ivanna know

Whenever I see an address for Washington DC, I see the quadrant listed. However, the quadrant always seems to be NW--like 100 Main Street, NW.

What's in the other three quadrants?

pierre

Actually, it doesn't work that way, with quadrants. (But it's a good question.)

DC is really divided into halves -- NW & SE. So, for instance, you won't see an address that's listed as "SW."

Bob Brown

The main area of DC is Northwest because geographically it is the largest and has many of the embassies and large homes.
The southwest area has many residential areas. Southeast has the Washington Navy Yard, Anacostia Naval Air Station, Bolling Air Force Base, and the Naval Research Labs. Fort McNair is south of the Capitol, and I am not sure if it is technically east or west of South Capitol Street. Northeast DC has mostly housing. The National Arboretum is in the northeastern area towards Baltimore is Fort Dupont Park.
RFK Stadium is due east of the Capitol Building. Catholic University of American is slightly east of due north from the Capitol. Gallaudet University is in the northeast quadrant, south and east of Catholic U. I am sure that people who live there can fill you in on a few more details.

Leone

Gosh, Pierre, has anyone told all of us with SW addresses we don't have SW in DC ... wow. Ciao

By the way, you cannot characterize an area in a single fashion. NW offers you anything from Georgetown to Shaw ... if here, you'd recognize a difference. SW has slums to sterile to seafood. And so it goes. DC is not a simple city ... grid this, grade that. Ciao

ilisa

Pierre, have all the federal agencies with SW addresses, such as NTSB and the National Park Service, moved recently? And what about the Supreme Court which has an address of First Street, NE? They must have forgotten to tell the public.

turk man

That was interesting but I don't think anyone really answered Ivanna's question.

Ex-Arlingtonian

The tale of SW: When DC was originally formed from Maryland and Virginia in the late 18th century, it was diamond-shaped and the quadrants were roughly equal (aside from the rivers). But in the mid-19th century, Virginia successfully petitioned Congress to give back the part of SW that was on the Virginia side of the Potomac. That's why one "quarter" is so much smaller than the others.

Turk man, Ivanna asked what was in the other three quadrants and the posters gave several examples of what's there. Were they supposed to give a complete list??

ryan

all these years I thought the four quadrants in DC were:

The Republicans, The Democrats, The Lobbyists/Special Interests, and the Bureaucrats.

I heard they thought about a fifth section, The American Public, but it just got in the way of the other four.

turk man

Arlington man, sorry, I thought that Ivanna wanted to know whether each quadrant was a kind of neighborhood with its own flavor, etc. Not that I know...

Ann

I'm going to have to say that Leone pretty much answered the question as well as it can be answered. Each quadrant offers both good and bad. People tend to generalize and say that NW is "better" than SE, but that's simply not true.

I'm rather annoyed to find out that when I lived in SW, I wasn't really living in SW. You know, I really liked living in SW, with the noted exception of the time when I came home to find a bleeding man lying in front of the door to my apartment (wife stabbed him), and was thinking about a move back to my old stomping grounds. But now Pierre tells me that SW doesn't exist. What's a girl to do?

Wyn

To answer your question quickly.....nothing.

Spider

To clarify the NW,NE,SW,SE system. The dividing lines are North Capitol St, East Capitol St, South Capitol St, and the National Mall. All of these rediate out from the Capitol Building.

Anything north of the Mall and west of North Capitol is NW. Anything north of East Capitol and east of North Capitol is NE, etc. etc.

NW is the largest section in terms of land area, and includes 'downtown' Washington, as well as many museums, embassies, and hotels.

The Capitol Hill neighborhood spans all four quarters at their cross section, and has streets in NW, NE, SE, and SW.

If you've been to the Holocost Museum or the Jefferson Memorial, then you've been in SW Washington. If you've been to Union Station then you've been in NE Washington, and if you've been to the Library of Congress you've been to SE Washington. Georgetown and Dupont Circle are in NW.

L

Actually, DC's layout reflects a much more interesting history than a four grid focus might suggest ... and when in DC may I suggest a visit to the old Smithsonian to see a model of how DC developed. We're a rather national city as well in how our streets and avenues and circles are named and organized, and it ought to make visitors feel right to home. If you understand the system, although dilluted over time, you'll also see how to find your way around, or at least what to avoid, and what intersects what, where and why. So, a good book, and you're bound to be ready. Ciao