On Monday, September 16, 2013 7:37:55 PM UTC-4, nestork wrote:
No, this post is not going to be about the shootings there.



But, when I was listening to the news I decided to sit down at my

computer and finally find out something that's perplexed me for years.



What is the difference, geographically speaking, between the city of

Washington DC, and the District of Columbia?



When I Google "District of Columbia", I get a map of a square-ish

looking chunk of ground on the border between Maryland and Virginia.



When I Google "Washington", I get a map of a square-ish looking chunk of

ground on the border between Maryland and Virginia.



There is only one map for both the City of Washington DC and for the

District of Columbia.



And, it occurs to me that the only way that could happen is if the

entire District of Columbia was covered by city of Washington DC.



I always envisioned the District of Columbia to be an area with the city

of Washington inside it, much like Winnipeg is a city inside the much

larger province of Manitoba. In this case, we have what appears to be

the whole District of Columbia covered by the city of Washington, DC.



So that just creates more questions for me...

Does the city of washington extend past the borders of the District of

Columbia, and if so, are there also the Cities of Washington, Maryland

and Washington, Virginia which are part of the same city, but outside

the District of Columbia?



If someone lives in the City of Washington, but outside of the borders

of the District of Columbia, would their mailing address still be

"Washington, DC"?



I was always confused by the fact that you guys have one map for both

the City of Washington, DC and the District of Columbia, and I can't fit

it in my head that the city is going to stop and suddenly turn into

farmland right on the border of the District of Columbia.



Does anyone in here live near Washington?









--

nestork

Arlington is in VA but I believe the cemetery is part of DC