Is the comma in “Washington, DC” meant to indicate apposition – i.e. “Washington, that is to say the District of Columbia…” – or is it meant to point out where it’s located – i.e. “Washington, which is located in the District of Columbia…”? [In other words, like saying “Evanston, IL” means “Evanston, which is located in the state of Illinois…”]
If it’s the latter, are there other towns in DC besides Washington??? If so, why don’t we ever hear of them??
“I don’t know…I suggest you buy as many surf albums as you can.” – Dauber dauber@wallnet.com
I’ve always thought of Washington, DC as equivalent to Evanston, IL (or, for that matter, New York, NY). Washington is a city, DC is a district in which the city is located. Granted, nothing else is located in DC, but Washington and DC are not truly synonymous.
“Sherlock Holmes once said that once you have eliminated the
impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be
the answer. I, however, do not like to eliminate the impossible.
The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it that the merely improbable lacks.”
– Douglas Adams’s Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective
“Washington, DC” means “Washington, which is located in the District of Columbia”. The fact that the two are the exact same area was not always so.
Before it was completely urbanized, there were unincorporated towns within it. Only the Federal gov’t area was “Washington”, and it wasn’t incorporated. That is, it didn’t have a mayor, city council, municipal entities. The US Congress ruled it and DC totally.
Georgetown, MD, was a thriving port before DC was created around it. So to was Alexandria, VA. Other areas of DC still carry neighborhood names that were derived from the towns that used to be there.
[Originally, DC was a 10 mile square (100 sq miles) diamond with 2/3 on the east side of the Potomac and 1/3 on the west. Because forming a local gov’t for it was too much of a pain for an area that didn’t have many residents, the eastern part was subject to Maryland laws and the western part to Virginia laws. Then in 1847 (IIRC) the western part was ceded back to Virginia. By that time, Fairfax County had adjusted to not having its eastern part. So the ceded land became Alexandria County and City of Alexandria. (Cities and counties in VA are separate entities, even if the latter surrounds the former.) Later still, in honor of Lee’s Arlington House that overlooked the Potomac and Washington, Alexandria County became Arlington County.]
The remaining part of DC became urbanized. (So much so that many street names in DC extend for miles into Maryland.) With this, the definition of Washington city grew too. Finally, what was DC was also Washington.
And look - not much has changed in 150 or so years! We’ve got a mayor, but Congress still rules it totally. (Sorry, I’m one of those people who thinks DC should be a state.)
Seriously though - thanks AWB for the info. One interesting thing - it seems like the areas in MD around DC got incorporated (Georgetown in your example), but the areas in Virginia didn’t. Any thoughts on why? My only guess is the fact the the Potomac river separates Virginia from DC - it gave a natural boundary.
Very interesting! I am a fairly recent arrival to that area, and I knew that it couldn’t be a coincidence that DC+Arlington County formed a perfect square.
If Washington,that is the District…’ is the same as saying ‘Earth,that is our world’, in apposition.
But they wanted to emphasise that the Federal Capital wasn’t in any state.And Washington City was smaller so ‘in D.C.’,location makes sense.(Is there any part of Washington City not in the district?)And there are Washingtons in other states I beleive.
Then there is Washington DEE CEE or WASHINGTON (emphasised sneeringly) as the U S GOVERNMENT.And THAT Washington is EVERYWHERE,especially my pocket trying to get MY capitol. I rarely hear ‘Those fools in the District of Columbia.’ Maybe in Washington,the state.
When will i learn. What with the dyslexia and the looking things up, by the time I post every body else done answered. it was “apposition” that threw me, I always thought it HAD to do with location, not ‘same as’, more like side by side or located in the same line or plane or such.Still haven’t found it as same,which don’t mean it aint so.And I can see using it that way from analogy.
Undead Dude: Very interesting! I am a fairly recent arrival to that area, and I knew that it couldn’t be a coincidence that DC+Arlington County formed a perfect square.
More DC Trivia:
The original district had borderstones placed every mile around its perimeter. Many of these still survive, protected by small metal fences.
I’ve found many of them along the old southwestern border:
[ul][li]Jones Point Lighthouse: just south of it on the shore of the Potomac is a small concrete bunker. Inside it is the southern-most tip of the original District (not sure if it’s the current point now).[/li][li]On South Payne St. near the entrance to the Alexandria National Cemetery.[/li][li]On Russell Rd. near the intersection with King St.[/li][li]In the parking lot of Chinquapin Park (off of King St.)[/li][li]In the median of Walter Reed Dr. just east of King St.[/li][li]In the median of S. Jefferson St. south of Columbia Pike.[/li][li]In East Falls Church Park, on the west side near the fence.[/li]Off of Meridian St. (Fairfax Co., Falls Church)/Arizona St. (Arlinton Co.). There’s a small empty lot with the western-most milestone in its protective cage. Interesting to note that Meridian St. is called Arizona St. for the very short stretch of Arlington that it cuts through. (This keeps with Arlington’s 1-syllable, 2-syllable, 3-syllable street name system by starting a 4-syllable “A” street before they ran out of county. :))[/ul]
Close but no cigar, UDD. Arlington County takes a detour around Alexandria; a perfect square would include Alexandria north of King Street west of the Masonic Temple and Duke Street to the east. Until the 1947 referendum passed, The Port of Alexandria was part of DC.
