Coordinates: 38°54′17″N 77°00′59″W / 38.90472°N 77.01639°W / 38.90472; -77.01639 ( District of Columbia) a b Kelly, John (April 1, 2012). "Washington Built on a Swamp? Think Again". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 9, 2015 . Retrieved November 29, 2015. Columbia Records, a major music record label in the US, was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1889. [198] [199] The city grew into being one of the most important music cities in the early jazz age. Duke Ellington, among the most prominent jazz composers and musicians of his time, was born and raised in Washington, and began his music career there.

See also: Streets and highways of Washington, D.C.; Neighborhoods in Washington, D.C.; and List of tallest buildings in Washington, D.C. The L'Enfant Plan for the city, developed in 1791 by Pierre L'Enfant The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was extended to Georgetown in 1830. An aerial view of Northwest Washington, D.C. at sunset in June 2018 Washington, D.C., was a planned city, and many of the city's street grids were developed in that initial plan. In 1791, President George Washington commissioned Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant, a French-born architect and city planner, to design the new capital, and enlisted Scottish surveyor Alexander Ralston to help lay out the city plan. [98] The L'Enfant Plan featured broad streets and avenues radiating out from rectangles, providing room for open space and landscaping. [99] L'Enfant based his design on plans of other major world cities, including Paris, Amsterdam, Karlsruhe, and Milan that Thomas Jefferson had sent to him. [100] L'Enfant's design also envisioned a garden-lined grand avenue approximately 1 mile (1.6km) in length and 400 feet (120m) wide in area that is now the National Mall. [101] In March 1792, however, President Washington dismissed L'Enfant due to conflicts with the three commissioners appointed to supervise the capital's construction. Andrew Ellicott, who worked with L'Enfant in surveying the city, was then tasked with completing its design. Though Ellicott revised the original L'Enfant plans, including changing some street patterns, L'Enfant is still credited with the city's overall design. [102]

Hurricanes or their remnants occasionally impact the area in late summer and early fall. However, they usually are weak by the time they reach Washington, partly due to the city's inland location. [87] Flooding of the Potomac River, however, caused by a combination of high tide, storm surge, and runoff, has been known to cause extensive property damage in the Georgetown neighborhood of the city. [88] Precipitation occurs throughout the year. [89] Greeley, Horace (1864). The American Conflict: A History of the Great Rebellion in the United States. Chicago: G. & C.W. Sherwood. pp. 142–144.

a b "WMO Climate Normals for WASHINGTON DC/NATIONAL ARPT VA 1961–1990". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration . Retrieved July 18, 2020. Many other public bus systems operate in the various jurisdictions of the Washington region outside of the city in suburban Maryland and Virginia. Among these are the Fairfax Connector in Fairfax County, Virginia; DASH in Alexandria, Virginia; and TheBus in Prince George's County, Maryland. [339] There are also numerous commuter buses that residents of the wider Washington region take to commute into the city for work or other events. Among these are the Loudoun County Transit Commuter Bus and the Maryland Transit Administration Commuter Bus. [340] By law, the city's skyline is low and sprawling. The federal Height of Buildings Act of 1910 prohibits buildings exceeding the width of the adjacent street plus 20 feet (6.1m). [103] Despite popular belief, no law has ever limited buildings to the height of the United States Capitol or the 555-foot (169m) Washington Monument, [70] which remains the district's tallest structure. City leaders have criticised the height restriction as a primary reason why the district has limited affordable housing and traffic problems caused partly by suburban sprawl. [103] Washington D.C. still has a relatively high homelessness rate, despite its high living standard compared to many American cities. [ citation needed] a b Clabaugh, Jeff (September 11, 2017). "The Wharf: DC's most ambitious development project set to open". WTOP . Retrieved July 19, 2020.

