The list of people who have grown up or stopped through Capitol Hill as a young person and then returned later to be honored in one way or another is long. Rare, however, is the tumult that greeted aviator Charles Lindbergh when he returned to the United States from his record-setting flight that forever gave him the name Lone Eagle.
Just before noon on June 11, 1927, the USS Memphis, flagship of the Commander of US Naval forces in Europe, eased up to the quay at the Washington Navy Yard. After being secured and having a gangplank raised, Vice-Admiral Guy Burrage stepped onto land, and then returned on board, escorting a middle-aged woman.
She and a slender young man who had been waiting on board the ship disappeared into a cabin, leaving the huge crowd that surrounded the ship unsure of what would happen next. When at last the young man reappeared and made his way down the gangplank, followed by Burrage and the woman, the crowd erupted. The Marines who had been called out for crowd control were quickly overwhelmed. There was no way those waiting for the last hours would be denied the opportunity to meet the man of the hour: Charles A. Lindbergh.
Three weeks earlier, Lindbergh had been just another of the many aviators looking for their chance to make history by flying across the Atlantic. Today, he was one of the best-known men on the planet: a member of the tiny group of men who had flown across the ocean. The first to do so alone, and the first to make it from the North American continent all the way to the European mainland.
Charles Lindbergh leaves the USS Memphis at Washington Navy Yard. Behind him on the gangplank are his mother and Vice-Admiral Burrage.
It was hardly Lindbergh’s first visit to Capitol Hill; his father had been Representative from Minnesota for 5 terms when Lindbergh had been a boy, and he had even attended Eastern High school, albeit briefly. Never before, however, had crowds lined the roads wherever he was taken, shouting his name and waving frantically for a chance at a smile or wave from the new hero.
Lindbergh was rapidly escorted out of the Navy Yard and down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Washington Monument grounds, where a huge crowd – including President Coolidge – awaited him: the crowd with cheers, the president with a speech and the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Lindbergh was fêted all over DC, and showered with honors, including a stop in front of the Capitol, where Charles Evans Hughes, former Supreme Court Justice and Presidential candidate, presented him with the Cross of Honor from the United States Flag Association.
It was, in short, as different to Lindbergh’s previous visits to the Hill as one could only ask for.