Washington, D.C.

Washington, District of Columbia (D.C.) is the urban area that contains the chief offices of the government of the United States. In modern times, the city of Washington, and the District of Columbia are the same area. It is part of no state; the District of Columbia has some of the governmental authority of a state; it votes for President as would a state, but it only elects a nonvoting delegate to Congress.

Originally, the national capital area was created from lands granted, in 1790, by the states of Maryland and Virginia, forming a 10-mile square divided by the Potomac River. In 1847, the government decided it would never be large enough need all the land available, so it ceded the Virginia portion back to its home state. Before the Virginia side reverted, it was known as Alexandria, D.C. Alexandria later split, in Virginia, into the independent city of Alexandria and the county of Arlington; Arlington contains no cities.

Technically, the D.C.-Virginia border was the center of the Potomac River. When the Pentagon Building was constructed, on the Virginia side, some land was created from dredging the Potomac, and part of the Pentagon is technically in Virginia, not D.C. In practice, the building has its own postal code, and mail will be delivered to it whether the address says Virginia or D.C.

Original plan

The original central part of the city was an early example of an urban plan, designed by Pierre L'Enfant, whose technical assistant was the surveyor and astronomer, Benjamin Banneker, born free to former slaves. In many respects, the plan, and subsequent additions, is very logical, with some maddening exceptions. First, the city is divided into four quadrants, centered on the United States Capitol, Northwest, Northeast, Southwest, and Southeast. Within quadrants, the north-south roads are numbered streets, and the east-west ones are lettered. The quadrant is important; there are four intersections of 8th and H Streets.

Avenues run diagonally, meeting at various traffic circles (rotaries, roundabouts, etc.). It had been planned that these would serve as artillery bases for the defense of the city against cavalry, expected to gallop down the avenues and into the muzzles of the cannon. Unfortunately, during the War of 1812, the British neglected to follow the traffic rules and avoided the cannon. During some of the larger protests of the 1970s, the small parks at the centers of the circles were convenient points to assemble troops and police.

There are various oddities in the plan, which, depending on one's choice of legend, either are unexplainable or have many explanation. For example, K street follows I street. Explanations range from a clerical error, to a draftsman whose native language did not include the letter "J", to that L'Enfant was said to despise John Jay, first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.