through much of the 19th century, developers of land outside of the center city tended to build streets wherever they liked. an 1887 report of the commissioners of the district of columbia, the three-member panel that governed the district, said that many of these streets "go nowhere and connect with nothing." the commissioners said that "if the configuration and architecture of a city has a moral influence upon its residents, the rectification of the irreclaimable obliquity of the... streets is manifestly desirable for more than physical reasons."