Alternative title: District of Columbia

Washington, D.C., D.C. in full District of Columbia,  city and capital of the United States of America. It is coextensive with the District of Columbia (the city is often referred to as simply D.C.) and is located on the northern shore of the Potomac River, at the river’s navigation head—that is, the transshipment point between waterway and land transport. The state of Maryland borders the District of Columbia to the north, east, and west, and the state of Virginia borders the District on the southern shore of the Potomac River.

In 1790 the U.S. Congress established a 100-square-mile (260-square-km) territory to serve as the permanent seat of the federal government. (The territory was later named the District of Columbia, within which the city of Washington was built.) The location for the new territory was centralized among the Eastern Seaboard states and was about 90 miles (145 km) inland from the Atlantic Ocean on land ceded by Maryland and Virginia. In the mid-19th century the land south of the Potomac River that had been ceded by Virginia was returned to the state, reducing the District to its present-day size.

After the American Civil War (1861–65), the city of Washington expanded beyond its originally planned boundaries and became legally indistinguishable from the District of Columbia. Washington, D.C., remains a territory, not a state, and since 1974 it has been governed by a locally elected mayor and city council over which Congress retains the power of veto. The Washington metropolitan area covers nearly 4,000 square miles (10,360 square km) and encompasses 10 counties, 5 in Maryland (Montgomery, Prince George’s, Frederick, Charles, and Calvert) and 5 in Virginia (Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Stafford, and Prince William). Area District, 68 square miles (176 square km). Pop. (2000) 572,059; Washington-Arlington-Alexandria Metro Division, 3,727,565; Washington-Arlington-Alexandria Metro Area, 4,796,183; (2010) 601,723; Washington-Arlington-Alexandria Metro Division, 4,377,088; Washington-Arlington-Alexandria Metro Area, 5,582,170.

Character of the city

Capitol, United States [Credit: ©]Capitol, United States© is an extraordinary city, one with multiple personalities: a working federal city, an international metropolis, a picturesque tourist destination, an unmatched treasury of the country’s history and artifacts, and a cosmopolitan centre that retains a neighbourly small-town ambience. The role Washington plays as the capital of the United States often overshadows its lively local history and its complex political, economic, and social issues. About half the land in Washington is owned by the U.S. government, which pays no taxes on it. Several hundred thousand people in the D.C. metropolitan area work for the federal government.

During the last half of the 20th century, “suburban flight” of the middle class contributed to the city’s loss of more than one-fourth of its population. As new jobs, especially those in the high-technology industries, were created in Maryland and Virginia, the population of the suburbs increased as much as 50 percent per decade. By the first decade of the 21st century, however, Washington’s population began to increase as younger workers moved into revitalized city neighbourhoods. Despite these shifts in population, the economies of the District and those of nearby Maryland and Virginia remain interdependent.


City site

Washington, D.C.: metropolitan area [Credit: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]Washington, D.C.: metropolitan areaEncyclopædia Britannica, Inc.The city of Washington was built on a gently undulating, low, wide peninsula of land bounded by the Potomac River and its tributary, the Anacostia, in the belief that the location would develop into an important commercial port. (Potomac is an Algonquian word meaning “trading place,” and Anacostia is derived from the name of a local people, the Nacostines, who traded on that river.) Encircling the city are a series of terraces that in certain areas rise to about 400 feet (120 metres) above sea level, where Washington’s neighbourhoods were gradually built. Part of a shallow, long ravine—what is now Rock Creek Park—separated Washington from the old port city of Georgetown; development to the north and west of this ravine was slow until the end of the 19th century, when the ravine was bridged and public transportation was made available.


Washington has a temperate climate with high humidity levels. Precipitation throughout the year is evenly distributed, averaging between 3 and 4 inches (75 and 100 mm) per month. Winters are damp, and extremes in temperature and heavy snowfalls are not typical. The infrequent wet, light snow often melts quickly, as average winter daytime temperatures are in the mid-30s F (about 2 °C); however, freezing temperatures at night can quickly change the melted snow to ice. In the summer brief periods of high temperatures are common, often accompanied by dense humidity. The average summer daytime temperatures are in the mid-70s F (about 24 °C), but highs above 100 °F (about 39 °C) can occur. Spring and autumn are pleasantly mild and tend to be longer than summer and winter.

City layout

City plan

United States Capitol [Credit: © MedioImages/Getty Images]United States Capitol© MedioImages/Getty ImagesWashington’s visionary planner was Pierre-Charles L’Enfant, a French army engineer who fought in the American Revolution. Two factors strongly influenced L’Enfant’s imagination as he planned the capital city: his understanding of 18th-century Baroque landscape architecture and his familiarity with the city of Paris and the grounds of Versailles. L’Enfant adapted the city’s formal plan to the area’s natural topography, carefully selecting important sites for principal buildings on the basis of the order of their importance, beginning with the U.S. Capitol building, which he placed on a high ridge. He then symbolically linked it, by way of Pennsylvania Avenue, to the presidential palace (the White House), on a slightly lower ridge.

Washington, D.C.: central area [Credit: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]Washington, D.C.: central areaEncyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Placing the Capitol at the centre of the street plan, L’Enfant drew surveyors’ lines through the building to the points of the compass, thereby separating the city into four sections: Northwest (the largest quadrant), Northeast, Southeast, and Southwest. Three of the four surveyors’ lines became streets: North Capitol, East Capitol, and South Capitol streets. The fourth dividing line stretches west from the Capitol along the middle of the Mall to the Potomac River.

Washington’s streets are organized in a scheme of broad diagonal avenues overlain on a grid of wide north-south- and east-west-trending streets. Thus, an orderly web of wide tree-lined avenues creates great vistas and leads both to powerful focal points and open public spaces. The intersections of two or three diagonal avenues are punctuated with landscaped circles and squares, while their intersections with grid streets create triangular and trapezoidal lots and parks, resulting in interesting streetscapes.

