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Washington, D.C. is located at (the coordinates of the Zero Milestone , on The Ellipse). According to the United States Census Bureau , the city has a total area of 177.0 Km² (68.3 Mi² ). 159.0 km² (61.4 mi²) of it is land and 18.0 km² (6.9 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 10.16% water. Washington is surrounded by the State s of Virginia (on its southwest side) and Maryland (on its southeast, northeast, and northwest sides); it interrupts those states' common border, which is the south shore of the Potomac River both upstream and downstream from the District. The portion of the Potomac River that passes Washington is virtually entirely within the District's border, as the District extends to the south bank. The city contains the historic federal city, the territory of which was formerly part of those two adjacent states before they respectively ceded it for the national capital. The land ceded from Virginia was Returned By Congress in 1847 , so what remains of the modern District was all once part of Maryland. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY The physical , which crosses over the northwest border of the District from Maryland, McMillan Reservoir near Howard University , and Georgetown Reservoir upstream of Georgetown. The highest point in the District of Columbia is 410 feet (125 m) above sea level at Tenleytown. The lowest point is sea level, which occurs along all of the Anacostia shore and all of the Potomac shore except the uppermost mile (the Little Falls - Chain Bridge area). The sea level Tidal Basin rose eleven feet during Hurricane Isabel on September 18, 2003. The geographic center of the District of Columbia is located near 4th Street NW, L Street NW, and New York Avenue NW, not the under the Capitol Dome as is sometimes stated. Geographical features of Washington, D.C. include Theodore Roosevelt Island , Columbia Island , the Three Sisters , Hains Point . Some areas, especially around of the National Mall , were swamps or parts of the river that have been filled in. CITY LAYOUT , Northeast , Southeast , and Southwest . The axes bounding the Quadrants radiate from the U.S. Capitol building.]] Washington, D.C., was created to serve as the national capital from its inception. The original street layout was designed by Pierre Charles L'Enfant at the time of the city's founding. L'Enfant based his design on Paris , which incorporated a basic grid system, inter-cut with broad diagonal avenues radiating from circles and squares; according to a popular urban legend, the diagonal avenues also served as sightlines for the defense of the city in the event of an invasion. At the center of the design, is the , Southwest , Northeast , and Southeast . The quadrants are separated by North Capitol Street , South Capitol Street , and East Capitol Street, with the centerline of the National Mall taking the place of what would be the western demarcation line. Two avenues, Constitution Avenue and Independence Avenue , line the sides of the Mall. Streets that are oriented north/south are designated by numbers and count upwards from east to west in Northwest and Southwest (1st St NW, 2nd St NW, 3rd St NW, etc.); these streets repeat in Northeast and Southeast, counting upwards from west to the east. Streets that are oriented east/west utilize a single letter of the alphabet in the central city. Thus, east-to-west lettered streets (A St NE, B St NE, etc.) "count" upwards from south to north in NW and NE, and likewise repeat in the opposite direction in SW and SE. Street numbers count upwards traveling outward from the dividing lines of the quadrants. There is no J Street in any quadrant; there are several rumors for the reason of this, including one that L'Enfant simply disliked the first Chief Justice Of The United States , John Jay . However, the most reasonable answer is that J and I look too much alike and could easily have been confused in the handwriting of the 18th century. (In a nod to this, the Food Court at The George Washington University is named J Street). North of the mall, the road that would be B street is known as Constitution, South of the mall the second east-west street is called Independence. There are also no X, Y, or Z streets. Because both the numbers and the letters repeat for each quadrant, each street name is appended by the quadrant in which it is located (NE, NW, SE and SW). Use of these directional designations is required in giving directions and in the use of delivering mail. Once single letters are exhausted as east-west street names the "alphabet" system continues anew with two syllable names beginning the first letter of the alphabet; streets in this set are commonly referred to as being in the "second alphabet" (for example, Calvert St. NW would be the third street of this second alphabet). As in the previous series of names, the names beginning with X, Y, or Z are not used. In Northwest and Northeast D.C., which are the largest quadrants, a "third alphabet" is started using three syllable words, E.g. Brandywine St NW. In only the Northwest Quadrant is 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 border. Diagonal Avenues, Generally Named For States , are exempt from this syllabic rule, as are streets designated as "Place" or "Way" and streets laid out after the alpha-name was established for that area (For example, between E and F Streets in Southeast, one will find Duddington Place). The city's Addressing System is best understood in terms of the Cartesian Coordinate System . 