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Washington, DC

Civic Grandeur
Global CapitalsMuseum CitiesPlanned Capitals
Portrait

L'Enfant laid the city out in 1791 with diagonal avenues cutting a grid so that the Capitol and the White House would face each other across open ground, and a height limit still keeps the horizon low. Use the Mall as a working axis instead of a monument row: the Smithsonian museums along it are free, and the best hours are the first and the last.

Nearby in the atlas
Annapolis — Capital of SailWilliamsburg — The Colonial StagePhiladelphia — Cradle of the RepublicPrinceton — A Campus as Parkland
If you like this city
London, UK — Global ClassicParis, France — Elegance as CultureSaint Petersburg, Russia — The Northern Design
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