Streets running north-south are numbered, and streets running east-west are lettered. There are two sets of numbered streets and two sets of lettered streets. One set of numbered streets commences to the east of the Capitol, and the other starts to the west. The two corresponding sets of lettered streets begin to the north and to the south of the Capitol. Each street’s name is followed by the abbreviation of the quadrant in which it is located (e.g., 1st Street NW or A Street SE). There are no J, X, Y, or Z streets, and the two B Streets were renamed Constitution Avenue and Independence Avenue. A number of diagonal avenues are named for U.S. states.

L’Enfant’s city plan was reconsidered in 1900 during the city’s centennial celebration (Congress first convened in Washington in 1800). The Senate Park Commission, headed by Sen. James McMillan of Michigan, enlisted the country’s foremost architects, artists, and landscape planners to review and refine L’Enfant’s plan for the 20th century. Ultimately, many new monuments, federal buildings, parks, and museums were created.

A new 100-year “Extending the Legacy” scheme was released in 1997 to protect the L’Enfant plan and restore those features of it that had been neglected. The scheme, prepared by the National Capital Planning Commission, aims to encourage local government, international organizations, and private developers to relocate to some of the city’s more neglected neighbourhoods, to stimulate the local economy, to revitalize Washington’s expansive waterfront properties, and to improve public transportation within the city and in the surrounding region.


Three factors have radically influenced the style of Washington’s architecture: restrictions on the height of structures, Classicism, and conservatism. Yet, in the mid-20th century, Modernism began to have a noticeable effect.

Height restrictions for buildings in Washington were enacted by Congress as early as 1899 because of concerns over the fire safety and aesthetics of tall buildings, and the Height of Buildings Act of 1910 assured the city’s horizontal landscape. According to the act, no building in Washington may be taller than 130 feet (40 metres), though along certain portions of Pennsylvania Avenue certain structures are allowed to extend an additional 30 feet (9 metres). Office buildings may be no wider than the street on which they are built plus 20 feet (6 metres), and most of them are about 120 feet (37 metres) wide. Thus, D.C. lacks the characteristic skyscrapers found in other large U.S. cities. Moreover, as the city has expanded, it has spread out rather than up, with residential and low-rise commercial areas having been replaced by rows of homogeneous boxlike office buildings.

Since 1800 the architecture and design of many of Washington’s buildings have been inspired by Classicism (a style known for rationality, beauty, order, and balance). Classical architecture in Washington has evolved through several stages, successively coming under the influence of 18th-century Georgian and Palladian styles; 19th-century Greek Revival and Second Empire styles; early 20th-century Art Deco-influenced Neoclassical style; mid-20th-century Modernism; and ultimately late 20th- and early 21st-century postmodernism.

The White House (18th-century Palladian style) and the Capitol (19th-century Greek Revival) are examples of some of the early Classical structures. The Capitol was designed by William Thornton in 1792. (Its two huge marble wings—one for the Senate and one for the House of Representatives—and Renaissance-style cast-iron dome were later additions.) The White House, designed by James Hoban (1792), was inspired by Leinster House in Dublin, Ireland, and is considered one of the world’s finest residences for a head of state. The 19th-century Treasury Department and the 20th-century Supreme Court buildings further reflect Washington’s tradition of Classical architecture. The Federal Triangle office buildings, built after World War I (1914–18) in response to the government’s need for additional office space, are examples of the more modern and Art Deco-influenced Neoclassical styles. They include the Department of Commerce, the Postal Service, the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Justice, the National Archives, and the Federal Trade Commission buildings. The Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center (dedicated in 1998 as a late addition to the Federal Triangle buildings) is modern inside with a soaring atrium, but it has a Classical exterior reflecting those of its older neighbours.

A tradition of conservatism also is evident in the architectural design of many of Washington’s private and government buildings. New architectural styles are rarely employed in Washington until years after the styles have become accepted in other areas of the country. Two exceptions to this rule were the usage of the Second Empire style of the1850s, particularly in the building that once held the Corcoran art collection (now called the Renwick Gallery), and the postmodern style of the early 1980s, seen in many commercial buildings on Connecticut Avenue near Dupont Circle and on Pennsylvania Avenue in the east end of Georgetown.

Despite the city’s currents of Classicism and architectural conservatism, most of Washington’s early buildings were displaced by the structures of the Modernist movement of the 20th century, which encouraged an architectural style that was devoid of decoration. Few early 19th-century buildings remain in Downtown Washington, with the exception of three houses at 637–641 Indiana Avenue, in Northwest D.C., that were built in the 1820s. At the end of the 20th century, historic-preservation movements began successfully saving the facades of many other older structures, incorporating them within the framework of new commercial buildings, as in Red Lion Row on the 2000 block of Pennsylvania Avenue in Northwest D.C.

Washington, D.C.: row houses on a residential block [Credit: © Stanford Apseloff]Washington, D.C.: row houses on a residential block© Stanford ApseloffHousing in Washington reflects the changing needs and tastes of the various segments of the population. Residential areas of the mid-19th century are filled with block after block of attached row houses, varying only slightly in size, height, style, and building material. Later 19th-century neighbourhoods that developed beyond the original city boundaries offered larger lots, and many architecturally diverse single-family homes were designed for the upwardly mobile middle class. In the 1870s elegantly designed multiroom mansions were constructed of limestone or decorative brick with terra-cotta trim, most notably in the Dupont Circle and Kalorama neighbourhoods of Northwest D.C. Beginning in the 1930s, many of these mansions were converted into embassies, private clubs, and office buildings. During and immediately after World War I, and again after World War II (1939–45), apartment buildings were erected to accommodate the growing number of government workers. At the same time, grand apartment-hotels were popular with high-ranking government officials, military officers, and ambassadors. By the end of the 20th century, new mixed-use apartments, condominium complexes (residential buildings that include commercial space), and luxury hotels were built in some of Washington’s previously neglected neighbourhoods.

