This is the first in a series of posts on the various neighborhoods and regions of Washington, D.C. While Foggy Bottom and Dupont Circle are two of the early posts planned, I intend to focus on areas of the city that are less explored, such as the H Street N.E. corridor and the Eastern Market area of Capitol Hill. A fuller look at what I intend with the project can be found in a previous post.
Overview
Perhaps the best known region of D.C. beyond the National Mall, Foggy Bottom often invokes images of secretive diplomats among those who have not spent much time in the District. Or maybe it brings to mind that it’s only a few blocks from the White House and the Lincoln Memorial. Either way, the area was originally right on the banks of the Potomac River (more on that below), and became known as Foggy Bottom because of the fog that rolled off the water. “Foggy Bottom” is also a metonymy for the United States Department of State (ergo the diplomats), which moved its headquarters to the area in 1947. Even today, some news outlets will still refer to the State Department as “Foggy Bottom.” But these facts are fairly well known.
A View 