Washington, D.C.
The federal capital district of the United States
Washington, D.C. - the District of Columbia - is the capital of the United States and the only part of the country that lies within no state at all. Created by the Constitution as a federal district under the direct authority of Congress, it was carved from land ceded by Maryland along the Potomac River and laid out in the 1790s by Pierre L'Enfant as a planned city of grand diagonal avenues and monumental vistas.
Home to the White House, the Capitol, the Supreme Court, and the great museums of the Smithsonian along the National Mall, the District is the seat of all three branches of the federal government. Its nearly 690,000 residents - more than the populations of Wyoming or Vermont - have no voting representation in the Senate and only a non-voting delegate in the House, a status that fuels a long-running statehood movement and the protest slogan on its license plates, "End Taxation Without Representation."
Related
- Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate ConceptionThe largest Catholic church building in North America
- Washington National CathedralAn 83-year Gothic project on the highest ground in the capital
- Potomac RiverThe Nation’s River, flowing past Washington to Chesapeake Bay
- Great Falls of the PotomacRapids where the Potomac crosses the fall line above Washington
- MarylandThe Old Line State, wrapped around Chesapeake Bay
- Museum of African American History and CultureThe Smithsonian's bronze-clad museum on the Mall
- National Air and Space MuseumFlight and spaceflight on the National Mall
- National Museum of American HistoryThe nation's attic on the Mall
- National Museum of Natural HistoryThe Smithsonian's most-visited museum
- The Lincoln MemorialThe temple to the sixteenth president
- The National Gallery of ArtThe nation's art museum on the Mall
- The PentagonThe headquarters of the U.S. military
- The United States CapitolThe domed seat of Congress
- The Washington MonumentThe marble obelisk on the National Mall
- The White HouseThe residence of the president
- U.S. Holocaust Memorial MuseumThe nation's memorial to the Holocaust
- VirginiaThe Old Dominion, from the Chesapeake to the Blue Ridge
Across the Brief network
- The District of ColumbiaThe federal capital district, governed by its own elected officials under the ultimate authority of Congress, with no voting representation in Congress
- Washington, D.C.The designed capital of the United States, seat of federal power since 1800
- Washington, D.C.The capital of the United States, a planned city on the Potomac