Washington (D.C.)
From Imakoopedia
Washington, D.C. is the capital of the United States of America. It is a planned city, designed specifically to house the federal government, and part of no state. Its history, beautiful architecture, and excellent cultural centers attract millions each year.
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Understand
Washington, D.C. is a city of transients. Very few people have actually lived here all their lives. This may be a cause of the traffic problems, as no one actually follows the same rules. (Especially when it snows.)
The above is wrong. Most recent census figures report that about 50% of the population has maintained the same domicile for the last 5 years. The population of young white office workers may be transient, but that demographic is not the majority of the citizenry of DC.
D.C. also gets bombarded with all sorts of advertisements you are unlikely to find in any other city. Much of it is for military hardware as the large defense contractors vie for brainshare among the Pentagon employees.
D.C. has a hate-hate relationship with the Congress which calls it home. As D.C. doesn't belong to a state, it is required to provide all the services that would normally be provided by the state. And as it ultimately answers to Congress, it is often the brunt of congressional jokes. (Ask any resident about National Airport, and you'll understand.) To top it off, DC has no voting representation in Congress to contest the requirements placed on the city.
Get in
By plane
Washington D.C. is served by three major airports:
- Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (http://www.mwaa.com/national/)
- Dulles International Airport (http://www.mwaa.com/dulles/)
- Baltimore's Washington International Airport (http://www.bwiairport.com/)
National Airport is situated directly on the Blue & Yellow lines for the Washington Metro. Use the yellow line to get downtown.
Washington Flyer (http://www.washfly.com/) runs an $8 shuttle ($14 round-trip) between West Falls Church Metro (Orange Line) and Dulles Airport.
Metro runs bus line B30 from BWI Airport to Greenbelt Metro Station (Green Line). The fare is $3 each way.
MARC (http://www.mtamaryland.com/) provides access from BWI Airport to New Carolton (Orange Line) for $5 each way, or Union Station (Red Line) for $6. MARC Only runs on weekends.
Amtrak (http://www.amtrak.com/) also provides access to Union Station (Red Line) and to near by Alexandria, Virginia near the Metro blue/yellow lines. The price from BWI is about $15.00.
By train
Amtrak services Union Station in Washington, DC. Union Station is located on Metro's Red Line.
Union Station, 50 Massachusettes Ave, NE, Washington, DC
By car
Washington DC is primarily served by I-95 from Baltimore or Richmond. Other Interstates of note are:
- I-495 is the DC Beltway. Avoid during rush hour if you can. On the East
side of the city, I-495 follows I-95.
- I-270 connects from I-70 in Fredrick, MD to I-495 in Bethesda, MD
- I-395 connects downtown with the I-495/I-95 interchange in Northern Virginia.
- I-295 connects downtown with I-495/I-95 at the Wilson Bridge in Southern Prince Georges County, MD.
By bus
The Greyhound stop for Washington, DC is at:
1005 1st St NE Washington, DC 20002
The stop is just a couple blocks north of Union Station where you can catch the Red Line Metrorail. (New York Avenue station will open in the fall giving faster access to Metro.)
Additional Greyhound stations are located in Silver Spring, MD and Arlington, VA.
Current fares are around $30 from New York City.
By boat
Get around
Public Transportation
Luckily, Washington has one of the best public transportation systems in the country. You can get from nearly anywhere to pretty much everywhere on it. (With the notable exception of Georgetown and Dulles & BWI Airports.) Do yourself a favor and leave your car at a Park And Ride location.
Washington is served by the Metrorail system. Metrorail is run by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (http://www.wmata.com/). It is composed of 5 lines, each identified by a color. Each line will serve parts of downtown D.C.:
- Red Line - Union Station, also serves Montgomery County
- Yellow Line - National Airport and Alexandria
- Green Line - BWI Airport (via shuttle) and close-in Prince Georges County
- Blue Line - National Airport and close-in Prince Georges County
- Orange Line - Dulles Airport (via shuttle), Northern Virginia and close-in PG County.
By Car
Travel by car inside the Washington beltway (I-495) is not advised without an experienced Washingtonian. The beltway is jammed, parking is scarce, and drivers are a tad... aggressive.
