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Streets and highways of Washington, D.C.

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Thestreets and highways of Washington, D.C.,form the core of the surface transportation infrastructure inWashington, D.C.,the federal capital of theUnited States.Given that it is a planned city, the city's streets follow a distinctive layout and addressing scheme. There are 1,500 miles (2,400 km) of public roads in the city, of which 1,392 miles (2,240 km) are owned and maintained by city government.[1]

Standard markers for highways inWashington, D.C.
Highway names
InterstatesInterstate X (I-X)
US HighwaysU.S. Route X (US X)
StateDistrict of Columbia Route X (DC X)
System links

City layout

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See also:L'Enfant Plan
Facsimile of manuscript ofPeter Charles L'Enfant's 1791planfor the federal capital city (United States Coast and Geodetic Survey,1887).[2]
L'Enfant's plan forWashington, D.C.,as revised byAndrew Ellicottin 1792
Thackara & Vallance's 1792 print of Ellicott's "Plan of the City of Washington in the Territory of Columbia", showing street names, lot numbers, depths of thePotoma Riverand legends
Washington, D.C., is divided into four quadrants:Northwest,Northeast,Southeast,andSouthwest.The axes bounding thequadrantsradiate from theUnited States Capitolbuilding.

The District of Columbia was created to serve as the permanent national capital in 1790. Within the district, a new capital city was founded in 1791 to the east of an existing settlement atGeorgetown.The original street layout in the new City of Washington was designed byPierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant.[3][4]

As aplanned city,Washington was modeled in theBaroquestyle and incorporated avenues radiating out from rectangles, providing room for open space and landscaping. At L'Enfant's request,Thomas Jeffersonprovided plans of cities such asAmsterdam,Paris,Frankfurt,KarlsruheandMilan,which he had brought back from Europe in 1788.[5]The twelve radiating avenues, the distribution of the central space (originally L-shaped) and other details were inspired by the Spanish royal city ofAranjuez,whose urban plans were widely distributed and where the1779 treatywas signed.[6][7]His design also envisioned a garden-lined "grand avenue" approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) in length and 400 feet (120 m) wide in the area that is now theNational Mall.[8]The City of Washington was bounded to the north by Boundary Street, nowFlorida Avenue,at the base of theescarpmentof theAtlantic Seaboard Fall Line,to the southeast by theAnacostia River,to the southwest by thePotomac Riverand to the west byRock Creek.[3][9]

PresidentWashingtondismissed L'Enfant in March 1792 due to L'Enfant's insistence on micromanaging the city's planning, which had resulted in conflicts with the three commissioners appointed by Washington to supervise the capital's construction.Andrew Ellicott,who had worked with L'Enfant surveying the city, was then commissioned to complete the plans. Though Ellicott made revisions to the original plans, including changes to some street patterns, L'Enfant is still credited with the overall design of the city.[10][11][12]

The district is divided into fourquadrantsof unequal area:Northwest (NW),Northeast (NE),Southeast (SE),andSouthwest (SW).The axes bounding the quadrants radiate from the U.S. Capitol building.[13]All road names include the quadrant abbreviation to indicate their location, and house numbers are assigned based on the approximate number of blocks away from the Capitol. In most of the city, the streets are set out in a grid pattern with east–west streets named with letters (e.g.,C Street SW) and north–south streets with numbers (e.g.,4th Street NW).

Most portions of the north–south axis and the eastern portion of the east–west axis are marked by streets with the common name of Capitol Street: North Capitol Street, South Capitol Street, and East Capitol Street. Since an axis runs down the middle of those streets, the addresses on each side are necessarily in different quadrants. The western portion of the east–west axis runs down the Mall. Two avenues,Constitution AvenueandIndependence Avenue,line each side of the Mall.[13]

Many of the diagonal streets and avenues in Washington arenamed after states.Some of these streets are particularly noteworthy, such asPennsylvania Avenue,which connects the White House with the U.S. Capitol andMassachusetts Avenue,a section of which is informally known asEmbassy Rowfrom the number offoreign embassieslocated along the street.

There is no J Street in any quadrant. The reason for this is that, until the mid-19th century, the letters "I" and "J"were indistinguishable when written.[14][15]Following that same idea, "I" Street is often written as "Eye" Street, to distinguish it from the letter "L" and the numeral "1", and "Q" Street is often written "Que", "Cue", or "Queue".[citation needed]Urban legend had said that J Street was omitted deliberately by L'Enfant due to a dispute withJohn Jay,the first Chief Justice of theUnited States Supreme Court;however, this was later proven to be a myth.[16]Jay Street NE runs through theDeanwoodneighborhood; it does not belong to the series of lettered streets. There are also no X, Y, or Z streets in any quadrant, and most or all of A and B streets are called by other names in the Mall area.[17]

