I am a motorcoach…

. . . with, as promised, blog two of Washington, D.C.

Selfies

(which by definition means I’m in them . . . though you might have to look for me)

The White House is undeniably the most visited house in the world. I waited along 15th Street NW as my passengers walked a few blocks to get a closer look at the Presidential residence. Across the street was the U.S. Department of Commerce. Down the street (seen here at the far end of my viewing glass) is the famous Willard Hotel. There, President Elect Lincoln was hidden for a time when an assassination plot was uncovered prior to his inauguration. And it was here that Julia Ward Howe, a guest of the hotel on November 18, 1861, awoke in the middle of the night to write the lyrics to The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Across the Potomac River from Alexandria, Virginia, just beyond the southern boundary of D.C. (Fort Washington, in Prince George’s county, MD), National Harbor offers a cornucopia of recreational options that make it a destination of increasing popularity.

In contrast to the historic feel and old order of Capitol Hill, the newly opened MGM National Harbor (December 2016) is 23 acres of ultra-modern. It turned out to be a good place for a few sunset selfies.

Leo, the MGM lion, thought it would be cool to pose for a pic atop my roof. I was willing to risk him caving it in for permission to use the pic of one of the most famous cats on the planet in my blog.

MEETING THE NEWS on the roadways of America, first-hand, real time, real world news—going out and discovering the news . . .

MOTORCADE NEWS: something that is common in D.C. and rare elsewhere is the sudden appearance of the presidential motorcade. As was the case in this situation, everything in the traffic world I live in stops. The presidential motorcade has a minimum of twelve vehicle, but can have as many as forty or fifty vehicles carrying one hundred people or more. It can reduce what is typically a thirty minute route to an eight or ten minute sprint. Amid vehicles carrying Secret Service agents, the press pool, a counter assault team, and various sophisgicated defense, surveillance, and communications units, are two identical limos, one of them transporting the President (well, there is always the possiblity the President is not actually in the motorcade at all).

NEWS OF GEORGES: Washington, D.C. is more than a sea of buildings housing museums, history, and government institutions. It is home to a variety of locations in which dining, shopping and recreation offerings are inexhaustible. Georgetown is one of them. Predating D.C. by fifty years, Georgetown was named not after George Washington, but in honor of King George II of Great Britain (alternatively, some hold that it was named for the two Georges who founded it: George Gordon and George Beall).

LOCATION NEWS: Predating Washington D.C. by four to five decades, Georgetown to the north (blue) and Alexandria to the south (purple) developed on opposite banks of the Potomac River.

Originally, the nation’s capital was laid out as one hundred square miles – by N/S and E/W orientation, a diamond shape – upon land donated by Virginia and Maryland for the federal district. The city of Washington D.C. (green) was founded in 1791, beginning its service as the nation’s capital.

In 1846, the land donated by Virginia was returned, leaving the current partial-square shape of the federal district, the Potomac River defining its western border.

NAVIGATION NEWS: Keeping things simple in the complex and congested is a key to navigating busy urban streets. The first thing to know about D.C. is that it is divided into four quadrants: SE, SW, NE, and NW. This is critically important related to street names (North Capitol St. NW or North Capitol St. NE?) and addresses.

Secondly, N/S and E/W bearings make all the difference. In DC, if the focus of the visit is sightseeing, the National Mall is where you want to be. It is contained within two primary E/W corridors (red): Constitution Avenue and Independence Avenue. A main N/S artery to keep in mind is 7th St SE and SW (orange). If you wander from the mall and need to find a straight route back, 7th street is your ticket. If you wander really far from the Mall northward, however (say, north of New York Avenue), 7th becomes US 29 and Georgia Avenue.