Walking Washington, D.C.. Barbara J. Saffir
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INTRODUCTION
Welcome to your kinetic capital. Washington, D.C., is every American’s—and every freedom lover’s—home away from home. To feel more at home, please lace up your most comfortable walking shoes (it makes a huge difference); open your eyes, your heart, and your mind; and have a ball discovering or rediscovering the District, which keeps growing and getting better. Just since I arrived in the mid-1980s, Washington has transformed. It used to be a staid, government-centric “company town” with a monolithic beige, white, and gray cityscape; many crime-plagued neighborhoods; and only a handful of yummy restaurants. Now it’s a diverse, high-tech foodie’s paradise, with more eye-popping neighborhoods and safer streets.
Since D.C. is a compact city with terrific public transportation, it’s easy to explore both its high-profile side and its less famous persona. After walking a few miles, you might fall in love. But even love stories are imperfect. Be careful; like all big cities, D.C. still has crime and other irritations. And books are sometimes imperfect, too, especially in a city that’s constantly on the move. Call destinations before you go. If you find any updates needed for our next edition, please email [email protected].
1 FRIENDSHIP HEIGHTS: BAUBLES AND BOUNDARIES
BOUNDARIES: Western Avenue NW, Wisconsin Avenue NW, Jenifer Street NW, and Fessenden Street NW
DISTANCE: 1.5 miles
DIFFICULTY: Easy
PARKING: Limited free and metered street parking, multiple parking garages
PUBLIC TRANSIT: Friendship Heights Metro Station is served by numerous buses.
Tourists don’t typically flock to Friendship Heights, but they might if they knew about its disparate trove of treasures. They can buy a bauble or a beaded evening gown and then saunter down a tree-lined road to sample the capital’s slowly disappearing history: D.C.’s original boundary markers and a Civil War fort. Most of Washington’s boundary stones are still around, but they’re typically inaccessible and are slowly disintegrating in the rain, snow, and pollution. But this stone is easy to ogle in a public park. Practically across the street is Fort Bayard. Although no visible remnants remain of this Civil War fort, it’s still a green oasis with towering persimmon trees and chirping birds—and it makes one heck of a sledding hill. A whole ring of similar forts once circled the city, modeled after European fortifications of the 17th and 18th centuries. Washington had one lone fort when the Civil War commenced in the spring of 1861. By the war’s end four years later, that number had skyrocketed to 68. These days there are more than 68 shops and restaurants around the junction of Wisconsin and Western Avenues.
Start at the Metro station on the southwestern side of Western Avenue NW. Unlike most stations, it sports a cool circular foyer with a vaulted ceiling, and “the most important spy you’ve never heard of” plied her tradecraft there, according to FBI documents and The Washington Post. In June 2001, FBI agents tracked Cuban spy Ann Belen Montes when she drove her red Toyota to Friendship Heights. The Defense Intelligence Agency analyst walked to the Metro station to call her handlers on a pay phone. She was arrested September 21 and pled guilty to espionage in 2002 in exchange for a 25-year sentence.
Walk southwest on Western Avenue NW to the Boundary Park Neighborhood Conservation Area. To the right, in a pint-size park, one of Washington’s original 40 boundary stones is ensconced in an iron-barred cage. A Maryland historical marker proclaims that it was erected in 1792. It’s called NW #6 because it’s 6 miles from the western cornerstone. It marks the dividing line between D.C. and Maryland.
Reverse direction to walk northeast on Western Avenue NW for Fort Bayard Park on the right. It was named for Brig. Gen. George Dashiell Bayard of the First Pennsylvania Cavalry. The soldiers who lived in its troop barracks defended the important River Road entrance into the city with four 20-pounder Parrott rifles and two 12-pounder field howitzers, the National Park Service says.
Continue northeast on Western Avenue NW. Just before Wisconsin Avenue NW, turn right into Mazza Gallerie, a keystone of consumerism since 1978. Shoppers can snag a pair of $1,000 boots at Neiman Marcus or pay $100 for a complete outfit at discounter T.J. Maxx.
Exit