HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The streets and highways of Washington, D.C., form the core of the surface transportation infrastructure in
Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
, the federal capital of the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. Given that it is a planned city, the city's streets follow a distinctive layout and addressing scheme. There are of public roads in the city, of which are owned and maintained by city government.


City layout

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 at Georgetown. The original street layout in the new City of Washington was designed by Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant. As a
planned city A planned community, planned city, planned town, or planned settlement is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts with settlements that evolve ...
, Washington was modeled in the
Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
style and incorporated avenues radiating out from rectangles, providing room for open space and landscaping. At L'Enfant's request,
Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...
provided plans of cities such as
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
,
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
,
Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...
,
Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...
and
Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
, which he had brought back from Europe in 1788. The twelve radiating avenues, the distribution of the central space (originally L-shaped) and other details were inspired by the Spanish royal city of
Aranjuez Aranjuez () is a city and municipality of Spain, part of the Community of Madrid. Located in the southern end of the region, the main urban nucleus lies on the left bank of the Tagus, a bit upstream of the discharge of the Jarama. , the munici ...
, whose urban plans were widely distributed and where the 1779 treaty was signed. His design also envisioned a garden-lined "grand avenue" approximately in length and wide in the area that is now the
National Mall The National Mall is a Landscape architecture, landscaped park near the Downtown, Washington, D.C., downtown area of Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States. It contains and borders a number of museums of the Smithsonian Institu ...
. The City of Washington was bounded to the north by Boundary Street, now
Florida Avenue Florida Avenue is a major street in Washington, D.C. It was originally named Boundary Street, because it formed the northern boundary of the Federal City under the 1791 L'Enfant Plan. With the growth of the city beyond its original borders, B ...
, at the base of the
escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. Due to the similarity, the term '' scarp'' may mistakenly be incorrectly used inte ...
of the Atlantic Seaboard Fall Line, to the southeast by the
Anacostia River The Anacostia River is a river in the Mid-Atlantic states, Mid Atlantic region of the United States. It flows from Prince George's County, Maryland, Prince George's County in Maryland into Washington, D.C., where it joins with the Washington Ch ...
, to the southwest by the
Potomac River The Potomac River () is in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and flows from the Potomac Highlands in West Virginia to Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography D ...
and to the west by Rock Creek. President Washington dismissed 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. The district is divided into four quadrants of unequal area: Northwest (NW), Northeast (NE), Southeast (SE), and Southwest (SW). The axes bounding the quadrants radiate from the U.S. Capitol building. 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 Avenue Constitution Avenue is a major east–west street in the Northwest, Washington, D.C., northwest and Northeast, Washington, D.C., northeast quadrants of the city of Washington, D.C., in the United States. It was originally known as B Street, and ...
and Independence Avenue, line each side of the Mall. Many of the diagonal streets and avenues in Washington are named after states. Some of these streets are particularly noteworthy, such as
Pennsylvania Avenue Pennsylvania Avenue is a primarily diagonal street in Washington, D.C. that connects the United States Capitol with the White House and then crosses northwest Washington, D.C. to Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown. Traveling through So ...
, which connects the White House with the U.S. Capitol, and Massachusetts Avenue, a section of which is informally known as
Embassy Row Embassy Row is the informal name for a section of Northwest Washington, D.C., with a high concentration of embassies, diplomatic missions, and diplomatic residences. It spans Massachusetts Avenue N.W. between 18th and 35th street, bounded ...
from the number of foreign embassies located 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. 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". Urban legend had said that J Street was omitted deliberately by L'Enfant due to a dispute with
John Jay John Jay (, 1745 – May 17, 1829) was an American statesman, diplomat, signatory of the Treaty of Paris (1783), Treaty of Paris, and a Founding Father of the United States. He served from 1789 to 1795 as the first chief justice of the United ...
, the first Chief Justice of the
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...
; however, this was later proven to be a myth. Jay Street NE runs through the Deanwood neighborhood; 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.


Expansion of the street-name system

During most of the 19th century, each municipality within the federal district maintained its own separate government and street system. With the passage of the Organic 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 as Washington County into a single municipality for the whole District of Columbia. 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." 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. 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. 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. The Supreme Court agreed, striking down the law as unconstitutional. 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. 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. 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. Streets running north and south would continue to be numbered. North of Florida Avenue, streets running east and west would be named after famous Americans. The streets would be given one-syllable names in alphabetical order. Alphabetical names after the letter W would be two-syllable names starting with A (e.g., Adams St) ending with W (e.g., Webster 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. South of the center city, a similar system would be used with streets named after famous Americans or prominent geographical locations. 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. 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 by Western Avenue, Eastern Avenue, and Southern Avenue.