Monuments and memorials

Washington Monument [Credit: © Stanford Apseloff]Washington Monument© Stanford ApseloffMuch of the attractiveness of Washington can be attributed to the hundreds of outdoor sculptures and monuments that adorn the parks, gardens, buildings, avenues, and cemeteries of the city. L’Enfant suggested the use of outdoor sculpture as a way to honour the new country’s heroes. The first outdoor sculpture situated in Washington was the Tripoli Memorial, commemorating the heroes of the Tripolitan War (1801–05). It stood first in the Navy Yard in Southeast Washington and was later moved to the Capitol grounds before being relocated to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

In the 1840s Congress commissioned the first statue of George Washington, a white marble Romanesque rendering of the first president. It was exhibited outside on the eastern front plaza of the Capitol for years before being placed in storage. In the 1960s the statue was given a permanent home in the National Museum of American History. An equestrian statue of Washington was also part of L’Enfant’s design for the city; it was to have been located at a crossing point west of the Capitol and south of the White House. In 1885, nearly 100 years after the plan was first promulgated, the Washington Monument, a 555-foot (169-metre) unadorned obelisk, much grander than the modest statue L’Enfant envisioned, was dedicated on the Mall, near the original site. Meanwhile, in 1860 an equestrian statue of George Washington had been placed in Washington Circle, northwest of the White House.

Jefferson Memorial [Credit: © Richard T. Nowitz/Corbis]Jefferson Memorial© Richard T. Nowitz/CorbisThe Washington Monument and other memorials honouring U.S. presidents are some of the most-visited landmarks in Washington. The Lincoln Memorial lies west of the Washington Monument, on land reclaimed from the Potomac River at the far western end of the Mall’s Reflecting Pool. Designed in the Greek Revival style and modeled after the Parthenon in Athens, the monument often has been the site of civil rights gatherings, demonstrations, and speeches—perhaps most notably the “I Have a Dream” speech given by Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1963. The Jefferson Memorial is located south of the Mall on the southern rim of the Tidal Basin in East Potomac Park. Inside the white marble temple, which was inspired by the Pantheon in Rome, are inscribed quotes from Jefferson’s writings, including the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. Another striking memorial is the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, located on the southwestern edge of the Tidal Basin within a 7.5-acre (3-hectare) park. The memorial is divided into four outdoor chambers, one for each of Roosevelt’s presidential terms.

North of the Roosevelt Memorial, also on the western bank of the Tidal Basin, two towering mounds of pink granite (“The Mountain of Despair”) form the entrance to the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial. Farther into the memorial’s plaza, emerging from a large granite slab (“The Stone of Hope”), a 30-foot (9-metre) sculpture of King looks across the Tidal Basin at the Jefferson Memorial. Inscribed on the stone are the words “Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope,” from King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Washington, D.C.: Korean War Veterans Memorial [Credit: © MedioImages/Getty Images]Washington, D.C.: Korean War Veterans Memorial© MedioImages/Getty ImagesThe Vietnam War Veterans Memorial, a chevron-shaped black granite wall north of the western end of the Reflecting Pool, lists more than 58,000 names of those who were killed or identified as missing during the Vietnam War. South of the western end of the Reflecting Pool is the Korean War Veterans Memorial, featuring 19 unpolished stainless-steel statues of soldiers. Their images are reflected in a black granite wall onto which have been etched images taken from more than 2,500 Korean War-era photographs. At the eastern end of the Reflecting Pool is the National World War II Memorial, an oval plaza with a large pool and fountains. It is bounded by two large pavilions, representing the Atlantic and the Pacific theatres of the war, and surrounded by 56 pillars (for each of the 48 states and the 8 territories that were part of the United States at the time of the war).

Andrew Jackson Monument [Credit: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digital. id. ppmsca 18037)]Andrew Jackson MonumentLibrary of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digital. id. ppmsca 18037)More equestrian statues have been erected in Washington than in any other city in the United States. The first of these, honouring Andrew Jackson, was erected in 1853 in Lafayette Square opposite the White House. The Jackson statue (cast from cannons captured during the War of 1812) was also the first bronze equestrian statue made in the United States, and it was so highly acclaimed that two replicas were cast and sent to New Orleans and Nashville. The statue’s designer, Clark Mills, immediately received a second commission from Congress, for the equestrian statue of George Washington that was dedicated at Washington Circle in 1860.

The four years of the American Civil War (1861–65) so profoundly affected the conscience of the country that more memorials in Washington are dedicated to it than to any other period in United States history. Nearly 40 works of outdoor sculpture honouring heroes of the Union (and one Confederate, Gen. Albert Pike, whose statue was erected in 1901 by Freemasons) dot the city, embellish buildings, and adorn parks and cemeteries. One prominent memorial dedicated in 1863, though it was planned years earlier, is the Statue of Freedom on top of the Capitol. The majority of Washington’s circles and squares were renamed for and display statues of Civil War heroes, including Adm. David Farragut and generals Ulysses S. Grant, Winfield Scott Hancock, John A. Logan, George B. McClellan, James B. McPherson, George G. Meade, John A. Rawlins, Winfield Scott, Philip H. Sheridan, William Tecumseh Sherman, and George H. Thomas. A fountain was dedicated to Samuel Francis du Pont, a Union naval officer, when his statue was removed in the early 20th century. A frieze that consists of six Civil War scenes depicting seamen, infantry, cavalry, artillerymen, and members of the Medical and Quartermaster Corps decorates the exterior of the Old Pension Building (now the National Building Museum) in Downtown Washington. Other Civil War memorials include the Peace Monument to commemorate naval deaths, located in the circle to the west of the Capitol; a monument to the Nuns of the Battlefield near St. Matthew’s Catholic Church; and the African American Civil War Memorial, near the U Street subway station. After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, two outdoor statues were quickly erected to honour the slain president. The first stands in front of the old City Hall in Downtown Washington, and the second, on Capitol Hill in Lincoln Park, was paid for by donations solely from former slaves. (The more familiar Lincoln Memorial was not dedicated until 1922.)

