OT - Washington, DC

nestork · 2013-09-16T23:37:55+00:00

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 mycomputer and finally find out something that's perplexed me for years. What is the difference, geographically speaking, between the city ofWashington DC, and the District of Columbia? When I Google "District of Columbia", I get a map of a square-ishlooking chunk of ground on the border between Maryland and Virginia. When I Google "Washington", I get a map of a square-ish looking chunk ofground on the border between Maryland and Virginia. There is only one map for both the City of Washington DC and for theDistrict of Columbia. And, it occurs to me that the only way that could happen is if theentire District of Columbia was covered by city of Washington DC. I always envisioned the District of Columbia to be an area with the cityof Washington inside it, much like Winnipeg is a city inside the muchlarger province of Manitoba. In this case, we have what appears to bethe 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 ofColumbia, and if so, are there also the Cities of Washington, Marylandand Washington, Virginia which are part of the same city, but outsidethe District of Columbia? If someone lives in the City of Washington, but outside of the bordersof 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 boththe City of Washington, DC and the District of Columbia, and I can't fitit in my head that the city is going to stop and suddenly turn intofarmland right on the border of the District of Columbia. Does anyone in here live near Washington?