Address system

The city's addressing system is best understood in terms of a
Cartesian coordinate system In geometry, a Cartesian coordinate system (, ) in a plane (geometry), plane is a coordinate system that specifies each point (geometry), point uniquely by a pair of real numbers called ''coordinates'', which are the positive and negative number ...
with 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 the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...
, located at 1600 Pennsylvania 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. Because ''J'' is 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 the
street name sign A street name sign is a type of traffic sign used to identify named roads, generally those that do not qualify as expressways or highways. Street name signs are most often found posted at intersections; sometimes, especially in the United St ...
and 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:


Major roads


Interstate highways

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 "Inside the Beltway" is an American idiom used to characterize matters of greater interest to U.S. federal government officials, contractors, lobbyists, and media personnel, than to their general public. The Capital Beltway (Interstate 495) i ...
". Almost completely circling Washington, D.C., it crosses a tiny portion of the district at its southernmost point at the
Woodrow Wilson Bridge The Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge, also known as the Woodrow Wilson Bridge or the Wilson Bridge, is a bascule bridge that spans the Potomac River between Alexandria, Virginia and Oxon Hill, Maryland in Prince George's County, Maryland. The ...
.
I-66 Interstate 66 (I-66) is a 76.32 mile east–west Interstate Highway in the East Coast of the United States, eastern United States. The highway runs from an interchange with Interstate 81 in Virginia, I-81 near Middletown, Virginia, on its w ...
runs from the eastern edge of Georgetown, connects with the Beltway, and continues through Northern Virginia to I-81. I-295 comes up from the south starting at the eastern edge of the
Woodrow Wilson Bridge The Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge, also known as the Woodrow Wilson Bridge or the Wilson Bridge, is a bascule bridge that spans the Potomac River between Alexandria, Virginia and Oxon Hill, Maryland in Prince George's County, Maryland. The ...
on the Beltway and ending at the
11th Street Bridges The 11th Street Bridges are a complex of three bridges across the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C., United States. The bridges convey Interstate 695 (District of Columbia), Interstate 695 across the Anacostia to its southern terminus at Int ...
, where it intersects with I-695 (the Southeast Freeway) to cross the
Anacostia River The Anacostia River is a river in the Mid-Atlantic states, Mid Atlantic region of the United States. It flows from Prince George's County, Maryland, Prince George's County in Maryland into Washington, D.C., where it joins with the Washington Ch ...
into downtown. Just south of the U.S. Capitol Building, I-695 links up with I-395 (the Southwest Freeway), a major commuter route extending from New York Avenue to the Beltway and
Interstate 95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, north to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the ...
in
Springfield, Virginia Springfield is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia, Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. The Springfield CDP is recognized by the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau with a population of 31,339 as of the 20 ...
. The
Inner Loop In computer programs, an important form of control flow is the Loop (computing), loop which causes a block of code to be executed more than once. A common idiom is to have a loop Nested loop, nested inside another loop, with the contained loop be ...
was 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. A convergence indexing based road traffic monitoring system was installed on Washington's highways in 2008.