Expansion of the street-name system

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See also:Georgetown street renaming
Map of Georgetown from 1899, showing old street names

During most of the 19th century, each municipality within the federal district maintained its own separate government and street system. With the passage of theOrganic Act of 1871,Congress created a new government for the entire federal district. This act combined the City of Washington,Georgetown,and the unincorporated area then known asWashington Countyinto a single municipality for the whole District of Columbia.[18]

Through much of the 19th century, developers of land outside of the center city tended to build streets wherever they liked. An 1887 report of the commissioners of the District of Columbia, the three-member panel that governed the district, said that many of these streets "go nowhere and connect with nothing." The Commissioners said that "If the configuration and architecture of a city has a moral influence upon its residents, the rectification of the irreclaimable obliquity of the... streets is manifestly desirable for more than physical reasons."[19]

In 1888, Congress passed a law requiring that future subdivisions built outside of the City of Washington and Georgetown must have streets that conform to the general plan of the City of Washington. However, the law allowed existing streets to remain, contrary to the wishes of the commissioners of the District of Columbia.[20]

In 1893, Congress passed a law mandating that existing streets must be changed or moved in order to be in conformity with the district's street plan.[21]Some property owners were upset that their private property would need to be seized without compensation in order to move streets in conformance with the street plan.[20]The Supreme Court agreed, striking down the law as unconstitutional.[20]In 1893, Congress mandated a new system of highways within the district that conformed to the City of Washington's street plan but left existing streets in place.[22]A separate act of Congress in 1895 required that the street names in Georgetown be changed to conform to the street naming system used in the City of Washington.[23]However, the old street names were shown on maps as late as 1899.

The commissioners of the District of Columbia mandated a new system of naming streets in 1901.[24]Streets running north and south would continue to be numbered.[24]North of Florida Avenue, streets running east and west would be named after famous Americans.[24]The streets would be given one-syllable names in alphabetical order. Alphabetical names after the letter W would be two- and then three-syllable names starting with A (e.g., Allison St) ending with W (e.g., Whittier St), and then three-syllable names. Selected names are common across the quadrants. Only in the Northwest Quadrant was a "fourth alphabet" necessary. This fourth alphabet uses botanical names without regard to the number of syllables: Aspen, Butternut, Cedar, etc. Verbena Street NW is the last in this series before the Maryland state line.[24]South of the center city, a similar system would be used with streets named after famous Americans or prominent geographical locations.[24]In 1905, the streets east of Rock Creek Park, north of Florida Avenue, and west of North Capitol Street were renamed in conformity with the single street-naming system.[25]Eventually all street names in the District of Columbia were made to conform to a single street-naming system.

The boundaries of the District of Columbia with the State of Maryland are marked byWestern Avenue,Eastern Avenue,andSouthern Avenue.

Address system

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A street sign for the unit block of G Street Northeast, next toUnion Station.Tourists sometimes see this sign as a reference toG-Unit.

The city'saddressing systemis best understood in terms of aCartesian coordinate systemwith its origin at the Capitol. While the system may appear complex, once learned it allows one to pinpoint not only where one is but also where and how far one may need to travel. For example, one can readily infer from the address 633 A Street SE that the referenced location is southeast of the US Capitol, one block south of East Capitol Street, on the south side of A Street SE, between 6th and 7th Streets SE.

Another example is theWhite House,located at 1600Pennsylvania Avenue NW:it is located at 16th Street NW (Lafayette Square) and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. This works both ways; an address at 514 19th St NW would be on 19th St west of the Capitol, and since E is the fifth letter of the alphabet, the 514 address would be between E and F Streets NW. BecauseJis omitted from the scheme, it is not counted in numbering. Thus, the 900 block is in between I and K Streets, and the 1000 block is in between K and L Streets (even though K is the 11th letter of the alphabet).

For the first block of a street as counted from the relevant axis (that is, with house numbers from 1 to 99), the city posts the word "unit" on a plaque below thestreet name signand labels the first block the unit block. This practice differs from most American cities, which post a plaque bearing a zero or a one followed by an arrow. Subsequent blocks are marked in the conventional fashion as "100", "200", and so forth.

Address numbers also correspond with a particular side of the street, with odd numbers on the right as one faces in the direction of increasing numbers. This works out by quadrant as shown below:

Quadrant East–west streets North–south streets
Northwest Odd numbers on north side Odd numbers on east side
Southwest Odd numbers on north side Odd numbers on west side
Southeast Odd numbers on south side Odd numbers on west side
Northeast Odd numbers on south side Odd numbers on east side

Major roads

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A large system offreewayswas planned in the district. Many, especially in the northern half, were canceled afterfreeway revolts.(Canceled freeways are shown in light blue.)

