Phoenix Park

here the city is divided into four compass-point quadrants along axes following N Capitol St, E Capitol St, S Capitol St and the Mall. Identical addresses appear in all four quadrants, so you need to know the directional component of the address you want. Streets are arranged on a grid of north-south numbered streets and east-west lettered streets. This grid is overlaid by broad diagonal avenues. The geometric pattern is further interrupted by traffic circles that add to the city's appeal but can make DC a challenging place for outsiders to navigate by car.Most tourist sights are located around the Capitol, along the Mall and in the Northwest quadrant. Downtown includes the monuments dotting the Mall but is otherwise strictly business. Dupont Circle is an upscale business and residential address with a groovy fringe; Adams-Morgan is bohemian, funky and international; Shaw has historically elite residential areas and ghettos, and Georgetown has pristine historic houses, a university and lively bars. With Northwest quadrant real estate spiralling out of control, Brookland and the Northeast quadrant are showing promising development. Hide.

in March/April and the Smithsonian's Folklife Festival in June. Independence Day is a grand event, including a troops parade, the reading of the Declaration of Independence, concerts and fireworks over the Potomac. Other highlights include Martin Luther King Jr Day on the third Monday in January, when orators recite King's 'I have a dream' speech at the Lincoln Memorial; the Smithsonian Kite Festival (late March), when kite designers, flyers and competitors gather on the Mall for this rite of spring; April's White House Easter Egg Roll, which the First Lady hosts for children aged between three and six; and the Festival of American Folk Life, hosted by the Smithsonian on the last weekend in June.In September, Adams-Morgan Day is a raging international block party with global music, food and crafts along and around 18th St NW and Columbia Rd. This is also the month for the National Frisbee Festival (watch your head when wandering the Mall) and the DC Blues Festival (free concerts around town). On the second Thursday in December, the president illuminates the national Christmas tree and lights a menorah on the Ellipse. There's outdoor partying on New Year's Eve at the Old Post Office. Hide.

to it as 'the city of Washington' around 1791 and the name stuck. Maryland and Virginia agreed to cede land to create the District of Columbia (named for Christopher Columbus), and an area 'ten miles square' (26 sq km) was laid out by African-American mathematician Benjamin Banneker and surveyor Andrew Ellicott. French engineer Pierre Charles L'Enfant was hired to design the city and though his elegant plan was widely admired, he quickly ran afoul of local politics. After L'Enfant was fired, Banneker continued to carry out L'Enfant's plans.Work started on the ornate Capitol in 1793, but it was barely complete when British troops torched it in the War of 1812. Though the Capitol was eventually rebuilt, the city entered a slump from which it wouldn't recover for decades. A dispirited vote to abandon the capital lost by only nine votes. Charles Dickens visited and dismissed DC as 'the City of Magnificent Distances', complaining about 'spacious avenues that begin in nothing and lead nowhere; streets, milelong, that only want houses, roads, and inhabitants; public buildings that need but a public'.The Civil War focused attention on Washington, bringing bivouacs, temporary hospitals and armies to its outskirts. The war's chaos and expense led Washingtonians to wonder whether construction of the elaborate Capitol dome might not be suspended. President Lincoln responded, 'If people see the Capitol going on, it is a sign we intend the Union shall go on.' In the war's aftermath, the Great Emancipator was assassinated in Ford's Theater (a memorial flag remains draped over the theatre box shrine today) and the role of the US capital changed from state-led administration to centralised leadership.The town's ailing infrastructure was overhauled in the 1870s by territorial governor Alexander 'Boss' Shepherd, whose extravagant use of federal funds and penchant for steamrolling anything in his way led to a crackdown by Congress that robbed DC of self-government for another 100 years. For the citizenry, it was a high price to pay for a city beginning to look like it might fulfil L'Enfant's original vision of a world-class capital. Hide.

evolved into a national pilgrimage centre for many citizens (as was intended). Yet Washington is notorious too for the many severe problems that trouble its residents. Poverty, crime and racial segregation in the shadow of glorious monuments proclaiming 'equality for all' embarrass those who would hope to hold the nation's capital up as a model. Washington, DC, is no paragon, but it is a microcosm - of the grand ideals and grim realities of the nation. Hide.

Pentagon, causing significant damage and killing all aboard the plane. A further plane crash-landed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania; it too was intended to hit a Washington target. On the same day two hijacked planes destroyed New York's twin towers, killing thousands of people. The terrorist attacks were the worst ever on US soil.Despite security remaining high around Washington's key monuments, it is clear that the city has gone a long way towards repairing both the Pentagon and its damaged psyche, with visitors returning and hotels refilling. And, while crime remains a problem and District finances still need help, Washington's city is once more a place to live, not just to visit. Hide.