Washington D.C.
Discover Washington D.C.
A concise introduction to Washington D.C., its geography, history and culture.
Introduction
Washington is a planned capital rather than a city that grew into the role. Congress chose a site on the Potomac in 1790, and Pierre L'Enfant laid out the diagonal avenues, circles and long open axis that still organise it.
The result is a city built to be read. The National Mall runs two miles from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial, with the Smithsonian museums along its edges, and a legal height limit means nothing looms over it — the skyline is horizontal in a way no other major American city is.
It is also unusually cheap to visit for what it holds. The Smithsonian museums and the National Gallery of Art charge no admission at all, which is nineteen museums and a zoo for nothing.
Beyond the monumental core it is a city of distinct neighbourhoods — Georgetown's brick streets, the Ethiopian restaurants around Ninth Street, the music venues on U Street — with a residential life that visitors on a two-day trip rarely see.