Rock Creek Cemetery has some remarkable sculpture, perhaps the most striking being the Adams Memorial (1886–91), with a shrouded bronze figure designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens and commissioned by historian Henry Adams (the great-grandson of John Adams), in memory of his wife, Marian. Saint-Gaudens called the sculpture The Mystery of the Hereafter, but it is often mistakenly called “Grief.” The same cemetery contains the Kauffmann Memorial by William Ordway Partridge, entitled A Garland of Memories, and the Ffoulke Memorial by Gutzon Borglum, entitled Rabboni.

Artigas, José Gervasio [Credit: Roblespepe]Artigas, José GervasioRoblespepeSeveral influential international figures have had statues erected in Washington in their honour, including English jurist Sir William Blackstone, British statesman Edmund Burke, Italian scholar Dante, Swedish-American inventor John Ericsson, Irish patriot Robert Emmet, Lebanese-American poet Khalil Gibran, German physician Samuel Hahnemann, French heroine Joan of Arc, Spanish queen Isabella I, German theologian Martin Luther, Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi, Polish general Kazimierz Pulaski, and Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko. Even the Aztec god of flowers, Xochipilli, is represented in the capital. A statue of a foreign hero of the American Revolution is placed at each corner of Lafayette Square, north of the White House: Tadeusz Kościuszko, Frederick William Von Steuben, the comte de Rochambeau, and the marquis de Lafayette. Four Latin American independence leaders—Simón Bolivar, José de San Martín, José Gervasio Artigas, and Benito Juárez—along with Bernardo de Gálvez, a Spaniard who played a key role in the American Revolution, are honoured with statues on Virginia Avenue in Northwest D.C., between the Organization of American States building and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Private citizens have also sponsored memorials to a range of other organizations, causes, and events, including the Boy Scout Memorial, the Founders Memorial, and the Temperance Memorial.


The District

Whether the capital city’s neighbourhoods have survived by design or luck, they all seem to have evolved somewhat haphazardly and not at all according to the plans of L’Enfant. Several factors have influenced the growth and development of Washington’s neighbourhoods since the latter half of the 20th century: the uninterrupted proliferation of federal buildings, the influx of immigrant populations, the expansion of public transportation, suburban flight, urban renewal, and, in the early 21st century, revived interest in city living.

When fair-housing laws were enacted in the 1950 and ’60s, many middle-class European Americans moved to the suburbs, while middle-class African Americans moved to areas formerly closed to them. Certain neighbourhoods, especially Capitol Hill and Brookland, were occupied by blacks and whites who attempted to work together to build integrated communities. Other areas became largely homogeneous strongholds for certain groups—for example, wealthy European Americans in the upper Northwest, wealthy African Americans in the “Gold Coast” on upper 16th Street, and poorer African Americans in Anacostia.


Smithsonian Institution [Credit: Noclip]Smithsonian InstitutionNoclipThe largest of the four quadrants of the District is Northwest, which contains most of the city’s federal buildings, tourist destinations, and wealthier neighbourhoods. It encompasses the areas known as Downtown, Lafayette Square, Foggy Bottom, Georgetown, Dupont Circle, and Adams-Morgan, among others.


The area referred to as Downtown Washington describes the business district located between the Capitol, the White House, and Georgetown. It includes Chinatown, the Metro Center, the Federal Triangle area, and the K Street office corridor.

Downtown Washington served as both a workplace and a residential area for a substantial population of Washingtonians throughout the 19th century, making it the most important section of the early city. Downtown residents included shopkeepers, office workers, labourers, craftspeople, politicians, lobbyists, and those who worked in the hospitality sector. The area also was home to many Chinese, Greek, Italian, German Jewish, and German Catholic immigrants. Center Market, the city’s main farmers’ market with hundreds of indoor stalls, was located on Pennsylvania Avenue near 7th Street until 1931. Many of the neighbourhood’s 19th-century buildings were uniform three-story brick structures, often with shops on the first floor and residences above. Boarding houses were common in Downtown Washington; one of the most famous was owned by Mary Surratt during the Civil War years. (Surratt was later tried, convicted, and hanged for her part in a conspiracy to abduct Pres. Abraham Lincoln, who was later assassinated by fellow conspirator John Wilkes Booth.) Her home still stands in what is now Chinatown; it is one of the area’s few pre-Civil War buildings.

Beginning in the mid-20th century, the popularity of Downtown Washington diminished, and many buildings deteriorated. The development of Washington’s suburbs, combined with the Downtown race riots that broke out in 1968, kept people away from the area, hampering its vitality for 30 years. In the early 21st century, however, much of Downtown was revitalized. The addition of a sports arena, hotels, restaurants, a major convention centre, and new museums attracted both new residents and visitors. Many historic properties have been restored; condominium buildings have been constructed; and older commercial buildings have been converted into luxury apartment buildings and hotels.

Lafayette Square

The Lafayette Square neighbourhood lies directly north of the White House on H Street between 15th and 17th streets. It was once a showplace of wealth and influence. Throughout the 19th century some of the most distinguished Washingtonians and important national and world leaders were entertained in Lafayette Square homes. The first home in the neighbourhood was Col. John Tayloe III’s Octagon House, built in 1800, which is now owned by the American Architectural Foundation. In 1816 St. John’s Church was built across the square facing the White House and became known as the “Church of the Presidents.” The neighbourhood was filled with elegant mansions owned by cabinet officials, foreign diplomats, vice presidents, socialites, philanthropists, and others, including former first lady Dolley Madison after her time in the White House, politicians Daniel Webster and Francis Preston Blair, and military commanders Stephen Decatur and John Rodgers. Historian Henry Adams once wrote, “Lafayette Square is society.”

