Washington,
DC is shaped, roughly, like a diamond with a chip out of it. It is divided into
four sections called quadrants: Northeast (NE), Northwest (NW), Southwest (SW),
and Southeast (SE). NW, NE, and SE are fairly evenly div- ided, but, SW is merely
a small slice of land bordering the Potomac River. When you are in the city, every
street sign will bear it's name plus one of the aforementioned abbrev- iations,
letting you know which quadrant you are currently in. For example, M St. in the
Georgetown area will read "M St. NW", while M St. down by the Navy Yard will read
"M St. SE". Theoretically, at least, the U.S. Capitol buil- ding sits at the center
of the city. Running in each dir- ection out from the Capitol are the Capitol
Sts. For ex- ample, North Capitol runs from the Capitol directly to the North,
East Capitol runs to the East, and so on. These streets determine the division
of the quadrants. If you are, say, on S. Capitol St. near the Nation, you are
in SE, but, if you cross S. Capitol, the land on the other side is SW.
A lot of
well-meaning people will probably tell you that travelling in DC is easy; that
it has a simple grid. Please don't be fooled. DC's grid IS surprisingly easy,
but, only if you are travelling within the same quadrant. If you are going to
spend the whole time in one quadrant, then, generally, numbered Sts. run North-South,
lettered and named streets run East West, and state Avenues run diagonally.As
you drive away from the center of the city on a numbered street, the intersecting
letter streets will increase alph- abetically. When you come to the end of the
alphabet (W St.), the alphabetical pattern will repeat, but, instead of letters,
the streets will have names. When you come to the end of this pattern, it will
start all over again with names that have one more syllable than the names of
the streets in the previous pattern.
Remember,
however, that this is a general pattern. There are some slight deviations. State
avenues interrupt the alphabetical pattern, so, when you come to a diagonal avenue
with an out of pattern name, don't worry. The pat- tern will continue with the
next street. Also, some streets may take a surprise turn and you might find yourself
on a different road than you intended to be on if you don't pay attention. Another
thing people find very frustrating a- bout DC are its circles. Yet, they are not
that difficult to navigate once you get used to them. At each major circle there
will be a sign showing a diagram of which streets radiate from it and where they
are laid out in the circle. If you're trying to rejoin a street you wish to continue
on and you haven't reached the end of that street, it will be halfway around the
circle, diagonal from where you started.
As I mentioned in the beginning, travelling in DC is easy if you stay in
the same quadrant. Travelling between quad- rants is a different story. Some of
the longer state aven- ues are continuous between two quadrants. For example,
you can take Mass. Ave. NE into Mass. Ave. NW or Penn. Ave. NW into Penn Ave.
SE. The Capitol Streets will give you acc- ess to two quadrants, one on either
side of the street. For example, SE and SW are accessible from S. Capitol, while
NE and NW are accessible from N. Capitol and so on. Num- bered streets in NE and
SE seem to be continuous. You can take, say, 9th St NE into 9th St. SE. However,
lettered and named streets are not continous and nothing, it seems, except for
state avenues, is continuous between diagonal quadrants. I learned this the hard
way trying to take M St. NW to M St. SE and then turning around and trying to
take First St. SE to First St. NW. If this sounds a little con- fusing, it is,
especially for anyone not familiar with DC in the first place. It isn't always
easy to untangle your- self from a web that includes no less than 3 First Sts.,
4 A Sts., and other assorted points of confusion.
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