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, if one needed to find 633 A Street SE, the address informs that the address is southeast of the Capitol, with A Street one block south of East Capitol Street, and that the location on that street is between 6th Street and 7th Streets SE. Another more familiar example would be the White House , located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, 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. "I," "Q," and "U" streets properly utilize a single letter of the alphabet for their names. "Eye Street," "Que Street", "Queue Street" and "You Street" have also appeared in some historical and contemporary instances for clarity, however their use is informal. Georgetown , which was founded before the District of Columbia, had its own street naming system until 1895, when the streets were Renamed to conform to the Street Name s in use in Washington. LOW SKYLINE To preserve the grandeur of the National Mall, the White House, the Capitol, and various other key locations, the entire city is subject to strict height limits. This limitation was placed in effect just prior to the 20th century when government officials realized that structural steel "skyscrapers" could overwhelm the city. Thus, Washington has a relatively modest skyline in comparison to the majority of American cities. However the District is ringed by high-rise buildings in many nearby suburbs like Arlington, Virginia and Bethesda, Maryland . NEIGHBORHOODS See Also: List of neighborhoods of the District of Columbia by ward The District of Columbia is divided into eight wards and 37 Advisory Neighborhood Commission s (ANCs) within these wards. The total number of named neighborhoods is 127. The ANCs serve to advise the D.C. Council on neighborhood matters. The Council is required by law to give their opinions "great weight," though what that means is up to the Council to decide. According to the 2000 Census, blacks make up the majority of the population in Northeast, Southeast (except for Capitol Hill), Southwest, and those parts of Northwest that are east of 14th Street . Hispanics are concentrated in the Columbia Heights and Mount Pleasant neighborhoods of Northwest's Ward 1. Asians, mostly Chinese, predominate in the small downtown Chinatown neighborhood. Since 2000, however, the demographics of many neighborhoods have changed markedly. HISTORY The choice of the exact site on the Potomac River was left to the first president, George Washington . He chose a 10 mile (16 km) square area that included the existing villages of Georgetown and Alexandria, and another called Hamburg in the Foggy Bottom area. A new city, eventually named Washington City, was laid out in undeveloped area within the district. The remainder of the territory was designated Washington County (on the Maryland side of the Potomac) and Alexandria County (on the Virginia side). The land from the State of Virginia was eventually Returned To The State in 1846 . This land in Virginia makes up the modern area of Arlington County and the old part of Alexandria, Virginia , both which are considered suburbs of Washington. In fact, the Arlington National Cemetery and the Pentagon complex are both located in Arlington but are largely tied to the federal government in Washington . Between 1790 and 1846 , Alexandria was referred to as "Alexandria, D.C." The Georgetown neighborhood was originally part of Maryland and was the only significant population in the area that would become the District of Columbia. Georgetown became part of the District in 1790 when the Federal City was first created, but Georgetown remained an independent city, referred to as "Georgetown, D.C.", until 1871 , when it was merged with Washington City and Washington County, completing the process of Washington and the District of Columbia occupying the same geographic borders. The monumental core of the city consists of the National Mall and many key federal buildings, monuments, and museums, including the Washington Monument , Lincoln Memorial , and the National Air And Space Museum . Its layout is based on that proposed by the McMillan Commission report in 1901 . SEE ALSO |
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