Gibson, Campbell (June 1998). "Population of the 100 Largest Cities and Other Urban Places in the United States: 1790 to 1990". United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on January 2, 2011 . Retrieved July 29, 2008. Ables, Kelsey (March 25, 2021). "Brutalist buildings aren't unlovable. You're looking at them wrong". The Washington Post . Retrieved September 8, 2022. Gelernter, Mark (2001). History of American Architecture. Manchester University Press. p.248. ISBN 978-0-7190-4727-5. Archived from the original on September 5, 2015 . Retrieved June 16, 2015. Get to Know D.C." Historical Society of Washington, D.C. Archived from the original on September 18, 2010 . Retrieved July 11, 2011. D.C. is part of the regional Capital Bikeshare program. Started in 2010, it is one of the largest bicycle sharing systems in the country with more than 4,351 bicycles and more than 395 stations, [325] all provided by PBSC Urban Solutions. [ citation needed] Walkability

See also: List of crossings of the Potomac River and List of bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C. Memorial Bridge connects the city across the Potomac River with Arlington, Virginia. Laws relating to the permanent system of highways outside of the cities of Washington and Georgetown. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. 1908. p.3. Archived from the original on September 6, 2015 . Retrieved June 16, 2015.

The district regained control over its finances in 2001 and the oversight board's operations were suspended. [280] a b Dodd, Walter Fairleigh (1909). The government of the District of Columbia. Washington, D.C.: John Byrne & Co. pp. 40–45. Washington, D.C., is a prominent center for national and international media. The Washington Post, founded in 1877, is the city's oldest and most-read local daily newspaper. [304] " The Post", as it is popularly called, is well known as the newspaper that exposed the Watergate scandal. [305] It had the sixth-highest readership of all news dailies in the country in 2011. [306] The Washington Post also publishes a Spanish language newspaper El Tiempo Latino, a leading Spanish-language news source for the Washington area. The Post is headquartered at One Franklin Square just north of Franklin Square in Downtown Washington. City Park Facts" (PDF). The Trust for Public Land. 2011. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 14, 2012 . Retrieved December 9, 2011.

Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV". U.S. Census Bureau. U.S. Department of Commerce. Archived from the original on April 19, 2012 . Retrieved April 12, 2017.a b Crew, Harvey W.; Webb, William Bensing; Wooldridge, John (1892). Centennial History of the City of Washington, D.C. Dayton, OH: United Brethren Publishing House. p. 124. Average Conditions: Washington DC, USA". BBC Weather. Archived from the original on October 30, 2012 . Retrieved August 30, 2010. The Washington Times is a general interest daily newspaper and popular among conservatives. [307] The alternative weekly Washington City Paper, with a circulation of 47,000, is also based in the city and has a substantial readership in the Washington area. [308] [309] The U.S. Constitution provides for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress. As such, Washington, D.C. is not part of any state, nor is it one itself. The Residence Act, adopted on July 16, 1790, approved the creation of the capital district along the Potomac River. The city was founded in 1791, and Congress held its first session there in 1800. In 1801, the District of Columbia, formerly part of Maryland and Virginia and including the existing settlements of Georgetown and Alexandria, was officially recognized as the federal district; the city initially comprised only a portion of its modern territory, as a distinct entity within the larger federal district. [15] In 1846, Congress returned the land originally ceded by Virginia, including the city of Alexandria. In 1871, it created a single municipal government for the remaining portion of the district, though locally elected government lasted only three years and did not return for over a century. [16] There have been several unsuccessful efforts to make the district into a state since the 1880s; a statehood bill passed the House of Representatives in 2021 but was not adopted by the U.S. Senate. [17] The district has 7,464 acres (30.21km 2) of parkland, about 19% of the city's total area and the second-highest percentage among high-density U.S. cities after Philadelphia. [71] The city's sizable parkland was a factor in the city being ranked as third in the nation for park access and quality in the 2018 ParkScore ranking of the park systems of the nation's 100 most populous cities, according to Trust for Public Land, a non-profit organization. [72]