I've just come across this article http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/12/us-usa-civilwar-whitman-idUSTRE73B7QU20110412, which explains better to me why a nearby high school is called Walt Whitman and why the following lines adorn an entrance to the Dupont Circle Metro station:
Thus in silence in dreams' projections,
Returning, resuming, I thread my way through the hospitals;
The hurt and wounded I pacify with soothing hand,
I sit by the restless all dark night - some are so young;
Some suffer so much - I recall the experience sweet and sad...
Walt Whitman, from Leaves of Grass, 1876
Somehow I'd missed the deep USGOV connection...3000 documents!