At the turn of the 20th century, the character of the neighbourhood changed. Many homes just off the square were replaced with grand marble or granite Neoclassical or Second Empire-style bank and office buildings (the Treasury Annex, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the headquarters for the Organization of American States, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the American Red Cross). Private developers also bought several of the Lafayette Square homes, razed them, and built eight- and nine-story office buildings in their place. By 1962 the federal government had purchased all the Lafayette Square properties, with plans to replace them with government office buildings. At that time, however, first lady Jacqueline Kennedy brought attention to the importance of historic preservation and worked behind the scenes on a design to protect the neighbourhood’s remaining historic homes. Under the terms of a compromise agreement, new office structures were built behind, but connected to, the historic homes. Blair House remained in use as the president’s guesthouse and was connected to three adjoining homes; Decatur House was saved after being transferred to the National Trust for Historic Preservation; and St. John’s Church has remained intact.

Foggy Bottom

West of Downtown, between the White House and Georgetown, is Foggy Bottom—roughly bounded by Pennsylvania Avenue to the north, by 17th Street to the east, by Constitution Avenue to the south, and by the Potomac and Rock Creek to the west. Its name derives from its origin as a neighbourhood of wharves, warehouses, brickyards, breweries, gas works, and an early 19th-century glassblowing factory: a combination of industrial smoke and humidity occasionally produced a blanket of fog. The first U.S. Naval Observatory was built on the western edge of Foggy Bottom, on the rocky abutment above the Potomac River, in 1844. During the Civil War, Union troops encamped in the area’s low-lying open fields. After the war, the creation of light industrial jobs in Foggy Bottom attracted many German immigrants, who settled into modest brick row houses. When the industries closed in the early 20th century, many residents moved out, and the area slowly transformed into a low-income neighbourhood with substandard housing, where the majority of the dwellings became rental properties.

Throughout the 20th century, George Washington University invested in the inexpensive Foggy Bottom real estate and eventually became the principal landowner. Row houses were replaced by modern buildings that were used for classrooms, dormitories, and administrative functions. One by one, whole blocks of the old neighbourhood disappeared.

In the 1930s several magnificent buildings were erected on the southern edge of Foggy Bottom, most notably the Department of the Interior, the Federal Reserve Board, and the National Academy of Science buildings. During World War II the War Department relocated to Foggy Bottom, and after the war the State Department took over that site.

The neighbourhood again became a popular place to live after the opening of the enormous Watergate office and condominium complex in the late 1960s and of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts a few years later. (Watergate was the site of the break-in to the offices of the Democratic National Committee in 1972 that led to the Watergate Scandal, which eventually resulted in the resignation of Pres. Richard Nixon.) A few blocks of historic and quaint 19th-century row houses remain, standing bravely in the shadow of many mid-rise, high-density hotels, apartments, and offices, as well as George Washington University Hospital.


Chesapeake and Ohio Canal [Credit: Robin Taylor]Chesapeake and Ohio CanalRobin TaylorGeorgetown, the oldest neighbourhood in the District of Columbia, was originally a trading village called Tohoga by the local Native Americans before the arrival of Europeans in the 1600s. By 1751 this area on the Potomac River was well established as a colonial tobacco port and named for King George II of England. Forty years later the port town was included in the parcel of land transferred by Maryland to become part of the District of Columbia. In 1789 Georgetown University was established as the first Roman Catholic academic institution in the country. Construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in the 19th century brought new jobs to the old port city. Mills, foundries, and lime kilns began to line Georgetown’s waterfront. Its population was ethnically and economically diverse and consisted mainly of merchants, labourers, and government employees.

Maintaining its own elected government, economy, and identity, Georgetown remained independent of Washington until 1871, when it was absorbed into the expanding city. For a time, newspapers referred to the port as West Washington, but ultimately the old name prevailed. By the end of the 19th century, however, Georgetown was no longer considered a fashionable place to live. Only a few wealthy residents remained in their dignified old mansions, which stood next to brick and wooden row houses occupied by lower- and middle-class labourers.

In the 1930s educated, idealistic, high-ranking New Deal government workers rediscovered the charm of Georgetown and started the renewal of the neighbourhood through the preservation and restoration of its older homes. Less-affluent residents sold their homes at attractive prices, starting an upward spiral of artificially high real-estate prices that have come to be expected in present-day Georgetown. In 1951 Congress designated most of Georgetown a historic district, and, by the end of the 20th century, several historic Georgetown homes had been opened to the public, including the Old Stone House, Tudor Place, Dumbarton House, and Dumbarton Oaks Estate and gardens. In the early 21st century, Georgetown residents included a mix of university students, government and private sector workers, and upper-middle-class families. The neighbourhood has a variety of unique shops, restaurants, and nightclubs.

Dupont Circle

The Dupont Circle neighbourhood is situated northeast of Georgetown and surrounds Dupont Circle, a park centred at the intersection of five streets: Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts avenues and 19th and P streets. The area had been a neglected marshland until after the Civil War, when it was drained and graded for development. With the advent of the Gilded Age, a materialistic period during the 1870s, wealthy businessmen and investors began to shun the formerly stylish neighbourhoods of Georgetown, Capitol Hill, and Lafayette Square in favour of creating an opulent new community of fashionable addresses. During this time a few grand mansions, including an ornate Second Empire-style structure that served as the British minister’s residence and diplomatic headquarters, were erected near Dupont Circle, greatly increasing the prestige of the neighbourhood. (The British moved to a new embassy building in 1931, and this grand structure was razed and replaced with a Modernist office building for the International Association of Machinists.) Large homes and row houses filled in the blocks near the grand mansions. Wealthier Americans and businesspeople with political connections began to spend winters in the neighbourhood, which increased its popularity and bolstered Washington’s reputation at home and abroad as a sophisticated, significant city. This image began to change, however, during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when residents were forced to sell their Dupont Circle homes, many of which were converted into boarding houses, offices, private clubs, and embassies; other homes eventually were torn down and replaced with mid-rise apartment, commercial, and office buildings.

