General Plan

The original city was designed by Pierre L'Enfant, a French-American architect and engineer commissioned by George Washington. L'Enfant selected the Capitol and White House sites, planned the Mall, and provided for a rectangular street grid with broad diagonal avenues running into a number of circles and squares. Since his time, various planning commissions have worked to keep Washington a city of planned beauty. To avoid competition with the Capitol, high-rise buildings are prohibited.

Dominating the skyline are the domed Capitol and the simple shaft of the Washington Monument. Although the Capitol is not in the center of the city, it is the key to the street address system. From Capitol Hill branch out North Capitol. East Capitol, and South Capitol streets and, westward, the broad parkway called the Mall. These streets divide Washington into four sections: Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, and Northwest. The Northwest section is the heart of the city, with most of the important government buildings, monuments, museums, and other tourist attractions. Numbered streets run north and south and streets named alphabetically run east and west. The diagonal avenues are named for states. One of these, Pennsylvania Avenue, connects the White House and the Capitol.