00:00George Washington worked for the Russians?
00:04George Washington worked for the Russians.
00:07Now you're going to hear the rest of the story.
00:12Soldiering was in George Washington's blood.
00:14He had been preparing for his life one way or another since the age of 14,
00:19and yet George's soldier comrades were keenly interested of an ability
00:24and a remarkable skill that history was to ignore almost completely,
00:28and that is, George Washington was a tremendously talented military engineer.
00:36He enjoyed nothing more than solving the seemingly insoluble technical problems of war,
00:42designing bridges for troops where it appeared none could be built,
00:45creating efficient supply roads through impossible terrain.
00:49That was George Washington's true Yankee shrewdness.
00:54What you're about to hear has little to do with raising an army to fight the British,
00:58No, it appeared toward the end of George Washington's life,
01:03that is when Russia's Tsar Nicholas approached him with a tempting challenge.
01:08For in that day, the latest thing in transportation was something called a railroad.
01:14The European continent had just begun to entwine itself in a web of rails and ties,
01:20and the Russian Tsar was determined that his nation must not be left behind.
01:27What he wanted was a railroad between St. Petersburg and Moscow.
01:31Now, the last thing on George Washington's mind was abandoning the genteel and genial plantation society.
01:40Retirement under such splendid circumstances, surrounded by admirers,
01:45was a delightful idea, but the Tsar's challenge was irresistible.
01:51George Washington would travel to Russia, and he would attempt to solve this one last engineering problem,
01:57which turned out to be a greater problem than he had imagined.
02:01To his first meeting with the Tsar, George brought a map of Russia.
02:05George asked him to draw on the map the route he wanted the new railroad to take.
02:10Without hesitating, the Tsar produced a wooden ruler and drew a straight line between St. Petersburg and Moscow.
02:20George, ordinarily unflappable, was staggered.
02:24And yet, regaining his composure, the prestigious American promised that he would do his best.
02:29And he did his best, and it was more than good enough.
02:34When work on the Russian railroad was near completion, George Washington died.
02:38He died in Russia.
02:41Now, stay with me.
02:43The Tsar offered to bury him there, with all sorts of honors.
02:48Needless to say, his family declined.
02:50So he rests in peace in his beloved United States.
02:54But before he passed away, he accomplished one thing more.
03:00And this one bears mentioning.
03:03He fathered a son, who was to be remembered among the greatest artists of his time.
03:09And that artist was James Abbott McNeil Whistler.
03:12World-renowned is the portrait he painted of his mother, Whistler's mother.
03:18But now you've met George Washington Whistler, a VIP in his own right,
03:25whose importance was ultimately obscured by the artistry of his own gifted offspring.
03:34George Washington Whistler.
03:37Whistler's father.
03:41Now you know the rest of the story.
Comments