“Age is mind over matter; if you don’t mind, it don’t matter.” -Leroy “Satchel” Paige
Alexandria & Arlington are separate counties. Each is wholly (or almost wholly) taken up by cities of the same names.
Alexandria County would neatly complete the rest of the diamond; Alexandria completes the rest, but for historical boundary reasons, spills southward out of the diamond.
Arlington County would nearly complete the rest of the diamond; Alexandria completes the rest, but for historical boundary reasons, spills southward out of the diamond.
Sue, I’ve lived in Arlington County for the past 9 years. One side of the square is VA Route 7 (“Leesburg Pike” in Fairfax County, “King Street” in Alexandria). King Street is not perfectly straight, there’s a slight jog northward at the Masonic Temple. Duke Street would complete the square.
“Age is mind over matter; if you don’t mind, it don’t matter.” -Leroy “Satchel” Paige
Jeff, (Hey, I’m glad to see you here - hadn’t seen you since the old AOL days) I think we’re saying the same thing 2 ways.
Arlington County makes up most of the missing part of the diamond/square.
IIRC, Alexandria’s historical (pre-revolution) boundaries include some land inside & some land outside of the square. If Alexandria is excluded from the diamond/square, it leaves a bite out of the southern corner. If it is included in the diamond/square, it adds a little jog to the south.
Actually, the original version of this was closer to the truth. Officially, Alexandria City is not in ANY county. Arlington county is pretty much 2 municipalities: Arlington and Falls Church…
For more examples of Virginia’s weird county/city system, theres: Fairfax City, which is NOT part of Fairfax County, but IS the county seat of Fairfax County. (confused yet) And, IIRC, a similar situation exists in Williamsburg, which is the seat of James City County (and there is NO JAMES CITY) but is itself an independent city. Virginia geography is really screwed up, but like the rest of the state, it makes some strangely coherent beaurocratic sense. See, at one point, Virginia decided that any municipality big enough to be deemed a city could provide its own services. To prevent reduplication of services between, for instance, city police and county police, all Virginia Cities are officially not in ANY counties. This is true even of county seats. Now, I believe this is an historical, but not entirely current, practice, and there are recently incorporated cities that are still part of the county. Confusing enough now, especially since there is no sense to the system. There are now cities in Virginia that are not part of a county that are smaller than those that ARE part of counties, and it all gets very messed up.
And don’t get me started on the Virginia road system…
Jason R Remy
“One pill makes you taller, and one pill makes you small, but the ones that mother gives you don’t do anything at all”
– Jefferson Airplane * White Rabbit * (Slick, G. 1966)
Well, if you geometers have gotten that all straightened (or crookedened) out by now. . .what I have always wondered is why this country, Mexico, Australia and maybe some others had to have their capitals in separate little pseudo-states, whereas Canada and most other countries seem to survive OK with their capitals in one of their states, provinces or whatever. Ottawa is in Ontario, right? Do the other provinces ever scream about that? I suppose it would be sort of a problem if it were in Quebec and Quebec decided to secede.
And then the news today says there’s a village in Texas whose mayor just decided that his government is going to officially use Spanish only. So one of these days I guess we’ll have to forget the Alamo. But then, I just looked at a historical map tonight that labeled most of what’s presently northern Mexico (but not the area now the US state of Texas) ‘Texas’. So I guess all of present-day Texas is a fraud anyhow. Yeah, Sue, even El Paso.
Yep, it is. To make matters even more confusing, part of Williamsburg is in neighboring York County. You can go across town and be in two different counties, plus the city itself. And there is no James City, either. My only guess at the name is it came from Jamestown somehow, since York County came from Yorktown. Just my $.02.
And jayron - what’s wrong with Virginia roads? There the same as Maryland’s, IMO. And they’re both better than DC’s, which admittedly isn’t hard to do…
Oh, and the roads themselves are beautiful, except that some anal *&^@ decided to number every one of them. My girlfriend’s parents live on a cul-de-sac that is State Highway 6407 or some such nonsense. Every road in Virginia is officially a numbered state highway, no matter how unimportant. Again, it makes tremedous sense from a beaurocratic point of view, easy to keep track of all of the roads, etc… but it seems like a silly thing to do, common-sense wise.
Jason R Remy
“One pill makes you taller, and one pill makes you small, but the ones that mother gives you don’t do anything at all”
– Jefferson Airplane * White Rabbit * (Slick, G. 1966)
Still no cigars, folks. Arlington County does not have any incorporated cities within its territory. Crystal City, Clarendon, etc., are all names of convenience; they are not cities, per se.
And before you start in with “That danged 'fornian doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” I grew up in Riverhouse III (1600 S. Joyce St., Arlington County, Virginia.
jayron 32: Actually, the original version of this was closer to the truth. Officially, Alexandria City is not in ANY county. Arlington county is pretty much 2 municipalities: Arlington and Falls Church…
Wrong! Falls Church is an incorporated city which is completely outside of Arlington Co. (and what was once DC). The western cornerstone of Arlington I mentioned earlier is at a triple-point of Fairfax Co, Arlington Co, and City of Falls Church. (It’s the northeast-most point of FC.)
What confuses the issue is that East Falls Church Metro station is in Arlington Co. and West Falls Church Metro is in Fairfax Co. No part of the Metro train system goes through CoFC at all.