Washington DC's Map - EXPLAINED

it's giving me these coordinates but i don't know exactly where it is let's go look i don't know where this one is looks like it's in this is a random neighborhood wait i'm gonna ask this guy i have a quick question is it just in these trees am i okay to okay upon a lucky break i was able to stop the people whose whose backyard contains what i'm looking for so let's go find out do you see that oh this is actually sick look at this this is incredible i can't believe that their house is right here let me clip this on and tell you what this is so the reason this stone is protected by this fence is because it was placed here in 1791 as an original boundary marker of washington dc which was going to be the new capital of the united states there are 39 other markers just like this one making 40 in total and there are several websites you can go to that will tell you about each marker what condition they're in and where you can find them and some of them take it very seriously but look what happens if you start to plot all of these on a map you get a perfect square it's a 10 by 10 mile square that's tilted up on its point the original boundary encompassed two existing cities which were georgetown and alexandria and if you look at old maps like this one you can see this perfect square boundary but if you look at a more current map of dc it looks like this and i'm right here so i'm in virginia and so is alexandria [Music] so obviously a lot has changed but since its conception this city is unlike any other [Music] washington dc is probably the most intentionally designed city in the united states it's unique not only in its geographical layout but in the fact that it's the only u.s city that isn't within a state but instead in a district of its own the designer pierre charles lafont felt that the city should bear resemblance to metaphorical and literal garden so he referenced baroque design like this this is the gardens at versailles in france and this was his plan for dc the similarity is pretty clear so before we dive in and start looking at a map i want to show you one thing that you can't really tell from just looking at a map and it's something that i want to show you in person this is the cairo and it might be hard to tell from where i'm standing but if you get on google maps and go to the 3d view you can tell that this is way taller than any of the other buildings around it if you walk around downtown you'll notice there are no massive skyscrapers all the buildings are the same height like five or six stories a lot of people say this is so the buildings won't be taller than the capitol building but that's not true this behind me is the real reason why when this was first built advancements in steel manufacturing had just been made and people were not used to buildings being this tall they were afraid that it was gonna just collapse or more justifiably they were afraid that if it were to catch on fire that the hose wouldn't be able to reach the top few floors and put the flames out so a few years later the city created a height restriction that wouldn't allow buildings to build taller than how high a fire hose could reach and it's been altered over the years but it's mostly stuck and it's had a massive influence on what the skyline still looks like today the city didn't bloom into what it is today overnight several projects completely failed like this canal through the city and others sat unfinished for a very long time like the washington monument which by the way sat unfinished for over 20 years oh and remember how the square that was this city lost this portion to virginia this happened a few years before the civil war but for the same reason slavery there were also some qualms about voting representation that played in but ultimately the land west of this river the potomac was returned to virginia if you had rolled up to washington dc in the 1860s it would have been a sorry sight but all this laid the foundation for the city that we see today so let's look at the map a bit closer this one shows the difference in elevation of the city where these brown parts are the highest and this is where the capitol building is it sits on a hill that lafont called a pedestal waiting for a superstructure it serves as the anchor of the street plan the streets that intersect the capital are called capital street makes sense but are prefaced with north south or east these divide the city into four sections or quadrants the northwest quadrant is where most of the tourist sites are so if you visit this is probably where you'll spend most of your time georgetown is right here and like i said this was a city before dc so the oldest building in the district is right here the old stone house because a lot of countries have their embassies along the street right here this is known as embassy row which is really cool to see a large portion of this northwest section is rock creek park right here there's tons of public access like picnic areas historic sites and even a zoo for addresses you have to include the quadrant because look at this there are two a streets right here going east to west but this is a street northeast and this is a street southeast these streets continue to work their way out alphabetically throughout the city then there are two first streets going north to south same thing with the quadrants this is first street northwest and this is first street northeast in addition to these you'll notice that there are these roads that break the grid most of these are named after different u.s states like massachusetts avenue right here or pennsylvania avenue which connects the white house and the capitol building this has long been home to parades protests and marches at the center of the map is this massive park this is called the national mall before the creation of new york central park this was the largest governmentally administered green space in the united states in the center of this lies the now completed washington monument in fact this mall is the epicenter for a lot of the major monuments the lincoln memorial sits right here opposite of the capital and lining them all are loads of museums mostly belonging to the smithsonian just south of the mall is this tidal basin where the jefferson memorial sits and no longer in the boundary of dc is this area right here this is arlington cemetery this house on the property used to be the home of robert e lee a military general that supported slavery as soldiers died fighting the civil war many were buried in front of his house as a sign of the blood on his hands this was the beginning of the largest cemetery for soldiers in the united states and the city's designer pierre lafont is buried here [Music] dc has a lot going on and is packed with history and i hope that this is a good start to get you oriented [Music]

Channel: Bright Trip

Views: 88,945

Keywords: bright trip, iz harris, johnny harris, travel courses, learn to travel smarter, travel tutorials, how to travel 2020, how to travel 2021, travel youtube channel new, travel education channel youtube, Washington dc, washington dc map, us capital city, Map breakdown, getting around dc, DC travel video, Visiting washington dc, Understanding the dc map, Getting oriented in DC, Dc summer 2022, what to know before going to dc, seeing dc, going to DC, Bright trip travel

Id: HgkwxWzAS2g

Length: 7min 23sec (443 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 28 2022