Yes the roads are busy but if you're coming from any average town in the UK, you'll wonder what all the fuss is about. If you come from London, then you'll do it with your eyes shut. Commuting on the other hand is a different matter - the roads in are indeed jammed, but as a tourist you won't be commuting! Night, weekend or mid-day driving is a pleasant experience. Parking is supposedly a premium but there are enough car parks about the place. The I-495 can be busy but on the whole it's like the M25 on a good day.
The city is split into four quadrants: NE, NW, SE and SW. In the center of all the quadrants is the Capitol building. North Capital Street separates NE and NW. South Capital Street SE and SW. Constitution & Independence separate the north from the south.
East-West roads are letters. (There is no J St.) After the letters run out, it turns into single-syllable words (and then onto double-syllable, etc.) K Street, Constitution Ave, Independence Ave have more lanes of traffic than most east-west streets. (In the original plan, they were canals and thus had to be bigger.)
North-South roads are numbers.
There are several avenues which connect places of importance. These are named after states. As they run diagonal, they tend to really snarl traffic.
Finally, you have many circles in DC. You usually get a circle when you get more than one state street meeting up with more than one letter/number street.
See
The Mall
Museums run by the Smithsonian Institution are free of charge. (Also note, their gift shops do not have the 6.5% DC tax levied on items sold.)
From East to West
- Capitol Building. http://www.aoc.gov/
- US Botanic Garden. http://www.usbg.gov/
- National Air & Space Museum - The most-visited museum in the world, this impressive repository contains thousands of impressive artifacts, including the Wrights' 1903 Flyer and Apollo 11's command module Columbia. Like all Smithsonian museums, admission is free. http://www.nasm.si.edu/
- National Gallery of Art. http://www.nga.gov/
- National Sculpture Garden
- Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden
- The Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. http://www.asia.si.edu/
- Corcoran Museum of Art. The oldest art gallery in the American capital. http://www.corcoran.org/
- National Museum of Natural History. http://www.mnh.si.edu/
- National Museum of American History. http://americanhistory.si.edu/
- Washington Monument - The view from the 550 foot Washington Monument is great on a clear day, allowing you to see up and down the Mall, and out as far as the Shenandoah Mountains. Entrance is by timed ticket, which are distributed on a first come first served basis, and are available free from a National Park Service booth on 15th Street. It's worth stopping off early in the day (opens at 8am) and collecting your tickets before visiting a museum or three, and then coming back later. Better still, book your ticket online in advance here (http://reservations.nps.gov/parkresults.cfm?park_id=461&cfid=38285&cftoken=72758772)...
- White House - 1600 Pennsylvania Ave - Just north of the Washington Monument. Tours are available only for groups of 10 or more and must be requested up to six months in advance through your member of Congress. http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/tours/
- The newly opened in 2004 National World War II Memorial http://www.nps.gov/nwwm/
- Reflecting Pool
- Vietnam Veterans Memorial. http://www.nps.gov/vive/
- Lincoln Memorial. http://www.nps.gov/linc/
- JFK tomb at Arlington National Cemetery (this shuts at dusk). http://www.arlingtoncemetery.org/
- Jefferson Memorial. http://www.nps.gov/thje/
- FDR Memorial. http://www.nps.gov/fdrm/
Make the effort to see the monuments at night when they are all lit up. If you can catch the Capitol as the sun is setting on a clear day, the colors as the building gets lit up are wonderful.
Downtown
- International Spy Museum. 800 F Street, NW http://www.spymuseum.org/ $13/adult, $12/seniors, $11/children (5-11)
- National Building Museum. 401 F Street, NW http://www.nbm.org/ $5 Suggested Donation Highly Recommended.
- National Museum of Women in the Arts. 1250 New York Ave, NW. http://www.nmwa.org/. $8/adult, $6/student, free/children (18 and younger).
- National Zoo (Smithsonian Institution). Connecticut Ave, NW (Free). http://nationalzoo.si.edu/
Do
National Mall
- National Cherry Blossom Festival (late March/early April) http://www.nationalcherryblossomfestival.org/
- A Capitol Fourth (July 4th) http://www.pbs.org/capitolfourth/
- Smithsonian Folk Life Festival (around July 4th) http://www.folklife.si.edu/
- Political Protests (year-round)
Learn
- Gallaudet University, 800 Florida Avenue NE. If you talk sign language, this is definitely the place to go. http://www.gallaudet.edu
- Washingtoniana Division, Room #307, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, 901 G Street, NW (across from Gallery Place Metro stop). Washingtoniana Division is the special collection division containing historical material related to both federal as well as "hometown" Washington, DC. Phone (202) 727-1213. For more information see: http://www.dclibrary.org/washingtoniana/index.html.
