The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the District of Columbia: Navigation

This is part two of my five-part blog series, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the District of Columbia. The series will be published on each Monday in January 2011.

Last week, I inaugurated this blog series with a history of DC’s Home Rule efforts, but this week, I’m going to lighten it up a bit with more of a primer on how to navigate your way around the city. Because Washington is a city that has been laid out and planned in a very interesting way that is quite logical and systematic on paper, but in reality, it gets quite confusing for a lot of people.

Before the 1840s, the District of Columbia was shaped like a diamond, 10 miles by 10 miles on all sides. Then Arlington and Alexandria were given back to Virginia, designating the Virginia coast of the Potomac River as the southwestern border of the District, meaning the city is now shaped like a diamond with a bite taken off the bottom of it, complete with teeth marks.

Nevertheless, the most basic thing to understand about DC’s layout is the four quadrants of the city. Even though the U.S. Capitol Building is not in the geographical center of the city, it is treated as such for all intensive purposes, and the invisible dividing lines of the four quadrants radiate from the Capitol Dome. Northwest is by far the quadrant with the most area, and is where much of the affluent areas of the District reside. Northeast follows, notable for including within its area Union Station and the National Arboretum. Southeast follows that, and the much poorer, impoverished areas in the District tend to be in Southeast. And Southwest DC is almost non-existent, as the majority of its area is occupied by the Potomac River.

No matter where you are within the District, you will always know which part of the city you are in, since NW, NE, SW, and SE are appended to the end of every street name. You’ll also know how far away you are from the Capitol, since the street addresses are always numbered by how many blocks away from the Capitol the address is. So since American University is at 4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW, it is located approximately 44 blocks away from the Capitol. This rule applies even if you’re on a small side street that’s maybe a few blocks long.

While there are a number of exceptions, particularly the further you go outside of downtown, there are generally three types of street names in the District:

• Numbered streets run north-south with 1st Street being one block east or west from the Capitol, and increasing from there.
• Lettered streets run west-east with A Street being one block north or south from the Capitol, and increasing from there, although this rule kind of breaks apart after W Street.
• Avenues named after states generally run in a diagonal direction throughout various parts of the city. All 50 states and Puerto Rico have avenues of varying lengths named after them.

Of course, this ingenious quadrant-based system can produce a number of flukes, as completely different, non-intersecting streets in different quadrants can share the same name. 1st Street NW and 1st Street NE are completely different streets that never intersect with each other, and this conundrum repeats for every single lettered street and every single numbered street (up to 52nd) in the District.

There are some other notable streets that help establish borders and boundaries within the direct. Three of the four invisible boundaries between the quadrants are designated by the Capitol Streets: North Capitol Street divides Northwest and Northeast, East Capitol Street divides Northeast and Southeast, and South Capitol Street divides Southeast and Southwest. (Northwest and Southwest are divided by the National Mall.) These three streets are also completely separate, non-intersecting. Finally, most of Maryland-DC border is distinguished by Western Ave. on the northwestern side, Eastern Ave. on the northeastern side, and Southern Ave. on the southeastern side.

Of course, be sure not to forget about the fact that the District itself is only a part of the greater Washington metropolitan area, which includes Montgomery County (Maryland) to the north, Prince George’s County (Maryland) to the East, and Arlington County, Fairfax County, and the city of Alexandria (Virginia) to the southwest.

But in terms of actually getting around the city, it’s more likely that you’ll navigate the city less by what quadrant you’re in or how many blocks away you are from the Capitol, but by your proximity to some form of public transportation. And that will be the focus of next week’s edition of this blog series…