The name "M Street" refers to two major roads in the

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capital of

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Because of the Cartesian coordinate system used to name streets in Washington, the name "M Street" can be used to refer to any east-west street located twelve blocks north or south of the dome of the

United States Capitol The United States Capitol, often called The Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the seat of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, which is formally known as the United States Congress. It is located on Capitol Hill ...

(not thirteen blocks, as there is no J Street). Thus, in all four quadrants of the city there are streets called "M Street", which are disambiguated by quadrant designations, namely, M Street NW, NE, SW, and SE.

M Street NW

In Northwest Washington, M Street is a major street downtown and the main east-west street in the Georgetown neighborhood. M Street NW begins at the Key Bridge, which crosses the

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at the 3500 block. To the west of 36th Street, M Street turns into Canal Road. M Street was originally called Bridge Street until the roads in Georgetown were renamed in 1895 to conform to the street names used in

Pierre Charles L'Enfant Pierre "Peter" Charles L'Enfant (; August 2, 1754June 14, 1825) was a French-American military engineer who designed the basic plan for Washington, D.C. (capital city of the United States) known today as the L'Enfant Plan (1791). Early life ...

's original plan for the federal city. Where 32nd Street would otherwise be, M Street intersects with

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. The s ...

. At 29th Street, it meets the western terminus of

Pennsylvania Avenue Pennsylvania Avenue is a diagonal street in Washington, D.C., and Prince George's County, Maryland, that connects the White House and the United States Capitol and then crosses the city to Maryland. In Maryland it is also Maryland Route 4 (MD 4 ...

. This is the last major intersection before the M Street Bridge over Rock Creek, which forms the eastern border of Georgetown. The section in Georgetown carries heavy commuter traffic because it connects Pennsylvania Avenue with the Key Bridge and Canal Road. M Street Northwest Georgetown

From Pennsylvania Avenue to

Thomas Circle Thomas Circle is a traffic circle in Northwest Washington, D.C., in the United States. It is located at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue NW, Vermont Avenue NW, 14th Street NW, and M Street NW. It is named for George Henry Thomas, a Un ...

at 14th Street, M Street is designated for one-way traffic with vehicles driving westbound-only. M Street once again becomes two-way in Georgetown. This stretch is highly developed, consisting mainly of apartments from 26th to 21st and businesses from 21st to Thomas Circle. From 14th Street to 5th Street NW, M Street is again two-way. Although, halfway through the 900 block, the street turns eastbound. Between 9th and 7th Streets NW, it passes underneath the

Walter E. Washington Convention Center The Walter E. Washington Convention Center is a convention center located in Washington, D.C., owned and operated by the city's convention arm, Events DC. Designed in a joint venture by the Atlanta-based architecture firm Thompson, Ventulett, ...

. From 5th Street to North Capitol Street, it assumes a complex traffic pattern because of the intersections and near-intersections of several high-traffic streets: M, New York Avenue/ U.S. Route 50, the northern terminus of Interstate 395, New Jersey Avenue, and North Capitol Street. Traffic is west-to-east from 5th to 4th, east-to-west from New York to 4th, and west-to-east from New York through North Capitol and onto M Street NE.

M Street NE

M Street NE runs west-to-east from North Capitol Street to

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, Bound ...

between 6th and 7th, where it terminates at the gates of Gallaudet University. Along the way, it uses an overpass to avoid the

Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

rail yard A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or u ...

. Because the intervening

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

neighborhood does not follow the grid pattern, M Street does not emerge again until Bladensburg Road (between 16th and 17th). This two-way stretch dead-ends after intersecting with Maryland Avenue (where 26th Street would be), because the remaining land between that intersection and the

Anacostia River The Anacostia River is a river in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States. It flows from Prince George's County in Maryland into Washington, D.C., where it joins with the Washington Channel to empty into the Potomac River at Buzzard Point. ...

is occupied by the

United States National Arboretum The United States National Arboretum is an arboretum in northeast Washington, D.C., operated by the United States Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service. It was established in 1927 by an act of Congress after a campaign by USDA ...

and Langston Golf Course. The portion of Washington across the Anacostia follows its own variant of the grid pattern, so while there is no M Street NE, the

Deanwood Deanwood is a neighborhood in Northeast Washington, D.C., bounded by Eastern Avenue to the northeast, Kenilworth Avenue to the northwest, Division Avenue to the southeast, and Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue to the south. One of Northeast's ol ...

neighborhood of

Anacostia Anacostia is a historic neighborhood in Southeast Washington, D.C. Its downtown is located at the intersection of Good Hope Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. It is located east of the Anacostia River, after which the neighborhood is na ...

does have a Meade Street NE in the location where M Street would have re-emerged.

M Street SW/SE

About a mile south of the U.S. Capitol, M Street is a major east-west traffic thoroughfare connecting Maine Avenue with Interstate 295. The

prevents M Street from extending farther west than 6th Street/Maine Avenue. Likewise, the

limits M Street SE east of 11th to being a named on-ramp for I-295 (the 11th Street Bridges to the immediate south and the

Southeast Freeway The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

to the immediate north), Water Street SE (home of several boating clubs), and Pennsylvania Avenue SE at the

John Philip Sousa Bridge The John Philip Sousa Bridge, also known as the Sousa Bridge and the Pennsylvania Avenue Bridge, is a continuous steel plate girder bridge that carries Pennsylvania Avenue SE across the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C., in the United States ...

before terminating. The most prominent intersection on M Street between those points is with South Capitol Street. M Street runs along the northern edge of the

Washington Navy Yard The Washington Navy Yard (WNY) is the former shipyard and Weapon, ordnance plant of the United States Navy in Southeast, Washington, D.C., Southeast Washington, D.C. It is the oldest shore establishment of the U.S. Navy. The Yard currently serv ...

(between 1st and 11th) and near

Nationals Park Nationals Park is a baseball stadium along the Anacostia River in the Navy Yard neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Home to Major League Baseball's Washington Nationals since its completion in 2008, it was the first LEED-certified green major profe ...

, between 1st and South Capitol. Another segment of M Street SE continues east of the Anacostia River. Beginning at the Anacostia Freeway (DC-295, roughly where 29th Street would be), it runs diagonally southeast for two blocks, merges with Anacostia Road for one block, then straightens out for two blocks before terminating at 34th Street SE. Its route is blocked by Massachusetts Avenue SE and

Fort Dupont Park Fort Dupont Park is a wooded park under the management of the National Park Service located in Washington, DC. The name of the park comes from the old Civil War earthwork fort that lies within the park. The fort was one of several designed to ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control Dupont Circle Georgetown (Washington, D.C.) Streets in Washington, D.C. Shopping districts and streets in Washington, D.C.