Interstate highways

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Washington, D.C. metropolitan area road map

Interstate 495,also known as the "Capital Beltway", creates an artificial boundary for the inner suburbs of Washington and is the root of the phrase "inside the Beltway".[26]Almost completely circling Washington, D.C., it crosses a tiny portion of the district at its southernmost point at theWoodrow Wilson Bridge.I-66runs from the eastern edge ofGeorgetown,connects with the Beltway, and continues through Northern Virginia toI-81.I-295comes up from the south starting at the eastern edge of theWoodrow Wilson Bridgeon the Beltway and ending at the11th Street Bridges,where it intersects withI-695(the Southeast Freeway) to cross theAnacostia Riverinto downtown. Just south of theU.S. CapitolBuilding,I-695links up withI-395(the Southwest Freeway), a major commuter route extending fromNew York Avenueto the Beltway andInterstate 95inSpringfield, Virginia.TheInner Loopwas a proposed network of freeways in the city center; however, only portions of it were ever built. Today, the "inner loop" is most frequently used to describe the inside lanes of 495—that is, those that travel clockwise around Washington.

I-66 in Washington, D.C.

A convergence indexing based road traffic monitoring system was installed on Washington's highways in 2008.[citation needed]

Other expressways and parkways

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TheAnacostia Freeway(DC-295) continues in a northeasterly direction from the point whereI-295ends at its intersection withI-695near the11th Street Bridgeson the south side of theAnacostia Riverand links with theBaltimore–Washington Parkway,which eventually becomesMaryland Route 295,via a short section ofMaryland Route 201.TheSuitland Parkwayconnects the city with the southeastern suburbs inPrince George's County, Maryland.TheWhitehurst Freeway,an elevated freeway overK Streetin Georgetown, allowsUS 29traffic to bypass congested Georgetown between theKey Bridgeand K Street downtown. TheE Street Expresswayconnects I-66 with the city'sFoggy Bottomarea and the areas immediately to the west of theWhite House.TheRock Creek and Potomac Parkwayprovides access to downtown from the northern and western ends of the city.

City streets

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Among the major roads in the city areMacArthur Boulevard NW,14th Street NW,16th Street NW,18th Street NW,7th Street NW,Connecticut Avenue NW,K Street NW,H Street NW,Wisconsin Avenue,M Street NW,H Street NE,Pennsylvania Avenue,Constitution Avenue,Independence Avenue,Massachusetts Avenue,U Street NW,South Dakota Ave NE,North Capitol Street,South Capitol Street,East Capitol Street,Georgia Avenue,Minnesota Avenue,Benning Road,Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue,New York Avenue,andRhode Island Avenue.

While city streets generally do not have route numbers, U.S. Routes1,1 Alternate,29,and50are routed predominantly or entirely over city surface streets.