- Peabody Room, 2nd floor, Georgetown Branch Library, 3260 R Street, NW (corner of Wisconsin Avenue and R Street). Peabody Room is the special collection division containing historical material related to the history of Georgetown, established in 1751 as Georgetown, MD. Phone (202) 282-0214. For more information see http://www.dclibrary.org/branches/geo/peabody.html
- Smithsonian Institute, The Smithsonian Institute offers classes to members.
- Howard University
- Catholic University of America
- American University
- Georgetown University
- George Washington University
Work
Certain career fields find a natural home in DC. While everyone knows this is where the Politicians go, you can also find a fair share of:
- Lawyers
- Lobbyists
- Defense Contractors
- Civil Servants
It is probably also the only city where you are likely to find ads for military hardware on the subway and on the radio.
Buy
Gift shops are available in all Smithsonian Museums. These shops are tax-free. The largest and best of the Smithsonian are in the National Museum of American History and the National Air and Space Museum.
The gift shop in the National Building Museum is one of the best gift shops in town which is not run by the Smithsonian Institution. (6.5% DC tax applies.)
Georgetown is a trendy area of D.C. with plenty of shops willing to take your money. http://www.georgetowndc.com/. The heart of Georgetown is at the corner of M Street and Wisconsin Ave. No Metro stations are immediately accessible, although it is walkable from Rosslyn (Orange & Blue), Foggy Bottom/GWU (Orange & Blue) and Dupont Circle (Red). There is also a Georgetown connector shuttle from these three stations for $1 each way, or $0.35 with a rail transfer.
Eat
Budget
Mid-range
Splurge
Drink
Georgetown
Dupont Circle
Downtown
Sleep
Budget
Mid-range
Splurge
Contact
Stay safe
Washington D.C. is covered by many police forces which all work together (or so we are told.) The big ones for public safety are:
- The Metropolitan Police Department (this is the main department you want to contact since it is incharge of law enforcment city wide)
- United States Park Police
- United States Capitol Police (patrols the grounds of the U.S. Capitol and surronding areas)
- Metro Transit Police Department (patrols Metro trains and buses)
- United States Secret Service (mainly around the White House)
There is also a greater chance of you running into the Secret Service and the U.S. Marshals in Washington, but they in general aren't concerned for your safety.
For major events and protests, the Police Department has a central command center where they can monitor actions through a network of cameras. For exceptionally large events (but not protests), they are likely to set up security zones where they can screen attendees. (It's like a large outdoor airport terminal.)
While Washington has claimed the title of Murder Capital of the World in many of the recent years, the area west of the Capitol Building is generally clear of violent crimes. It's mainly the residential areas east of the Capitol Building that contribute to the violent crime in Washington. I would recommend not crossing the Anacostia River if you can help it. (Theres nothing much to see there, and the Blue Plains Treatment Facility puts out a horrible smell.)
Cope
Be prepared for airport type security as you enter some buildings. Even if you do not plan to carry a lot of gear around, a small bag makes it much easier to empty your pockets of everything before going through metal detectors.
Get out
Northern Virginia
- Theodore Roosevelt Memorial - Theodore Roosevelt Island. This is in a nature preserve on the Potomac River. You can either park off of GW Parkway, or walk in from the Rosslyn Metro station.
- Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center - National Air and Space Museum. http://www.nasm.si.edu/museum/udvarhazy/ 14390 Air & Space Museum Pkwy. Chantilly, VA 20151 (202) 357-2200 Parking is available for $12/vehicle. Additionally, a shuttle is available from the Air and Space Museum downtown. Prices range from $5 to $7 depending on number of tickets bought.
- Pentagon. Just south of downtown DC. While lingering is not recommended for security reasons, you should know it is the largest office building in the world, and covers 4 zip codes. (Army, Navy, Air Force and . . . Department of Defense.)
External links
- Washington DC Convention and Visitors Association (http://www.washington.org/) - information on travel planning, including dining, lodging, attractions, events, and meeting planners
- Washington DC City Pages - Tourism (http://dcpages.com/Tourism/)
- METRO (http://www.wmata.com/)
- Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/)
- Washington City Paper (http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/)
- Washington Blade - Gay and Lesbian Newspaper for Washington, DC (http://www.washblade.com/)
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