Geography of Washington, D.C.W
Geography of Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., in the United States, is located at 38°53′42″N 77°02′11″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a geographical area of 68.3 square miles (176.9 km2), 61.4 square miles (159.0 km2) of which is land, and the remaining 6.9 square miles (17.9 km2) (10.16%) of which is water.

Northeast (Washington, D.C.)W
Northeast (Washington, D.C.)

Northeast is the northeastern quadrant of Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. It encompasses the area located north of East Capitol Street and east of North Capitol Street.

Northwest (Washington, D.C.)W
Northwest (Washington, D.C.)

Northwest is the northwestern quadrant of Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, and is located north of the National Mall and west of North Capitol Street. It is the largest of the four quadrants of the city, and it includes the central business district, the Federal Triangle, and the museums along the northern side of the National Mall, as well as many of the District's historic neighborhoods.

Southeast (Washington, D.C.)W
Southeast (Washington, D.C.)

Southeast is the southeastern quadrant of Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, and is located south of East Capitol Street and east of South Capitol Street. It includes the Capitol Hill and Anacostia neighborhoods, the Navy Yard, the Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling (JBAB), the U.S. Marine Barracks, the Anacostia River waterfront, Eastern Market, the remains of several Civil War-era forts, historic St. Elizabeths Hospital, RFK Stadium, Nationals Park, and the Congressional Cemetery. It is also contains a landmark known as "The Big Chair," located on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. The quadrant is split by the Anacostia River, with the portion that is west of the river sometimes referred to as "Near Southeast".

Southwest (Washington, D.C.)W
Southwest (Washington, D.C.)

Southwest is the southwestern quadrant of Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, and is located south of the National Mall and west of South Capitol Street. It is the smallest quadrant of the city, and contains a small number of named neighborhoods and districts, including Bellevue, Southwest Federal Center, the Southwest Waterfront, Buzzard Point, and the military installation known as Joint Base Anacostia–Bolling.

Neighborhoods in Washington, D.C.W
Neighborhoods in Washington, D.C.

Neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., are distinguished by their history, culture, architecture, demographics, and geography. The names of 131 neighborhoods are unofficially defined by the D.C. Office of Planning. Neighborhoods can be defined by the boundaries of wards, historic districts, Advisory Neighborhood Commissions, civic associations, and business improvement districts (BIDs); these boundaries will overlap. The eight wards each elect a member to the Council of the District of Columbia and are redistricted every ten years.

Baltimore–Washington metropolitan areaW
Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area

The Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area is a combined statistical area consisting of the overlapping labor market region of the cities of Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland. The region includes Central Maryland, Northern Virginia, three counties in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, and one county in South Central Pennsylvania. It is the most educated, highest-income, and fourth largest combined statistical area in the United States.

Tregaron EstateW
Tregaron Estate

Tregaron Estate, formerly known as The Causeway, is a country house and estate located in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Northwest, Washington, D.C.. The estate, built in 1912, was designed by architect Charles Adams Platt and landscape architect Ellen Biddle Shipman. The original owners, Alice and James Parmelee, lived at the estate from the time of its construction until 1940. From 1942 to 1958, it was occupied by Joseph E. Davies, who had served as United States ambassador to several countries, and his second wife, Post Cereal Company heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post. Today the estate is occupied by a campus of the Washington International School and the Tregaron Conservancy.

Chesapeake Beach Rail TrailW
Chesapeake Beach Rail Trail

The Chesapeake Beach Rail Trail is a set of short trails along the original Chesapeake Beach Railway route from Washington, D.C. to Chesapeake Beach, Maryland. The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) acquired portions of the corridor through the subdivision process. Some sections have already been built. Plans call for future sections to be built as available until this corridor serves as the spine for a number of greenway branches.

Georgetown street renamingW
Georgetown street renaming

The Georgetown street renaming occurred as a result of an 1895 act of the United States Congress that ended even the nominal independence of Georgetown from Washington, D.C. The Act required, inter alia, that the street names in Georgetown be changed to conform to the street-naming system in use in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. However, the old street names were shown on maps as late as 1899.

Hains PointW
Hains Point

Hains Point is located at the southern tip of East Potomac Park between the main branch of the Potomac River and the Washington Channel in southwest Washington, D.C. The land on which the park is located is sometimes described as a peninsula but is actually an island: the Washington Channel connects with the Tidal Basin north of the park and the Jefferson Memorial. The island is artificial: it was built up from Potomac dredging material from 1880 to 1892.

Murder BayW
Murder Bay

Murder Bay was a disreputable slum in Washington D.C. roughly bounded by Constitution Avenue NW, Pennsylvania Avenue NW, and 15th Street NW. The area was a center of crime through the early 20th century, with an extensive criminal underclass and prostitution occurring in several brothels and hotels in the area. The area was completely rebuilt during the construction of the Federal Triangle project in the late 1920s and 1930s.

Quadrants of Washington, D.C.W
Quadrants of Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., is administratively divided into four geographical quadrants of unequal size, each delineated by their ordinal directions from the medallion located in the Crypt under the Rotunda of the Capitol. Street and number addressing, centered on the Capitol, radiates out into each of the quadrants, producing a number of intersections of identically named cross-streets in each quadrant. Originally, the District of Columbia was a near-perfect square. However, even then the Capitol was never located at the geographic center of the territory. As a result, the quadrants are of greatly varying size. Northwest is quite large, encompassing over a third of the city's geographical area, while Southwest is little more than a neighborhood and military base.

Washington City CanalW
Washington City Canal

The Washington City Canal operated from 1815 until the mid-1850s in Washington, D.C. The canal connected the Anacostia River, termed the "Eastern Branch" at that time, to Tiber Creek, the Potomac River, and later the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (C&O). The canal became disused during the late 19th century and the city government covered over or filled in various sections in 1871.