See also

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Notes and references

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  1. ^"Public Road Length".Highway Statistics 2006.Federal Highway Administration. Archived fromthe originalon November 22, 2012.RetrievedNovember 14,2011.
  2. ^L'Enfant, Peter Charles;United States Coast and Geodetic Survey;United States Commissioner of Public Buildings (1887)."Plan of the city intended for the permanent seat of the government of t(he) United States: projected agreeable to the direction of the President of the United States, in pursuance of an act of Congress passed the sixteenth day of July, MDCCXC," establishing the permanent seat on the bank of the Potowmac ": [Washington, D.C.]".Washington: United States Coast and Geodetic Survey.LCCN88694201.RetrievedMarch 5,2017.Facsimileof the 1791 L'Enfant planinRepository of theLibrary of CongressGeography and Map Division, Washington, D.C.
  3. ^abPassanneau, Joseph R. (2004).Washington Through Two Centuries: A History in Maps and Images.New York: The Monacelli Press, Inc. pp.14–16,24–27.ISBN1-58093-091-3.
  4. ^L'Enfant identified himself as "Peter Charles L'Enfant" during most of his life, while residing in the United States. He wrote this name on his"Plan of the city intended for the permanent seat of the government of t(he) United States...."(Washington, D.C.) and on other legal documents. However, during the early 1900s, a French ambassador to the U.S.,Jean Jules Jusserand,popularized the use of L'Enfant's birth name but had many more, "Pierre Charles L'Enfant". (Reference: Bowling, Kenneth R (2002).Peter Charles L'Enfant: vision, honor, and male friendship in the early American Republic.George Washington University, Washington, D.C.ISBN978-0-9727611-0-9). The United States Code states in40 U.S.C.§ 3309:"(a) In General.—The purposes of this chapter shall be carried out in the District of Columbia as nearly as may be practicable in harmony with the plan of Peter Charles L'Enfant." TheNational Park Serviceidentifies L'Enfant as "Major Peter Charles L'EnfantArchivedApril 5, 2014, at theWayback Machine"and as"Major Pierre (Peter) Charles L'EnfantArchivedFebruary 28, 2010, at theWayback Machineon its website.
  5. ^"The Papers of George Washington: Presidential Series, 8".The Constitutional Sources Project (ConSource).Archived fromthe originalon June 20, 2011.RetrievedJuly 16,2010.
  6. ^San-Antonio-Gómez, Carlos (2019)."Similarities between L'Enfant's Urban Plan for Washington, DC, and the Royal Site of Aranjuez, Spain".Journal of Urban Planning and Development.145(2).doi:10.1061/(ASCE)UP.1943-5444.0000495.S2CID116818764.
  7. ^Intxausti, Aurora (March 11, 2019)."Washington, the other Aranjuez".El País.El País (España).RetrievedFebruary 14,2022.
  8. ^"Map 1: The L'Enfant Plan for Washington".National Park Service.Archivedfrom the original on January 21, 2009.RetrievedOctober 10,2009.
  9. ^"The L'Enfant and McMillan Plans".National Park Service.Archivedfrom the original on August 27, 2011.RetrievedMay 27,2008.
  10. ^Crew, Harvey W.; Webb, William Bensing; Wooldridge, John (1892).Centennial History of the City of Washington, D.C.Dayton, Ohio:United Brethren Publishing House. pp.101–103.LCCN06028029.OCLC2843595.RetrievedDecember 30,2017– viaInternet Archive.
  11. ^The L'Enfant and McMillan PlansArchivedOctober 28, 2010, at theWayback Machinein"Washington, D.C., A National Register of Historic Places Travel Inventory"ArchivedOctober 10, 2009, at theWayback Machineinofficial website of the U.S. National Park ServiceArchivedJune 26, 2009, at theWayback Machine
  12. ^The U.S.National Archivesholds a copy of "Ellicott's engraved Plan superimposed on the Plan of L'Enfant showing the changes made in the engraved Plan under the direction of President Washington".See"Scope & Contents"page of"Archival Description"for National Archives holding of" Miscellaneous Oversize Prints, Drawings and Posters of Projects Associated with the Commission of Fine Arts, compiled 1893 - 1950 ", ARC Identifier 518229/Local Identifier 66-M; Series from Record Group 66: Records of the Commission of Fine Arts, 1893 - 1981. Record of holding obtained through search inArchival Descriptions Search of ARC - Archival Research CatalogArchivedMay 1, 2017, at theWayback Machineusing search termL'Enfant Plan Ellicott,August 22, 2008.
  13. ^ab"Layout of Washington DC".United States Senate. September 30, 2005.Archivedfrom the original on September 16, 2011.RetrievedJuly 14,2008.
  14. ^Hagner, Alexander B. (1904). "Street Nomenclature of Washington City".Records of the Columbia Historical Society:240.
  15. ^"Latin alphabet | Definition, Description, History, & Facts | Britannica".www.britannica.com.RetrievedOctober 1,2022.
  16. ^"No Way, No Jay: Old historical legends holds that architect Pierre L'Enfant omitted 'J' Street from his plans for Washington, D.C., because he disliked John Jay".Snopes: Fact Check.Snopes.com. January 21, 2000.RetrievedDecember 30,2017.
  17. ^"Location of A Street NE east of the U.S. Supreme Court building"(Map).Google Maps.
  18. ^Dodd, Walter Fairleigh (1909).The government of the District of Columbia.Washington, D.C.: John Byrne & Co. p.4.
  19. ^Proctor, John Clogett, ed. (1930).Washington Past and Present.New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc. p. 158.
  20. ^abcProctor, John Clogett, ed. (1930).Washington Past and Present.New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc. p. 159.
  21. ^Laws relating to the permanent system of highways outside of the cities of Washington and Georgetown.Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. 1908. pp.3–4.Archivedfrom the original on January 14, 2016.
  22. ^Laws relating to the permanent system of highways outside of the cities of Washington and Georgetown.Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. 1908. p. 3.Archivedfrom the original on January 14, 2016.
  23. ^"CHAP. 79.-An Act Changing the name of Georgetown, in the District of Columbia, and for other purposes"(PDF).United States Statutes at Large from August 1893 to March 1895.p. 679.Archived(PDF)from the original on November 16, 2011.RetrievedJuly 10,2011.
  24. ^abcde"Streets Named Anew: Commissioners Fix Highway Nomenclature for Suburbs".The Washington Post.August 15, 1901. p. 2.ProQuest144270485.
  25. ^"New Street Names: Nomenclature for Section in the Far Northwest".The Washington Post.August 2, 1905. p. 12.ProQuest144591749.
  26. ^Tom (March 8, 2012)."What Is The History of the Capital Beltway?".Ghosts of DC.RetrievedFebruary 17,2019.

Further reading

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