By the 1960s Dupont Circle not only had lost its air of exclusivity but also had become a haven for students, hippies, and anti-Vietnam War protesters. In 1978 part of the neighbourhood was designated a historic district, and real-estate prices escalated. Notable mansions were preserved; row houses were renovated; and shops, bookstores, and restaurants opened, creating one of the liveliest, most cosmopolitan neighbourhoods in the city.

Adams-Morgan and beyond

Adams-Morgan, situated just north and west of Dupont Circle, is one of Washington’s most ethnically and economically diverse communities, having originally served as a wealthy enclave for prominent Washington scientists and high-ranking government and military personnel. Once known as Lanier Heights, the neighbourhood gained the name Adams-Morgan after the area’s two segregated public elementary schools—Adams, a white school, and Morgan, a black school—were voluntarily integrated in the 1950s.

The extension of streetcar service to what is now Adams-Morgan in 1891 encouraged the construction of luxury apartment buildings, which dramatically increased the area’s population. The need for housing for military personnel stationed in Washington during World Wars I and II had transformed large townhouses and grand apartments into low-priced rooming houses, which in the 1950s and 1960s were rented to a large Hispanic population and other newly arrived immigrants. During the last two decades of the 20th century, the conversion of apartments into condominiums and cooperatives, the renovation of old row houses, and increasing gentrification added greatly to the diversity of the neighbourhood, whose motto is “Unity in diversity.” Its restaurants, music venues, and unique shops have made Adams-Morgan one of D.C.’s most popular and eclectic neighbourhoods.

Washington National Cathedral [Credit: Saul Loeb—AFP/Getty Images]Washington National CathedralSaul Loeb—AFP/Getty ImagesNorth and west of Adams-Morgan are some of the District’s wealthier neighbourhoods. These include Kalorama, where the Woodrow Wilson House, the Textile Museum, and many ambassadorial residences are located; Cleveland Park and Woodley Park, which surround the Washington National Cathedral; Mt. Pleasant, Tenleytown, and Chevy Chase, which developed as streetcar suburbs; and American University Park, where American University and several ambassadorial residences are located.

East of Adams-Morgan are the Shaw and U Street neighbourhoods, once known as “Black Broadway” and where Duke Ellington grew up and first played jazz. Farther east, LeDroit Park is the home of Howard University. LeDroit Park developed as a wealthy all-white enclave enclosed by a fence that was torn down by African American university students in 1888 in protest of segregation. The area became the centre of Washington’s African American elite by the turn of the 20th century. The race riots of 1968 devastated the area, but the beginning of the 21st century brought a complete renewal. Sometimes called “The New U,” the area saw its old commercial buildings converted into loft apartments and condominiums. Jazz clubs were revived, the Lincoln Theatre (1921) was restored, and the African American Civil War Memorial (The Spirit of Freedom) was dedicated in 1997. The African American Civil War Museum (1999) is located two blocks from the memorial.


The Northeast section of Washington features residential neighbourhoods that were established in the 19th century. Brookland, named after the estate of Col. Jehiel Brooks that formerly occupied the site, was developed between 1887 and 1901. Located in Brookland are the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (dedicated in 1959), the Franciscan Monastery (dedicated in 1899), and the Catholic University of America (founded in 1887). The neighbourhood of Deanwood was established in Northeast in 1888 as a semirural, self-sufficient, racially mixed community. By the mid-20th century it had become a predominately African American neighbourhood.

The area just northeast of the Capitol was once known as Swampoodle for its swampy conditions, a result of flooding. It was home to mainly working-class Irish immigrants who had fled the Irish Potato Famine (1845–49). The name Swampoodle disappeared after 1965, and in the 1980s the area became known as NoMa (“North of Massachusetts Avenue”). Old row houses were demolished, a railroad trestle was removed, and two streets that were originally part of L’Enfant’s street plan were rebuilt. Union Station (1907), the city’s magnificent train depot located on the southern edge of NoMa, was renovated, revitalized, and reopened during this time. In 1993 the old Post Office building (1914), which abuts Union Station on the west, became the home of the National Postal Museum. NoMa experienced further development in the early 21st century: condominium buildings were erected, a subway station was opened, and the headquarters of some federal agencies were relocated there as well.


The Southeast quadrant of Washington is dominated by Capitol Hill. The Anacostia neighbourhood is also located in this section of the city.

Capitol Hill

The Capitol Hill neighbourhood, in Southeast D.C., is the oldest residential community in the original city of Washington. In 1805 several boarding houses and taverns were erected near the Capitol to cater to members of Congress. Low-rise row houses, interspersed with shops and businesses, quickly filled nearby lots and replaced old farms. Eastern Market, completed in 1873, is a farmers’ market located about seven blocks from the Capitol. Having begun operations in 1802, the market has always been the heart of the neighbourhood. The South Hall of the market was destroyed in a fire in April 2007, and restoration efforts began the following year.

Supreme Court of the United States [Credit: Franz Jantzen/Supreme Court of the United States]Supreme Court of the United StatesFranz Jantzen/Supreme Court of the United StatesFrom 1880 to 1980, whole blocks of low-rise row houses, churches, and businesses were razed in the vicinity of the Capitol. They were replaced by three Library of Congress buildings (1897, 1939, and 1982), the Supreme Court (1935), and six congressional office buildings (1908–82). Several brick townhouses on East Capitol Street were razed in the early 1930s to build the Folger Shakespeare Library. Named for the benefactor Henry Clay Folger, the library is a marble Art Deco building that is decorated with relief panels depicting scenes from plays of William Shakespeare.