Other expressways and parkways

The Anacostia Freeway (DC-295) continues in a northeasterly direction from the point where I-295 ends at its intersection with I-695 near the
11th Street Bridges The 11th Street Bridges are a complex of three bridges across the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C., United States. The bridges convey Interstate 695 (District of Columbia), Interstate 695 across the Anacostia to its southern terminus at Int ...
on the south side of the
Anacostia River The Anacostia River is a river in the Mid-Atlantic states, Mid Atlantic region of the United States. It flows from Prince George's County, Maryland, Prince George's County in Maryland into Washington, D.C., where it joins with the Washington Ch ...
and links with the
Baltimore–Washington Parkway The Baltimore–Washington Parkway (also referred to as the B–W Parkway) is a controlled-access parkway in the U.S. state of Maryland, running southwest from Baltimore to Washington, D.C. The road begins at an interchange with U.S. Route&n ...
, which eventually becomes
Maryland Route 295 __NOTOC__ Year 295 ( CCXCV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar, the 295th Year of the Common Era ( CE) and Anno Domini ( AD) designations, the 295th year of the 1st millennium, the 95th year and last 6 years of the 3 ...
, via a short section of Maryland Route 201. The
Suitland Parkway The Suitland Parkway is a limited-access road, limited-access parkway in Washington, D.C., and Prince George's County, Maryland, administered and maintained by the U.S. National Park Service (NPS), National Capital Parks-East. The road has part ...
connects the city with the southeastern suburbs in
Prince George's County, Maryland Prince George's County (often shortened to PG County or PG) is located in the U.S. state of Maryland bordering the eastern portion of Washington, D.C. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, the population was 967,201, making it ...
. The Whitehurst Freeway, an elevated freeway over K Street in Georgetown, allows US 29 traffic to bypass congested Georgetown between the Key Bridge and K Street downtown. The E Street Expressway connects I-66 with the city's
Foggy Bottom Foggy Bottom is a neighborhood of Washington, D.C., United States, located in the city's northwest quadrant. It stretches west of the White House towards the Potomac River, north of the National Mall, east of Georgetown, south of the West ...
area and the areas immediately to the west of the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...
. The Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway provides access to downtown from the northern and western ends of the city.


City streets

Among the major roads in the city are MacArthur Boulevard NW, 14th Street NW,
16th Street NW 16th Street Northwest, briefly known as the Avenue of the Presidents, is a prominent north-south boulevard in Washington, D.C., located in Northwest (Washington, D.C.), Northwest D.C. The street was laid out as part of the 1791 L'Enfant Plan, whi ...
, 18th Street NW, 7th Street NW, Connecticut Avenue NW, K Street NW, H Street NW,
Wisconsin Avenue Wisconsin Avenue is a major thoroughfare in Washington, D.C., and its Maryland suburbs. The southern terminus begins in Georgetown just north of the Potomac River, at an intersection with K Street under the elevated Whitehurst Freeway. Wisco ...
, M Street NW, H Street NE,
Pennsylvania Avenue Pennsylvania Avenue is a primarily diagonal street in Washington, D.C. that connects the United States Capitol with the White House and then crosses northwest Washington, D.C. to Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown. Traveling through So ...
,
Constitution Avenue Constitution Avenue is a major east–west street in the Northwest, Washington, D.C., northwest and Northeast, Washington, D.C., northeast quadrants of the city of Washington, D.C., in the United States. It was originally known as B Street, and ...
, Independence Avenue, Massachusetts Avenue, U Street NW, South Dakota Ave NE,
North Capitol Street North Capitol Street is a street in Washington, D.C. that separates the Northwest, Washington, D.C., Northwest and Northeast, Washington, D.C., Northeast quadrants of the city. Route description North Capitol Street begins at D Street in Lower ...
, South Capitol Street,
East Capitol Street East Capitol Street is a major street that divides the northeast and southeast quadrants of Washington, D.C. It runs due east from the United States Capitol to the DC-Maryland border. The street is uninterrupted until Lincoln Park then cont ...
,
Georgia Avenue Georgia Avenue is a major north-south artery in Northwest, Washington, D.C., Northwest Washington, D.C., and Montgomery County, Maryland. In Washington, D.C., and for a short distance in Silver Spring, Maryland, Georgia Avenue is also U.S. Rout ...
, Minnesota Avenue,
Benning Road Benning Road is a major traveled street in Washington, D.C., and Prince George's County, Maryland. The street's western terminus is at the "Starburst intersection" in the Northeast, Washington, D.C., northeast quadrant of the city at Bladensbur ...
, Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, New York Avenue, and Rhode Island Avenue. While city streets generally do not have route numbers, U.S. Routes 1, 1 Alternate, 29, and 50 are routed predominantly or entirely over city surface streets.


See also

* History of Washington, D.C. * List of circles in Washington, D.C. * List of state-named roadways in Washington, D.C. * Architecture of Washington, D.C.


Notes and references


Further reading

* Ovason, David (2002)
''The Secret Architecture of Our Nation's Capital: The Masons and the building of Washington, D.C.''
New York: Perennial. /.
History of D.C. Street Names
- Ghosts of DC blog
What is the History of the Capital Beltway
- Ghosts of DC blog {{US numbered highways