White House were slightly off the axis, the Capitol would be clearly visible from much of the White House considering the Capitol's height and position on top of a hill.

 * Removing the Blair House link was accidental. I'll put it back in. --dm (talk) 00:11, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

Hi, PA Ave from the north is not on an axis with PA Ave from the south, nor does it point to the Capitol. This was because L'Enfant's plans for a Presidential Palace were far larger than the WH and the footprint of the palace was most likely square. Thus, NY and PA Aves from the north do not meet at the same apex as NY and PA Aves from the south. (This might be hard to tell from a satellite image because the difference is really only about 50 feet.) Anyway, the site fits L'Enfant's house, not Hoban's.  In the pic from the Old Post Office Tower, you can see that if you follow PA Ave south from Georgetown to White House, the WH is smack dab in the right of way. HOWEVER, if you follow PA Ave north from the Capitol, the avenue would skip right past the building, clearly missing the house by 25-50 feet. The only unobstructed view to the Capitol was from the White House grounds in front of the South Portico. Now it may be true that you could see the Capitol from the White House in the first few years of the century but this was only because the trees had not grown and other buildings had not yet been built. So all this to say, there was never a view down Pennsylvania Ave from the windows of the White House. Never. The house was built too far to the north to receive the line of site.

If you need yet more proof, let me know where to email the pic from the Old Post Office Tower.

Thanks for your time.

 * I was confused because I think of PA Ave as an east-west street, not north-south. You may be right about sight lines but it's not obvious from any photos or maps I've seen. Could you upload the picture and post it on this talk page? Details on how to do this can be found at Uploading images. I'd rather not give out my e-mail address. --dm (talk) 16:21, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

Hi, I'm sorry for causing the confusion. I didn't mean that PA Ave runs north or south. When I say "N" or "S", I am only referring to the various vantage points of the avenue. i.e. Pennsylvania Avenue from the north refers to the stretch that runs NW from the White House to Georgetown. Conversely "south" runs SE and refers to the leg linking the WH to the Capitol.

Attached is a pic of Pennsylvania Ave taken from the Old Post Office tower by me on April 6, 2006. In the first, I have added a thick red line to show the line of sight from the US Capitol which shows clearly that the WH is too far to the north to receive this axis. Whereas the WH is directly in the line of sight from PA Ave to north (the northwest leg which goes to Georgetown). I have added a thin red line to the second picture to show this.

PA Ave from the north and NY Ave from the north (running NE from the WH to the old Carnegie Library) do not share the same apex as from the south. The reason for this is that L'Enfant intended the focus of each apex to be the north and south facades (respectively) of his much larger presidential palace. Remember that L'Enfant's genius was not only in creating a magnificent, baroque city, but in the creation of axes and foci. (At the risk of confusing things further, I'd like to point out an example of what L'Enfant intended for his palace. You can tell in the picture you have uploaded of PA Ave to the Capitol that the Capitol dome is not the focus of the avenue.  The portico in front of the dome is the focus) Knowing that the house was much too small for its site and because they believed the city would grow to the north, George Washington selected and James Hoban built the White House at a location to receive the northern lines of sight.

All of this to say that there was never a time when there was an unobstructed view from the White House to the Capitol up Pennsylvania Ave. It would be an accurate statement to say that before the Treasury was built, there was an unobstructed view of the Capitol up PA Ave from the grounds to the south of the White House, but not from the house itself.

I've enjoyed this discussion and hope you have, too. I think it is obvious we both love this city and, I hope, we can both still learn something about it.

 * Thanks for uploading the photo. I'm not sure that it is conclusive though. Keep in mind that the block of PA Ave west of Freedom Plaza is at a different angle from the rest of PA Ave and not a direct continuation of it. This block is also about half the width of the rest of PA Ave. Also, the buildings on the north side of this block are built very close to the street. Any buildings at the time would likely have been set back more. I just don't see enough of the relevant street to determine it one way or another. --dm (talk) 12:50, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

I guess I'm at a loss. I've provided examples showing that the original commissioners who built the White House said there was no view possible down PA Ave; William Seale says that there is no view possible and, by extension the White House historical association doesn't think so. I guess this is the big problem with Wikipedia. Its your article. Best of luck to you.

It seems that there has been more than enough evidence posted about the view. From the photographs, it's clear that the line of sight does not actually touch the White House. Danalon 13:47, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

 * Some nice research by quarterczar above but his/her speculation and conclusions are simply not supportable, particularly his/her unsubstantiated assertion that "from a satellite image the White House may appear to be on axis but it is not." Imagery confirms that indeed before the Treasury Building, there was clearly a view of the Capitol itself from at the very least the SW-most window of the main block of the White House (the West Wing was not added until 1901) Another confirmation can be gained by plotting the axis from the SW corner of the main White House block to the Capitol down Pa. Ave., then standing on that asix in front of the Willard Hotel near the Treasury building on Pa. Ave.; you'll get a nice view of the Capitol just as on the Panoramio photo there in Google Earth.....incontrovertible evidence.  And quarterczar's main "evidence" above, the "President's decision...." and "History has long...." paragraphs, if read carefully, actually support the clearly visible fact on imagery that, though the White House was smaller than originally planned and no longer centered on the Pa. Ave. axis, the SW part of the White House and, at that time, probably most of the south facade had clear views of The Capitol.DLinth (talk) 04:05, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Merging District of Columbia Route 4
This article should be merged here because it is very short and can be efficiently described in the history section. Dough4872 (talk) 18:53, 22 April 2009 (UTC)
 * I'd support the merge. The routing of DC 4 is redundant to PA Avenue and there probably isn't much history behind DC 4 beyond its assignment and removal. As stated by nom, the short history can be adequately covered in the existing history section. –  T M F 05:57, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

