Because the city was built from
scratch, Washington's regular
town
plan is easy to grasp.
Centered on Capitol Hill and its
governmental monoliths, the
District is divided into four
quadrants
- northeast, northwest, southeast
and southwest. Dozens of broad
avenues
, all named after states, run
diagonally across a standard grid
of
streets , meeting up at
monumental traffic circles like
Dupont Circle. North-south streets
are numbered, east-west ones are
lettered. There's no J Street, an
intentional slight to early
Supreme Court Justice John Jay, or
X, Y or Z Street. I Street is
often written Eye Street. Be sure
to note the relevant two-letter
code in any
address (NW,
NE, SW, SE), which shows its
quadrant; 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
is a
long way from 1600
Pennsylvania Ave SE.
Until you get your bearings,
stick to the established tourist
trail; almost all the most famous
sights are on Capitol Hill
or in the comparatively affluent
northwest quarter. To the west of
the Capitol, the broad, green Mall
holds monuments to presidents Washington,
Jefferson, Lincoln and Franklin
D. Roosevelt , as well as the White
House , official home of the
current president. Also here are
the bulk of the city's many
marvelous museums, including the
national collections of the Smithsonian
Institution .
However, there is more to
Washington than an endless
succession of museums and
monuments, and it's well worth
your time to search out the many
attractive neighborhoods .
Despite its reputation, most of
the city is in surprisingly good
shape, with row after row of
nineteenth-century brick-fronted
houses set along leafy boulevards.
Between the Mall and the main
spine of Pennsylvania Avenue
- the parade route connecting
Capitol Hill to the White House -
the Neoclassical buildings of the Federal
Triangle offer a sobering
contrast to the rest of the city's
neighborhoods. North and east of
here, what's known as Old
Downtown has been revitalized
after years of neglect, and now
features new plazas, galleries and
restaurants alongside its
traditional attractions, like the
FBI Building, Old Post Office and
the theater associated with
President Lincoln's assassination.
The area around the MCI Center
, particularly along Seventh St
NW, is fast developing as an
entertainment and nightlife scene,
with a good selection of bars and
restaurants. The oldest area, Georgetown
, where popular bars and
restaurants now line M Street and
Wisconsin Avenue above the Potomac
River , actually precedes the
establishment of the District.
Georgetown is a fifteen-minute
walk from the Foggy Bottom -GWU
Metro but its Federal-era and
Victorian townhouses and the
towpath along the C&O Canal
make it a fine target for a day's
poking about. Other neighborhoods
to check out - especially for
eating and drinking - are Dupont
Circle at Massachusetts,
Connecticut and New Hampshire
avenues, which pulls a dynamic mix
of urban professionals of all
stripes, and the gentrifying Latin
immigrant community of Adams-Morgan
, a favored destination of the
weekend party crowd that's a short
walk from Dupont Circle up 18th
Street at Columbia Road.
Most DC visitors also take the
short Metro ride to Arlington
in Virginia to see the National
Cemetery, President John F.
Kennedy's burial place and the
Pentagon.
