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- The Washington metropolitan area covers nearly 4,000 square miles (10,360 square km) and encompasses 10 counties, 5 in Maryland (Montgomery, Prince George’s, Frederick, Charles, and Calvert) and 5 in Virginia (Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Stafford, and Prince William).
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Feb 27, 2023 · Some might say Washington, D.C., is in a state of confusion. But if we're answering the geography question it's quite simple: Washington, D.C., is a district and not part of any U.S. state. The capital city borders Maryland to the north, east and west, and the state of Virginia on the southern shore of the Potomac River.
Washington, D.C. is a territory and not a state, nor is it part of any U.S. state. It is surrounded by the state of Maryland on the northwest, northeast, and southeast and bordered by the state of Virginia , across the Potomac River , on the west and southwest.
Sep 28, 2021 · It is located in the District of Columbia, which is what D.C. stands for. The location of Washington D.C. Originally, the seat of the government of the United States was located in Philadelphia, where members of the Continental Congress met. But shortly after the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress saw the need to create a capital that ...
dc .gov. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly called Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. [13] The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with Maryland to its north and east. Washington, D.C., was named for George Washington, a ...
- United States
- 0 ft (0 m)
- 409 ft (125 m)
- 20001–20098, 20201–20599, 56901–56999
- Overview
- Character of the city
- City site
- Climate
Washington, D.C., city and capital of the United States of America. It is coextensive with the District of Columbia (the city is often referred to as simply D.C.) and is located on the northern shore of the Potomac River at the river’s navigation head—that is, the transshipment point between waterway and land transport. The state of Maryland borders the District of Columbia to the north, east, and west, and the state of Virginia borders the District on the southern shore of the Potomac River.
In 1790 the U.S. Congress established a 100-square-mile (260-square-km) territory to serve as the permanent seat of the federal government. (The territory was later named the District of Columbia, within which the city of Washington was built.) The location for the new territory was centralized among the Eastern Seaboard states and was about 90 miles (145 km) inland from the Atlantic Ocean on land ceded by Maryland and Virginia. In the mid-19th century the land south of the Potomac River that had been ceded by Virginia was returned to the state, reducing the District to its present-day size.
Washington is an extraordinary city, one with multiple personalities: a working federal city, an international metropolis, a picturesque tourist destination, an unmatched treasury of the country’s history and artifacts, and a cosmopolitan centre that retains a neighbourly small-town ambience. The role Washington plays as the capital of the United States often overshadows its lively local history and its complex political, economic, and social issues. About half the land in Washington is owned by the U.S. government, which pays no taxes on it. Several hundred thousand people in the D.C. metropolitan area work for the federal government.
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During the last half of the 20th century, “suburban flight” of the middle class contributed to the city’s loss of more than one-fourth of its population. As new jobs, especially those in the high-technology industries, were created in Maryland and Virginia, the population of the suburbs increased as much as 50 percent per decade. By the first decade of the 21st century, however, Washington’s population began to increase as younger workers moved into revitalized city neighbourhoods. Despite these shifts in population, the economies of the District and those of nearby Maryland and Virginia remain interdependent.
The city of Washington was built on a gently undulating, low, wide peninsula of land bounded by the Potomac River and its tributary, the Anacostia, in the belief that the location would develop into an important commercial port. (Potomac is an Algonquian word meaning “trading place,” and Anacostia is derived from the name of a local people, the Nacostines, who traded on that river.) Encircling the city are a series of terraces that in certain areas rise to about 400 feet (120 metres) above sea level, where Washington’s neighbourhoods were gradually built. Part of a shallow, long ravine—what is now Rock Creek Park—separated Washington from the old port city of Georgetown; development to the north and west of this ravine was slow until the end of the 19th century, when the ravine was bridged and public transportation was made available.
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Washington has a temperate climate with high humidity levels. Precipitation throughout the year is evenly distributed, averaging between 3 and 4 inches (75 and 100 mm) per month. Winters are damp, and extremes in temperature and heavy snowfalls are not typical. The infrequent wet, light snow often melts quickly, as average winter daytime temperatur...
The city is located in the central eastern part of the US on the Potomac River, bordering the U.S. state of Virginia in the west and the U.S. state of Maryland in the east.
Mar 1, 2024 · If you've never been to Washington, D.C. before, plan to spend some time along the Tidal Basin, an approximately 107-acre pond encircled by a 2.1-mile loop trail.