The Washington Navy Yard, established in 1799 on the Anacostia River, was an important force in the development of the southeastern section of Capitol Hill. Its purpose was the defense of the capital and the construction of warships, and it served as the principal employer in Washington for 150 years, providing job opportunities mainly to skilled African Americans and European immigrants. Many of these early labourers, who walked to work at the yard, built their own small, two-story brick and wooden row houses nearby. In the 20th century, the Navy Yard became one of the world’s largest centres for ordnance production and engineering research.

The post-Civil War period brought an influx of middle-class government workers to Capitol Hill, and with them came developers who built row after row of two- and three-story attached brick homes. By the 1920s these residences, along with a great number of churches, had nearly filled the Capitol Hill neighbourhood. Within a few decades, the neighbourhood was densely settled within a five-block area northeast and southeast of the Capitol. The community remained stable until World War II, when many of the row houses were converted into rooming houses and rental properties. The area’s population swelled with workers during the war, but in the 1950s, flight to the suburbs by both the African American and European American middle class caused many of the Capitol Hill homes to be converted into boarding houses for displaced low-income residents, most of whom were African American. Public housing facilities were built in certain sections of the neighbourhood as well. By the end of the decade, the area was called “blighted and obsolete” by the media and members of Congress.

Nonetheless, the Capitol Hill houses had charm, and they were gradually gentrified—slowly displacing many lower-income residents in the process. Throughout the last quarter of the 20th century, young families and single professionals invested in the properties closer to the Capitol and supported the construction of modern townhome projects (some designed for lower-income residents) that replaced much of the public housing. The present-day population of Capitol Hill is a mix of senators and representatives, government workers, professionals, labourers, artists, journalists, and students.


Anacostia, which lies southeast of the Anacostia River, is a mostly lower-income neighbourhood with a predominantly African American population. Part of the area was first subdivided and developed in 1854, and the 11th Street Bridge across the Anacostia River was built in 1874 to connect the neighbourhood to Capitol Hill. (A bridge expansion project was begun in the early 21st century.) After the Civil War it was home mostly to former slaves, but it had become an ethnically and economically mixed neighbourhood by the end of the 19th century. Housing for workers in war-related industries was established in the area during World War II. Most European American families left the neighbourhood either after school desegregation in the late 1950s or during the race riots in 1968, and they have not returned.

The Frederick Douglass (a former Anacostia resident) National Historic Site and the Anacostia Community Museum are located in the neighbourhood. The Anacostia waterfront across from the Navy Yard (which lies on the northwestern side of the river) has undergone residential and commercial development in the early 21st century, especially with the establishment of the Washington Nationals baseball stadium there in 2008.


Southwest Washington, like Foggy Bottom, was planned as a prosperous commercial and residential waterfront neighbourhood. L’Enfant had included a military defense site in his original plan, and in 1791 a military reservation was established near the confluence of the Anacostia and Potomac rivers. An army arsenal was built there in 1794 (today it is called Fort Lesley J. McNair). It is one of the oldest forts in the country; it has served as the headquarters of the U.S. Army Washington Military District since 1966 and has been the main campus of National Defense University since 1977.

Before the Civil War, Washington’s black residents, both free and slave, coexisted in Southwest’s large black community. The Southwest 6th Street wharf was used as a stop on the Underground Railroad, which helped fugitive slaves escape to the North. After the Civil War, thousands of newly free blacks, along with newly arrived European immigrants, settled in Southwest, where hundreds of small row houses were built. Tiny alley dwellings filled the interiors of the blocks, creating hidden impoverished alley communities. In the 1880s German and eastern European Jewish immigrants established tailor shops, bakeries, butcher shops, groceries, and dry-goods stores in Southwest. One famous Southwest resident was the entertainer Al Jolson, whose father was a cantor and rabbi.

In the early 1900s many blocks of Southwest homes were replaced with the huge federal buildings of the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Warehouses and freight yards lined the waterfront, and railroad tracks crisscrossed the area. By the 1930s, the quadrant had become predominately African American, poor, and crime-ridden. In 1946 Congress chartered the Redevelopment Land Agency, which targeted the Southwest neighbourhood. In 1954 several thousand buildings were razed, and low-income residents were displaced and relocated, many to Anacostia. An increasing number of new government departments and agencies created a demand for new office space, resulting in the construction of clusters of modern, homogeneous buildings in gray concrete or pink granite, or with white marble facades, which hide any trace of the former neighbourhood. In complete disregard of L’Enfant’s street plan, modern apartment buildings and townhouses also filled the new superblocks. Some public housing was added as well. Amenities in Southwest include the waterfront, which boasts a lively seafood market and a marina filled with small yachts and houseboats, several restaurants, and the Arena Stage theatre. Yet, despite Southwest’s waterfront location, its neighbourhood remains stark and quiet.


Arlington National Cemetery [Credit: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]Arlington National CemeteryEncyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Arlington county, Virginia, was a part of the District of Columbia until 1846. In the 19th century Arlington consisted of mostly farmland that was devastated during the Civil War. Recovery took more than 30 years. George Washington’s step-grandson, George Washington Parke Custis, had owned a 1,100-acre (450-hectare) plantation in the county that was seized by the U.S. government during the Civil War; it was converted into a military stronghold and later into a cemetery (now Arlington National Cemetery).

Throughout the first half of the 20th century, Arlington’s small farms were rapidly replaced with communities of modest homes and garden apartment complexes built for the influx of government workers during the two world wars. The county quickly became a popular bedroom community for Washington because of its proximity to the city centre. The present-day population of the county is ethnically and economically diverse.

The Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima), located near Arlington National Cemetery, is considered to be the largest cast bronze statuary group in the world; it was inspired by a famous World War II photograph taken by Joe Rosenthal of six men (five Marines and a navy hospital corpsman) raising an American flag on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima. The U.S. Air Force Memorial, dedicated in 2006, rises above the cemetery, with three skyward-reaching, stainless-steel curved spires reminiscent of the Air Force Thunderbird Jet contrails. The Pentagon, also located near the cemetery, was constructed during World War II to consolidate the military branches and to provide offices for the joint chiefs of staff and the secretary of defense.

Pentagon [Credit: Hisham F. Ibrahim/Getty Images]PentagonHisham F. Ibrahim/Getty ImagesOld Town Alexandria, just south of Arlington county, was the rival port to Georgetown during the 18th century. From 1791 to 1846 Alexandria was part of the District of Columbia, but because the port city was neglected and its development arrested during the first half of the 19th century, residents requested that Congress return the land to Virginia. During the Civil War, Alexandria was a city with Confederate sympathies, but it was occupied by federal troops. For the 100 years following the Civil War, the city’s economy continued to decline, and its warehouses, wharves, and townhouses deteriorated. The historic value of Old Town was finally recognized as a result of the celebration of the country’s bicentennial in 1976. The 18th-century Gadsby’s hotel and tavern were restored as a museum, as was the Carlyle House (built in 1752) and the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary (opened in 1792). Alexandria already enjoyed a convenient location on the Potomac River, near Washington and the Pentagon, and after subway stations were opened in Alexandria in 1983, the area became more accessible, and shops, restaurants, and local festivals also attracted new residents and visitors. New townhouse construction, along with the restoration of blocks of tiny 19th-century row houses, added to the upward-spiraling values of the real estate in the quaint seaport city.

Mount Vernon [Credit: George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate & Gardens; photograph, Robert C. Lautman]Mount VernonGeorge Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate & Gardens; photograph, Robert C. LautmanIn nearby Fairfax county, Virginia, the city of Fairfax boasts many historic properties and a city museum, as well as George Mason University’s Center for the Arts and the Fairfax Symphony. McLean is a wealthy community that is also home to the Claude Moore Colonial Farm at Turkey Run. Sully Historic Site (1794), the home of Richard Bland Lee, northern Virginia’s first congressman and an uncle of Gen. Robert E. Lee, is located in the city of Chantilly, near Dulles Airport. Also near the airport is the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. Great Falls Park, on the Potomac River, offers a dramatic view of the cascades and rapids of the river, as well as a history lesson about the 18th- and 19th-century local canals. Several historic homes are located in Fairfax county, including George Washington’s home, Mount Vernon; Martha Washington’s granddaughter’s home, Woodlawn Plantation; and George Mason’s home, Gunston Hall.


In nearby Montgomery county, Maryland, Bethesda–Chevy Chase is a growing metropolis of shops, high-rise office buildings, restaurants, and expensive homes and condominiums. Strathmore is an arts and exhibition complex in North Bethesda. The unincorporated city of Silver Spring is a far-reaching northern suburb of Washington that is ethnically and economically diverse. Takoma Park is a city of Victorian-style homes, charming shops, and annual street festivals that boast of a tight-knit community. Located in Prince George’s county is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Goddard Space Flight Center and the University of Maryland.

Parks and open spaces

Washington is richly endowed with parks. The largest is Rock Creek Park, encompassing nearly 1,800 acres (730 hectares) in Northwest D.C. Congress purchased this land in 1890 to safeguard it from development. Remnants of quartzite and soapstone quarries once used by Native Americans can be found there. The National Zoological Park occupies about 160 acres (65 hectares) of Rock Creek Park. Among the zoo’s main attractions are the panda bears, on long-term loan from China.

Potomac Park, along the east bank of the Potomac, was created by Congress in 1897, when more than 700 acres (280 hectares) of reclaimed river flatland and tidal reservoirs were set aside for recreation as part of the Army Corps of Engineers’ flood-control project, which created sluicing ponds, tidal reservoirs, and parkland. In the 20th century, many improvements were made to the park, including the addition of cherry trees (several thousand of which were a gift from the people of Japan in 1912), polo grounds, athletic fields, military parade grounds, and several memorials (the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam War Veterans Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, and the National World War II Memorial).

The National Arboretum, which encompasses 446 acres (180 hectares) of rolling hills in Northeast D.C., was established by Congress in 1927 for environmental research. It has one of the largest collections of azaleas in the country, as well as a collection of bonsai plants ranging in age from 50 to 400 years old. Twenty-two sandstone Corinthian columns that were removed during the 1958 renovation of the east portico of the Capitol now stand on a small hill on the arboretum grounds.

Theodore Roosevelt Island is a 91-acre (37-hectare) wildlife preserve that was dedicated in 1967 to U.S. Pres. Theodore Roosevelt. The park offers a dramatic illustration of the wilderness, marshland, woodland, and rocky shore reminiscent of Washington’s landscape about 1800.

Other parks of interest in Washington include Meridian Hill Park, 1 mile (1.6 km) north of the White House; Montrose Park in Georgetown, once part of the Dumbarton Oaks Estate; Glover-Archibald Park in Northwest; the grounds of the Franciscan Monastery in Northeast; and the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in Northeast, with more than 100,000 water plants, including rare water lilies and lotuses.

What made you want to look up Washington, D.C.?
(Please limit to 900 characters)
Please select the sections you want to print
Select All
MLA style:
"Washington, D.C.". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
APA style:
Washington, D.C.. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from
Harvard style:
Washington, D.C.. 2015. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 06 October, 2015, from
Chicago Manual of Style:
Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. "Washington, D.C.", accessed October 06, 2015,


We welcome suggested improvements to any of our articles.
Washington, D.C.
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Harvard
  • Chicago
You have successfully emailed this.
Error when sending the email. Try again later.

Or click Continue to submit anonymously: