Washingtonin full Washington, D.C. (“District of Columbia”), city and capital of the United States of America. The city is coextensive with the District of Columbia and is located at the head of navigation of the Potomac River, which separates it from Virginia to the southwest. In 1790 Congress designated 100 square miles (260 square km) of territory for the seat of government for the new nation on land ceded by Maryland and Virginia. However, in the mid-19th century the land south of the Potomac was returned to Virginia, and since then the District’s boundaries have made it essentially a 68-square-mile (177-square-km) enclave carved from Maryland. The greater Washington metropolitan area includes several surrounding counties in Maryland and Virginia and such Virginia cities as Fairfax, Falls Church, and Alexandria. Pop. (1990) city, 606,900; Washington PMSA, 4,223,485; Washington–Baltimore CMSA, 6,727,050; (2000) city, 572,059; Washington PMSA, 4,923,153; Washington–Baltimore CMSA, 7,608,070.
Physical and human geography
Character of the city

Washington is one of the few capital cities of the world founded expressly as a seat of government and as a centre for international representation. The expansive designs for the city were to symbolize the ideals of the freedom so recently achieved yet still so tenuously held by the citizenry of the nation. It was to be a vital city, the proper seat for the federal government.

The modern city also holds the nation’s most sacred monuments and the most meaningful artifacts of its history, the embassies of foreign nations, and an impressive collection of the national art treasures. Nearly every significant national organization has its headquarters or a major branch in the District, often for the purpose of lobbying in Congress or within federal agencies. The city was meant to be, and has remained, the focal point of the nation for sightseers and for seekers after the spirit of the American past and present.

While Washington has continued to portray itself as the foremost symbol of American heritage and governance, it has also been the chief focus of the country’s growing security concerns. The city’s more relaxed and easygoing attitude of earlier years has been increasingly overshadowed by threats from terrorists and others. At one time, a Harry S. Truman could slip outside to take his morning stroll, but presidents now typically travel in public in armoured limousines surrounded by small armies of Secret Service agents. Individuals who once had easy access to government buildings and public spaces now find themselves subject to growing restrictions and security screenings. Tragedies occur despite the precautions. In 1981 a gunman shot and severely wounded President Ronald Reagan outside a downtown hotel; in 1998 another gunman killed two security guards at the Capitol; and in 2001 the Pentagon was heavily damaged and scores of people were killed when hijackers deliberately crashed a commercial airliner into it.

Impediments to municipal development

For many reasons, Washington has had a development that is unique among the world’s major cities. An inherent tendency to distinguish between the District of Columbia as the capital, with its paraphernalia of federal facilities, and Washington as the city, with its complexity of social, economic, and political problems, has produced a metropolis as notorious for its ugliness and crime as it is famous for its diverse and truly awesome beauties. The city is located near the end of the sprawling urbanized agglomeration that spreads southward from Boston along the Eastern Seaboard, and it has most of the same problems that face other great core metropolises of the region—Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore—and of the nation as a whole.

Another set of disparities exists between the city of Washington and the Washington metropolitan area. More than one-fourth of the people over 26 years of age in the metropolitan area hold college degrees, the highest percentage among the 10 largest such areas in the country, and the area’s population has one of the highest annual per capita incomes. On the other hand, a high proportion of the population within the city is made up of families with low incomes or of handicapped or aged persons, many requiring governmental assistance.

These factors provide insight into why Washington—the city as distinct from the capital and the metropolitan area—has developed neither the social stability nor the continuity that provides the lifeblood of most other large cities. Both the living and the working populations of Washington are among the most transient in the nation. Only a small percentage of residents have longtime roots in Washington, while a high proportion of government and service workers commute into the city from suburban homes. These more affluent Washington workers typically spend most of their income and pay most of their taxes in adjacent counties and states, leaving the needs and destiny of the city to the dictates of an essentially alien body of lawmakers and administrators.

The incomplete city

With its history and character so profoundly affected by the varying and nonlocal interests and values of Congress, however, concern for Washington’s social and environmental quality has been limited. Approximately half of the land in Washington is owned by the U.S. government, which pays no taxes. An additional tenth of the land is untaxed because it is owned by foreign governments and nonprofit institutions. The prominence of the park and highway systems in the city’s landscape reflects the interests of Congress and various federal agencies, but the historic lack of concern for the city as a whole has left the grandeur of its vistas, monuments, and governmental facilities in startling contrast to the large areas of the city that have struck many observers as being in advanced stages of physical and spiritual distress.

This may be epitomized in the contrasts of weekday and weekend Washington. Perhaps no other American city except Los Angeles depends so heavily upon private automobiles for transportation. During rush hours, cars and buses choke the streets and avenues, a twice-daily scene interspersed with weekends of deserted streets and empty lots. Yet an expanding subway system, in operation since the late 1970s, has helped reduce traffic congestion and renew interest in different parts of the city.

The landscape
The city layout

Washington’s city plan is remarkable and unique. The city’s visionary was Pierre-Charles L’Enfant, a French army engineer who served honourably in the American Revolution. L’Enfant perfectly adapted the city’s formal plan to the area’s natural topography, carefully selecting important sites for principal buildings on the basis of the order of their importance, beginning with the Capitol. He connected these sites with long and broad avenues, thereby forming “lines of direct communication” yet symbolically separating the governmental powers.

Two elements of the original plan for Washington, completed in 1791, are of special significance. First, L’Enfant’s ideas for a capital city were based not on 13 colonies with 3,000,000 inhabitants but on a republic ultimately having 50 states and 500,000,000 citizens. He envisioned a city of 800,000 inhabitants at a time when the entire United States had less than four times that number. Second, L’Enfant had reached artistic maturity in Paris and Versailles, where he was influenced strongly by Baroque landscape architecture, which was at its zenith in the late decades of the 18th century. His original designs for Washington reflected the grandeur both of his projections and of the Baroque.

L’Enfant’s basic plan

Perhaps the dominant element in L’Enfant’s designs is the complex revolving about the Capitol, the Mall, and the executive mansion, which came to be known as the White House. Both buildings, incorporating elements of Baroque design, were placed to form the background, or terminating vista, of long straight pathways, or malls. Radiating from the buildings were two series of broad avenues converging into circular intersections, the effect of which was to create, in L’Enfant’s phrase, “a reciprocity of view,” a means of terminating long vistas that would give direction and character to the city and would create throughout it a series of subcentres within view of one another. Most of these subcentres—now circles and squares with small green parks—were carefully located on natural rises in the terrain, as were the Capitol and the White House.

The Mall, which extends from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial, was intended to be one broad, tree-lined avenue, in the manner of the Champs-Élysées in Paris, rather than the green lawn, with occasional buildings and a crisscross of roads, that it has become. At the point where the north–south axis of the White House meets the east–west axis of the Capitol, an equestrian statue of George Washington was planned. This spot, slightly relocated because of soft subsoil and subterranean streams, is now the site of the Washington Monument.

The pattern of radiating avenues was to be joined and filled by a gridiron matrix of streets. With the Capitol as the axis, the streets were lettered to the north and south, numbered to the east and west, and the avenues were named for the states. The entire city was divided into northwest (NW), northeast (NE), southeast (SE), and southwest (SW) quadrants, also centred on the Capitol. L’Enfant’s plan ended to the north at what became Florida Avenue, where a steep bluff was to provide the approaching traveler with the impressive expanse of the city spread out at his feet.

Subsequent development

Even before the Capitol’s cornerstone was laid, L’Enfant had been dismissed reluctantly after disagreements with the commissioners in charge of raising the public buildings. During the 19th century and later, the original harmony of his design was eroded with the emergence of new municipal and governmental functions. Awkward relations developed between the grid pattern of cross streets and the diagonal avenues, especially at intersections, while the circular intersections, though providing pleasant oases for pedestrians, were fed by too many streets in the unforeseen age of the automobile and consequently became impediments along the city’s thoroughfares. The original plan was effectively lost until 1887, when its recovery revealed that a number of 19th-century buildings along Pennsylvania Avenue, around the White House, and on Capitol Hill had altered the symmetries of the original conception.

The addition of trees along most major avenues and streets, though now a feature of the city, destroyed in great part the concept of a city of magnificent distances. The location of other notable monuments, especially the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, modified the original plan further, as did the placement of various museums and temporary buildings on the Mall. Whatever the impact of later alterations, however, only a few efforts have been made since L’Enfant to redesign the capital totally.

Continuing affective elements of the capital

To the visitor, nothing is more expressive of Washington’s character than the dozens of buildings and hundreds of monuments that relate to its functions as the nation’s capital. The style of federal architecture has changed several times over the years, and L’Enfant’s plans for the location of the Capitol and the White House remain as focal points for a complexity of monuments and buildings that retain a kind of basic coherence to the image of Washington as a capital city.

Dominating the scene, the Capitol offers an impressive silhouette terminating the Mall. Criticized by many as a “potpourri of many chefs,” the Capitol may lack the authenticity of the massive Renaissance domes that inspired it, but to many others it offers a feeling of emotional assurance that representative government rests on a broad and solid foundation. The other original building that underscores the purposes of L’Enfant is the charming, essentially modest White House, which has been judged by many as among the finest and most appropriate residences of state in the world.

The largest complex of public buildings that joins the Capitol to the White House is the Federal Triangle, an imposing facade of buildings that fronts on Constitution Avenue along the Mall and houses various federal departments and other activities of national importance. Other structures located along the Mall include the National Gallery of Art, the National Archives, the National Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of American History, and the National Air and Space Museum. Around the Capitol on Capitol Hill are the buildings of the Supreme Court, Library of Congress, and the various House and Senate office buildings.

The increasing number of governmental departments and agencies has resulted in an explosion of construction, particularly along Independence Avenue and extending into southwestern Washington’s Foggy Bottom area. These buildings have been designed without particular regard for their individuality: a series of shafts or cubes faced with granite or marble. To many people they seem to represent, in contrast to the earlier forms of governmental architecture, an honest but ugly reminder of the anonymous bureaucratic routines upon which so much of modern organizational life depends.

Ever since L’Enfant urged that Washington be lavishly equipped with “statues, columns or other ornaments” to honour the nation’s great, a continuous effort has been made to assure that no open space in the city lacks its representative monument. Within the District of Columbia alone, more than 300 memorials and statues of varying size, purpose, and aesthetic merit have been raised—from the elegant and inspiring Lincoln and Jefferson memorials and the pure grandeur of the Washington Monument, to the statues of major and minor Civil War heroes, to memorial benches, Doric temples, and Japanese pagodas.

A growing concern that Washington would soon become a veritable quarry of stone and metal monuments dedicated to minor individuals and causes led to a movement toward “living” or “functional” memorials that attempt to translate the personality of the person being honoured. Within this context, the monument dedicated to President John F. Kennedy was designed as a cultural centre for the performing arts. In addition, landscaping changes in the Mall area have removed most of the temporary buildings and returned the area to a purer interpretation of the L’Enfant design.

Attempts to bring Washington’s waterways into an overall national capital plan have been relative failures. Important as were the Potomac and Anacostia rivers in the decision about the capital’s location, neither has lived up to its anticipated potentiality in the commercial or cultural life of the city. Technology rendered them obsolete for transportation, while pollution limited their usefulness for recreation. Some modest progress, however, has been made to enhance their aesthetic and recreational possibilities.

Modern features

Washington as a city has expanded its influence and functions well beyond the 1790 boundaries established for the District of Columbia. Like the other large cities and metropolitan areas of the East Coast, it is beset with extreme social and economic problems. Unlike others, however, its surrounding suburban sprawl is part of other sovereign states, and the District can exercise little political control beyond its borders.

The strain of this growing area, which in large part reflects the increasing size and influence of the federal government, is playing an enormous part in the changing physical character of the central city. Plans to further develop Washington include greater dispersal of federal activities and installations to suburban locations to alleviate transportation problems. Such a movement has been in progress for some time, along with the decentralization of many business and commercial functions. The result of these movements has been to concentrate within the physical boundaries of the city only those monumental, cultural, and governmental structures that logically and historically can be located nowhere else.

The trends in planning that are changing the physical character of contemporary Washington are of two basic types. First, there has been an increasing effort to coordinate and enhance those monumental aspects of the city that are the outstanding physical features and most meaningful to the nation itself—notably in the Mall and Capitol areas. With this trend is the design of new public buildings to operate efficiently and yet blend harmoniously with the older federal architecture. Examples of such newer structures include the East Building of the National Gallery of Art, which employs the so-called L’Enfant Angle in its architectural design, and the congressional office buildings on Capitol Hill.

Second, there have been efforts to make downtown commercial activities more attractive, as well as more accessible. Several pedestrian malls have been constructed in the major downtown shopping area, and a new business and commercial complex, L’Enfant Plaza, has been established within walking distance of a number of the newest public buildings. A large convention centre was built, and a subway system, called the Metro, was inaugurated.

Other new features since the city began more rapid changes during the 1970s include the renovation of Pennsylvania Avenue, which was designated as a historic site in 1965; the renovation of Union Station as the National Visitor Center; and the redesigning of Lafayette Square facing the White House, a move that was hotly debated because it involved the razing of a number of fine old buildings. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, in West Potomac Park, was dedicated in 1982; two years later the Three Servicemen Statue was unveiled beside it; and in 1993 another statue, the Vietnam Women’s Memorial, was completed nearby. The Korean War Veterans Memorial was dedicated in 1995, followed by the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in 1997. A project to clean and restore the Washington Monument had been largely completed by mid-2001.

The people

The ethnic composition of Washington’s population is about three-fifths African American and less than one-third white, with the remaining tenth a mixture of Asians, Africans, Latin Americans, and other ethnic minorities, including embassy personnel. In contrast, the suburban population is predominantly white, with a sizable African American minority.

If any section of the country is overrepresented among Washingtonians, it is the Southeast and the nearby border states. John F. Kennedy once dryly remarked that “Washington is a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm”; indeed, life in the city often has been described as more Southern and leisurely than Northern and fast-paced—a comparison that sometimes leads to conjectures about how the choice of Washington’s site may have affected the functions of the national government throughout its history.

Changes in national administration bring about few real changes in the city’s makeup. The personnel of foreign embassies and missions living temporarily or semipermanently in Washington are large in number but relatively small in the total population, and their participation in the city’s life generally is fairly circumscribed. If the city has any true social aristocracy (aside from the upper echelons of the administration in power, members of Congress, and other high-ranking government officials), it is composed of a small cadre of well-to-do individuals or families who once held some office, found the capital’s life congenial, and remained as permanent residents.

Partially because of its racial and socioeconomic makeup, the District of Columbia and its surrounding metropolitan counties present a distinctive pattern of population distribution and thus a variability in the city’s neighbourhood characteristics.

Generally, within the northwestern area of the city and the suburban triangle of Maryland—including such unincorporated communities as Chevy Chase, Bethesda, and Silver Spring—that flanks this part of the city are located the majority of white middle-class and upper-middle-class residents. In the west, overlooking the Potomac, is the oldest neighbourhood, Georgetown, which remains Washington’s most exclusive and picturesque residential area. Within these neighbourhoods, extending eastward in the District to Connecticut Avenue and 16th Street, are located nearly all of the foreign embassies, the great churches, private country clubs, and housing that ranges from the moderately affluent to the luxurious.

East of 16th Street and extending north into the Maryland suburbs is the heart of the Washington African American community. The area illustrates the considerable diversity in quality of living available to Washington’s black residents: from tree-shaded upper-middle-class streets in the vicinity of Howard University to rows of deteriorating houses and tenements. Along 14th Street are the principal areas of vice and crime in the city and the scene of the “April Riots” of 1968.

The southern sections of the city form rather distinct areas, determined partly by geographic features and partly by the racial and socioeconomic character of the residents. The first area comprises the southwestern bank of the Potomac, which is crossed by six bridges joining the District and Virginia. In general this area is nonresidential, but it includes some of the city’s more renowned landmarks, including the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery. The second area is an irregular triangle formed by the Potomac and Anacostia rivers, which converge at the apex of the triangle. Within this section are located a concentration of modern governmental buildings—Fort Lesley J. McNair and the National Defense University—and the large recreational complex of East Potomac Park (known popularly as Hains Point). Urban renewal projects in this section have changed the residency pattern from predominantly black slums to white upper-middle-class apartment and townhouse buildings. Many of the African American residents displaced by the southwestern renewal plans have shifted to already overcrowded northeastern parts of the District or have concentrated in a third major black population area, on the southeastern bank of the Anacostia River. This triangular-shaped low-income area makes up the southeastern edge of the District and extends into Prince Georges county, Maryland.

The economy

Few cities in the United States are so dominated by the nature of their economic base as is Washington. Only two major economic activities provide virtually all of the income to the city and its residents. The federal civil service is by far the largest single employer in the metropolitan area. Tourism, which includes its retail trade and related services, is second in economic importance. Manufacturing and other commercial activities occupy only a minor place in the economic structure.


The federal government’s dominance in establishing the character of economic and social life in Washington can scarcely be overestimated. Although the federal government itself employs a large number of residents of the metropolitan area, the vast majority of employed people are engaged in activities that support or depend upon governmental programs or organizations of national or international scope.

Since the mid-20th century, Washington has been transformed from a “federal town” to an information and communication centre that is competitive with the largest urban areas in the United States. In addition, it has become the coordinating centre for major foreign activities. As federal involvement has proliferated in both private and public sectors and both at home and abroad, there has been a steady trend toward relocation of the offices of national associations from cities such as New York and Chicago to the Washington metropolitan area. There are more headquarters of national trade and professional organizations and associations in Washington (about 300) than in any other area of the country. The presence of international organizations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund has increased Washington’s importance as one of the principal centres for coordinating aid, trade, and finance on the international level.

The District of Columbia, however, has a large population living at considerably lower socioeconomic levels. These residents, mostly black, also depend upon the opportunities offered for federal employment but generally lack the educational qualifications for jobs at higher incomes. This factor, plus the minimal local control over its revenue system, the lack of significant taxable industry, and the tax-exempt status of the great majority of its real estate, forces the city to depend heavily upon intergovernmental revenue and aids that, in effect, constitute payment by the federal government in lieu of the taxes it would pay if it were a private industry.


Because it is the seat of the national government and the site of many of the nation’s most significant monuments, Washington’s second largest source of income derives from the millions of tourists who visit the city each year. The peak of the tourist influx occurs in the spring and summer months, but the capital city is basically a year-round attraction. In addition, Washington has become increasingly popular as a site for the annual conventions of national organizations and professional associations, most of which, as noted above, maintain a headquarters or branch office in the city. The business community, through such groups as the Metropolitan Washington Board of Trade and with the assistance of the federal government, has organized an increasing number of activities and facilities to make Washington more attractive to its visitors.


Prior to the 1970s, various characteristics of the Washington area affected the nature and quality of its transportation networks. First, the L’Enfant plan covered only a small part of the present District of Columbia, excluding completely what has become the suburban area. Although many major radial avenues were extended to and beyond the District’s borders, the street patterns outside the original city of 1791 were irregular at best. Second, Washington was a funnel for north–south traffic along the East Coast until the mid-20th century. In addition, the Potomac and Anacostia rivers always formed barriers to traffic flow between the city and points south. Finally, although it has long been a city of white-collar commuters whose work draws them into the city, the District had barely minimal mass-transit facilities from suburban areas, necessitating nearly total reliance on the automobile.

Since the 1970s, modern beltways and freeways have been built to facilitate the flow of traffic around and into the city, and a number of bridges now span the Potomac and Anacostia rivers. A major stimulus to the city’s development was the opening of a subway system. The subway and extended rail and bus service are part of the city’s modern mass-transit system, operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro). The authority also serves the neighbouring suburbs in Maryland and Virginia.

Administration and social conditions

The city of Washington, as the site of the nation’s capital, has evolved a governmental structure that is unique among U.S. cities.

Changing municipal forms

The first government of the city of Washington, established in 1802, comprised a mayor appointed by the president of the United States and a city council elected by the people. The city’s charter was amended in 1812 to provide for an elected board of aldermen, which, along with the council, elected the mayor. In 1820 Congress permitted the residents to elect both mayor and council. Since Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution empowers Congress to exercise exclusive legislation over the seat of government, however, the powers of the mayor and the council were limited, and their administration of the city was generally ineffectual.

In 1871 Congress created a territorial form of government for the District. The officials, all appointed by the president, included a governor, a board of public works, and a legislative assembly comprising an 11-member Council and a 22-member House of Delegates. In addition, the District was permitted a popularly elected, nonvoting delegate to the House of Representatives. This arrangement was abandoned after only three years following a series of financial crises that aroused opposition among both politicians and taxpayers. Congress resumed direct control of the city, providing administration by three commissioners appointed by the president. No provision was made for the franchise under the commissioner form of government, and residents of the District were denied all rights to vote until 1961. The 23rd Amendment to the Constitution then allowed qualified voters to vote in presidential elections but failed to permit participation in elections for local officials, all of whom continued to be appointed.

The issue of home rule for the residents of the District became increasingly prominent in the 1960s, and it was not unrelated to the general struggle for civil rights that characterized the nation as a whole. The most serious criticism of the commissioner form of government was that all legislation affecting it had to be passed by Congress: the House District of Columbia Committee and the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee were required to initiate all legislation pertaining to the District. Since the members of these committees were not permanent residents of Washington and represented constituencies that had little or no interest in the problems of the city, the responsiveness of Congress was felt by many to be slow or entirely lacking. Efforts on the part of various local groups over the years to achieve some degree of home rule were consistently blocked by the House committee, although the Senate committee passed five such bills between 1951 and 1963. It was often pointed out that the committees tended to be dominated by Southern congressmen who resisted efforts to give the franchise and other powers to the District because of its increasing black majority.

In 1967 Congress reorganized the District’s government, abolishing the three-commissioner system and creating in its place a single commissioner (who assumed the title of mayor), an assistant commissioner, and a nine-member city council, all appointed by the president. The city council was given authority to exercise certain legislative and regulatory powers once vested in the three commissioners, but such actions were subject to the veto of the mayor. In 1970 Congress created again the position of a nonvoting delegate to the House of Representatives, elected by residents of the District.

Movement toward home rule has continued. In 1973, under President Nixon, the limited Home Rule Act of 1964 was amended, providing for the popular election every four years of the mayor and city council members. In addition, the city council was expanded to 13 members. The mayor was given broader reorganizational and appointive authority. The city council was empowered to establish and set tax rates and fees, make changes in the budget, and organize or abolish any agency of government of the District. Congress, in turn, reserved the power to veto any actions of the District government that threaten the “federal interest.” Thus, while the District has a recognizable municipal form of government, Congress continues to treat it in some respects as a branch of the federal government. The city’s “district attorney” is the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, appointed by the president. The budget, passed by the city council and approved by the mayor, is reviewed and enacted by Congress. Moreover, Congress retains the right to enact legislation on any subject for the District, whether within or outside of the scope of power delegated to the city council.

Administration of municipal services

As under previous forms of government, municipal functions remain in control of a combination of local and federal committees. School-board members, formerly appointed by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, became popularly elected in 1968. Public utilities are under a Public Service Commission appointed by the president. The zoning of private property is handled by the Zoning Commission, consisting of the mayor, the chairman of the city council, the Architect of the Capitol, and the director of the National Park Service. The water supply is under the jurisdiction of an Army engineer, given the title of District Engineer, but its distribution is controlled by the mayor. The National Park Service supervises the public parks of the city.

Public security and law enforcement are handled by four separate law-enforcement agencies, each with its own jurisdictional area. Under the mayor is the Metropolitan Police Force, which has the responsibility for enforcing the laws and ordinances of the municipal government. The Capitol Police are responsible for the security of the Capitol building and its grounds. The White House Security Guard protects the White House and the president, while the National Park Police are responsible for all public parks and many recreational facilities.

Court system

The unwieldiness of Washington’s governmental apparatus has long been most apparent in the operation of its courts. Until the early 1970s legal jurisdiction over District matters was shared by two federal courts and three local courts, appeals from which were directed to separate appeals courts. The Court Reorganization Plan, was implemented in 1970 to reduce the confusion and inefficiency of this judiciary system.

Under the plan a single trial court, the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, was established to assume the functions of all the former federal and local courts. A single appeals court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, was established to function in a manner similar to a state supreme court. For the first time in its history, Washington had an integrated court system similar to the systems in all of the states.

Public services

Washington’s multitude of intertwined and seemingly insoluble social problems—such as race, poverty, crime, civil disorder, institutionalized inequality in education and other fields, and environmental pollution—is by no means unique. Like other cities, it finds social needs increasing as its human and financial resources decline. The District government can accomplish little in the way of service to its citizens without the support of the federal government. Some authorities have seen the suburban areas, with the high educational levels of their population and without high proportions of blue-collar workers, as being more willing than the federal government to assist the plight of the core city.


Two-thirds of Washington’s employed live outside the District of Columbia and represent a workforce that is highly specialized, professionally skilled, and well above the national averages in educational level and per capita income. Among the residents of the city of Washington, where a majority of the residents are African American, the unemployment rate, especially among youth, ranges well above the national average. Educational level and per capita income are considerably below the averages found in the surrounding suburbs. Nothing expresses the dilemma of the “two” Washingtons more clearly than the characteristics and location of its labour force.


In spite of the fact that the Washington metropolitan area experienced a decline in its rate of population growth (with an absolute decline in the District of Columbia) in the 1970s, the demand for housing has remained high. This demand was generated by a high rate of household formation, primarily among young adults (mostly affluent one-family or single householders) from the post-World War II “baby boom” generation. Competition for existing housing resources has intensified between new householders and existing occupants. This has stimulated not only the conversion of rental apartments to condominiums but also the renovation of many single-family dwellings formerly occupied by lower-income renters. While this gentrification process has resulted in the upgrading of a number of residential areas in the District, it has aggravated the problems of household displacement, primarily among lower-income African American families, and has increased the pressure on the older, inner suburbs of the metropolitan area.

Fair housing at the federal, state, and local levels has reduced the more blatant forms of discrimination against ethnic minorities, but new construction of low-rental housing has been negligible. The consequences for this segment of the Washington population remain grave, and housing continues to be a major public-policy and local issue.

Elementary and secondary schooling

The public school system in Washington radically changed after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1954 that declared racial segregation of public schools to be unconstitutional. Instead of reducing prejudice, however, the ruling increased the fears of many middle-class white families and led to their flight from central Washington to the suburbs. Many of the whites who remained in the city enrolled their children in private schools, which led to a serious racial imbalance in the public educational system. Nevertheless, the newly integrated schools did improve educational opportunities for African American students.

Despite the school system’s many problems, Washington schools have had some success. The Duke Ellington School of the Arts, which opened in 1974 for talented high-school students across the city, required applicants to demonstrate their artistic abilities before they could be considered for acceptance. Several other high schools that offer magnet academic programs and require students to apply for admission have proved to be successful in motivating students to pursue higher education.

Higher education

Several institutions of higher learning offering undergraduate and graduate programs are located in the metropolitan area. Georgetown University, founded in 1789 as a seminary, is the area’s oldest; with the Catholic University of America (opened in 1889), it makes Washington a centre of Roman Catholic education. The George Washington University, chartered as Columbian College in 1821, and American University, chartered in 1893, have become large, diversified universities. Howard University, chartered in 1867 and a traditionally black institution, offers a wide variety of graduate and professional programs and is supported largely by federal appropriations. The University of the District of Columbia, which had its origins in 1851, was formed by a merger of several municipal institutions in 1977. Gallaudet University (1857), for the education of the deaf, receives both private and federal support. The University of Maryland, George Mason University, and the Northern Virginia Campus of the University of Virginia are located in suburban areas.

In addition, numerous federal and privately funded institutions and associations produce a variety of both statistical and scholarly materials. The Brookings Institution is a nationally recognized centre for research in politics and economics; and the jointly administered National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council provide public and private bodies with the research potentiality and publications of their memberships, comprising many of the most eminent scientists in the nation. The National Institutes of Health offer both a centre and funding for basic and applied research in wide areas of medicine and mental health.

Cultural life

Until the end of World War II, Washington was literally outside the main centres of American arts and letters, and the original plan for the city to become a focus of national culture was far short of realization. Its institutions of higher education were uniformly small, poor, and struggling; it had no significant collections of art; its facilities for the performing arts were either too small, inconveniently located, or nonexistent; and the only truly national museum, the Smithsonian Institution, was laughingly characterized as “the nation’s junk closet.”

In early descriptive guides to the city, the section on cultural facilities was devoted largely to the number and variety of churches, which were distinguished mostly for the presidents of the United States who had attended them. Practically alone on the scene was the magnificent Library of Congress, with the largest collection of books, maps, newspapers, documents, and manuscripts in the world. Since World War II, however, the development of cultural and recreational facilities in Washington has been one of the city’s—and the nation’s—proudest achievements.

The arts

Since its opening in 1941, the National Gallery of Art has become recognized internationally as one of the world’s major art collections. Together with the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Phillips Collection, the Freer Gallery of Art, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Museum of American Art, the National Museum of African Art, and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the capital city has achieved a position of eminence in the art world.

Washington’s Arena Stage has been recognized since its founding in 1950 as one of the leading regional theatre companies in the nation, both for the excellence of its productions and for its leadership in seeking out new playwrights. The National Symphony Orchestra has begun to achieve national acclaim. Aside from these features, the performing arts in the city comprised little more than road shows from New York City or pre-Broadway tryouts until the opening in 1971 of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, with its three theatres for music, opera, and drama. The renovation of historic Ford’s Theatre, the scene of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865, has offered Washingtonians a unique opportunity to enjoy programs of cultural value in a setting of historical significance.

Architectural Washington holds interest outside its monumental areas. Prominent examples include the many fine 19th-century mansions, many of which are occupied by foreign embassies, along Massachusetts Avenue and in the area around Dupont Circle. Entire blocks of slum buildings of the Capitol Hill and other areas, deteriorated from a grander past, have undergone considerable renovation. Numerous homes in the Georgetown area, similarly renewed beginning in the 1930s, offer fine examples of the American Federal style of architecture dating from the early years of the nation. A stunning example of landscape architecture including formal gardens and a bird sanctuary, as well as a museum and research library of medieval art, is on display at Dumbarton Oaks.

National collections

Several Smithsonian Institution museums are located on the Mall. In 1855 the Smithsonian completed a red sandstone “castle” that housed offices, laboratories, a library, art and artifact displays, and living space for visiting scientists; today the castle serves as a visitors centre. The Smithsonian Arts and Industries Museum (1881) was built of red and polychrome brick to exhibit the expanding museum collection. In 1910 the neoclassical gray-granite and green-domed Natural History Museum was opened, and the famous Hope Diamond was later displayed there. In 1923 the Freer Gallery, a Beaux-Arts-style “treasure house,” began to exhibit Charles Lang Freer’s outstanding collection of Asian and 19th-century American art. The pink-granite boxlike National Museum of American History has safeguarded the nation’s scientific, technological, and historical treasures since 1964. Two major Smithsonian venues were added in the 1970s: the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, which displays philanthopist Joseph Hirshhorn’s enormous collection of contemporary art; and, just to the east, the National Air and Space Museum, with an array of missiles, spacecraft, and airplanes, including the Wright brothers’ flyer. In the 1980s two Smithsonian museums were built largely underground: the National Museum of African Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, which exhibits Asian art. The collections of the National Gallery of Art are housed in two buildings: an older, classical West Wing designed by John Russell Pope, and a newer, angular East Wing designed by I.M. Pei. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum opened in 1993 just south of the Mall. The National Museum of the American Indian opened on the Mall in 2004; its architecture and landscaping reflect the diversity and traditions of the indigenous peoples of North, Central, and South America. The nearby National Archives, with its thorough collection of documents from American history (notably the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution), supplements the riches of the Library of Congress. Just south of the Mall is the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (opened 1993).


The traditional Cherry Blossom Festival, held early each spring, is the oldest of Washington’s celebrations that combine the efforts of federal, civic, and commercial personnel. In spite of their attraction for tourists, the festival parade and crowning of a queen tend to be less important for Washingtonians than is the explosion of blossoms around the Tidal Basin and the Jefferson Memorial that the festival marks.

Also popular is Washington’s annual festival of American folk arts and crafts, held for a week each summer on the Mall. This open-air display of the arts and crafts of many regional and ethnic subcultures has become an increasingly significant cultural event.


Much of Washington’s elaborate system of public parks and other open spaces was designed to heighten the visual impression of the federal buildings, but they have been applied increasingly to recreational purpose. The original L’Enfant plan set aside 17 areas for parks, including the Mall, the Washington Monument grounds, the Capitol Hill grounds, the White House grounds (including the present Lafayette Square), and the small plots of grass at the intersections of the major avenues. The preservation of these areas and the addition of others provides Washington with the several hundred parks and green spaces whose maintenance and development have been functions of the National Capital Parks, under the Department of the Interior, since 1791.

In 1890 the city acquired Rock Creek Park, one of the largest natural parks within the boundaries of any city in the world. It comprises 1,754 acres (710 hectares) of virgin woodland forming the mile-wide valley of Rock Creek, which traverses the northwestern quarter of the city from suburban Silver Spring to the Potomac and is extensively developed for recreational uses. Within its boundaries is the National Zoological Park, occupying 176 acres of picturesque wooded hills and grassy meadows. Also within Rock Creek Park is the Carter Barron Amphitheater, where musical programs are presented in a wooded setting during the summer. Nature walks, horse trails, picnic areas, and sports facilities are spread throughout the park.

For 15 miles, from Georgetown to the Great Falls of the Potomac River (the shores of which have been protected from uncontrolled development on both the Virginia and District sides), stretches the historic Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, the original project of George Washington, which has been restored and declared a national monument. The towpath beside the canal is now available for hiking and bicycling, and regularly scheduled trips are enjoyed by visitors in reconstructed, mule-drawn canal boats. On the Virginia shore is the scenic George Washington Memorial Parkway, from which motorists may enjoy a nearly uninterrupted view of the Potomac from above the northwestern boundary of the District to Mount Vernon, the home of Washington, below Alexandria. Between Georgetown and the Virginia shore lies Theodore Roosevelt Island, once a private plantation but now a nature sanctuary. The island is used as a wilderness strolling place for Washingtonians seeking relief from the city and offers one of the area’s most tranquil and beautiful natural settings.