Renewal under Kennedy
I just heard a brief comment on NBC News that when President Kennedy travelled from the Capitol to the White House, he was distressed to see how rundown the neighborhood had become and then appointed Daniel Patrick Moynihan to work on renewal. It would be helpful if this article made some mention of this. --Regensturm23 (talk) 20:55, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Identity
The article contains several contradictions: PA is both PA and "Southern Maryland Boulevard" (and several other "street names"). What is the definition of PA, if it's not the name? - 91.10.4.162 (talk) 00:47, 16 February 2018 (UTC)
 * It seems fine to me. In fact, you appear to be the only person who's having difficulty understanding the article. Maybe you could clarify just what it is you are having such a hard time with? We'll try to help you out if we can... - the WOLF  child  02:25, 16 February 2018 (UTC)
 * Let's try something else: Stop wikihounding me, or at least try to be civil and open-minded, then we could start the conversation. - 91.10.4.162 (talk) 02:49, 16 February 2018 (UTC)

Capitol Hill
On google I have found Capitol Hill, First St SE, Washington, DC 20004.

Is there a numerical address? Are there several such addresses?

Thank You,

Dhsert (talk) 19:00, 12 September 2019 (UTC)

 * Capitol Hill is a neighborhood, not a single building, so there is no numerical address, nor is there just one street that is identified with it. As the Capitol Hill article notes, the neighborhood is roughly bounded by Virginia Ave. SE., S. Capitol St., G St. NE, 14th Sts. SE & NE, 8th St. NE, I-295, M St. SE, and 11th St. SE ... Carter (talk) 01:25, 13 September 2019 (UTC)

title: Talk:Pennsylvania Avenue


text:
Telex (band)

Telex was a Belgian synth-pop group formed in 1978 by Marc Moulin, Dan Lacksman and Michel Moers, with the intention of "making something really European, different from rock, without guitar—and the idea was electronic music".

History
In 1979, mixing the aesthetics of disco, punk and experimental electronic music, they released a stripped-down synthesized cover version of "Twist à St. Tropez" by Les Chats Sauvages. They followed up with an ultra-slow cover of "Rock Around the Clock", a relaxed and dispassionate version of Plastic Bertrand's punk song "Ça Plane Pour Moi", and a mechanical cover of "Dance to the Music", originally by Sly Stone. Telex built its music entirely from electronic instruments, employing joyously irreverent humor. The group's debut album, Looking for Saint Tropez, featured the worldwide hit single "Moskow Diskow".

In 1980, Telex's manager asked the group to enter the Eurovision Song Contest. The group entered and were eventually sent to the finals, although they apparently hoped to come in last.

""We had hoped to finish last, but Portugal decided otherwise. We got ten points from them and finished on the 19th spot.""

- Marc Moulin

The group's song "Euro-Vision" was a cheerful bleepy song with deliberately banal lyrics about the Eurovision Song Contest, which they competed with in 1980 and placed 17th of 19 with 14 points.

For their third album, Sex, Telex enlisted the US group Sparks to help write the lyrics. However, the band still refused to play live and preferred to remain anonymous—common practice in the techno music artists the group later inspired but, nevertheless, unusual in 1981. The fourth Telex album, Wonderful World, was barely distributed. In 1986, Atlantic Records signed Telex and released the album Looney Tunes in 1988. In 1989, Telex revisited their old tracks and remixed them to resemble house music and other genres then prevalent in electronic pop. The result was Les Rythmes Automatiques, released in 1989. After a long hiatus, Telex returned in March 2006 with How Do You Dance on EMI Records. It contained five original compositions as well as five covers. The group's last single was a cover of "On the Road Again", originally by Canned Heat. They also produced remixes for other artists' single releases, including "A Pain That I'm Used To" by Depeche Mode and "Minimal" by the Pet Shop Boys.

Following the death of band member Marc Moulin in 2008, the surviving members of the band announced their retirement from making music with the band's final release, a compilation album titled Ultimate.

Albums

 * 1979: Looking for Saint Tropez
 * 1980: Neurovision
 * 1981: Sex (released in some countries as "Birds and Bees" with a slightly altered track listing)
 * 1984: Wonderful World
 * 1988: Looney Tunes
 * 2006: How Do You Dance?

Compilations and remix albums

 * 1982: More Than Distance (includes singles, album tracks, B sides, and newly remixed/recorded tracks, two with English lyrics by Jo Callis)
 * 1989: Les Rythmes Automatiques (album of re-recorded back-catalogue)
 * 1993: Belgium...One Point (a box set of the first five albums plus bonus tracks)
 * 1994: Is Release a Humour? – We Love Telex (Japan only. remixed by Japanese DJs)
 * 1998: I Don't Like Music (remixed by Carl Craig and others)
 * 1998: I Don't Like Remixes: Original Classics 78–86 (a 'best-of' compilation)
 * 1999: I (Still) Don't Like Music Remixes Vol. 2 (DJ remixes)
 * 2009: Ultimate Best Of
 * 2021: This Is Telex (1978–2006 tracks newly mixed with 2 unreleased covers—"Dear Prudence" from the Beatles and "The Beat Goes On" from Sonny & Cher)

title: Telex (band)