Moon Metro Washington D.C. is now available as a Spot guide, a stunning new mobile format compatible with Treo Smartphones and other Palm devices. Moon Spot Guides detect where you are, remember what you like, and can guide you to the hip Thai restaurant around the corner or the Modern Art Museum three blocks away. Download a Moon Metro Washington D.C. Spot Guide now in digital form at Earthcomber.com.

Moon Metro Washington D.C.
2nd Edition
ISBN 1-56691-749-2
$16.95
Purchase here through Amazon.com or visit Indiebound.org to find your local independent bookseller.

Washington D.C. has a dual identity, being at once the world’s most powerful city and a small town with a wealth of local culture and customs. Its public face evokes all the grandeur and bluster one would expect. On Capitol Hill, well-known politicians hurry along near imposing marble buildings, while young staffers discuss policy, convinced that what happens in D.C. is the only thing in the world that matters. Term limits and voter fickleness make D.C.’s political class a transient population; it’s even been claimed that the capital was sited where winters are cold and summers hot and humid so that no one would think to make government life’s work.

For locals, though, D.C. is their hometown, a place where they can walk or take the Metro to most areas of interest, and where they’ll likely bump into someone they know along the way. D.C.’s high crime rate makes headlines, but the city is on the mend. Neighborhoods are being rebuilt, and people are once again moving in from the suburbs. After the terrorist attacks of September 2001, security was tightened—a mixed blessing in that the streets may be safer, but there also might be airport delays and longer waits to see national monuments.

The power-politics side of D.C.’s personality is reinforced by the architecture itself. The monument-packed National Mall showcases a classic majesty unparalleled in any other American city. Of D.C. edifices, only the Washington Monument is taller than the Capitol, but the other buildings here are nevertheless grand, with massive pillars, wide flights of steps, and impressive statues. The architectural style changes as you move away from the city center, but everywhere you’ll find wide, tree-lined avenues and numerous circles and parks. These were built into the original city plans so that, if necessary, rioters could be surrounded and driven into a central location. The city was something of a test in geopolitical theory, founded in 1790 to unite a collection of newly independent American states. Instead of locating the heart of the newborn country in an existing city, a capital was built from scratch on the banks of the Potomac River, midway between northern and southern states.

For many residents, however, D.C.’s history and politics are simply backdrops to a more modern and accessible culture. The city houses numerous small theaters that encourage local talent, as well as more established playhouses like the Kennedy Center and the Shakespeare Theatre. A burgeoning technology sector, including America Online, has brought an influx of computer gurus to town. A new sports arena attracts nightly crowds. The World Bank and international diplomatic corps bring people from all over the world.

And for nightlife, Adams Morgan and Dupont Circle are both vibrant sections of the city. Dupont Circle has a strong gay subculture, while Adams Morgan is one of the few fully integrated sections of town, with Latino and Ethiopian specialty shops next to upscale boutiques. Adams Morgan was in fact one of the first integrated neighborhoods in the nation, a testament to D.C.’s long tradition of African American culture. In the 1800s, author and scholar Frederick Douglass lived here after escaping from a plantation and becoming one of President Lincoln’s advisers during the Civil War. Much later, D.C. was a center for the civil rights movement, with Martin Luther King, Jr. delivering his “I Have a Dream” speech from the Lincoln Memorial steps.

Conceived as an experiment, D.C. is a city that still oscillates between its federal and local identities. Visitors will want to partake of both worlds, to delve deep into this most complicated of American hometowns.