Washington DC

Washington DC represents the USA at its most grass roots, but also, influential. No other city is as burdened by the weight of being the capital of the free world, nation's soapbox, and at the same time as poor and grimy as one of the country's most ethnically diverse cities is. Like the political parties continually shaping her, DC is a city with a dual persona: one optimistic, the other gloomy. The city exhibits a spectacular beauty unparalleled across the nation: the drama of the monuments; the masterfull marble architecture of its world-class museums; the magnitude of the National Mall, a dazzling super-sized football field of emerald ...

Washington DC represents the USA at its most grass roots, but also, influential. No other city is as burdened by the weight of being the capital of the free world, nation's soapbox, and at the same time as poor and grimy as one of the country's most ethnically diverse cities is. Like the political parties continually shaping her, DC is a city with a dual persona: one optimistic, the other gloomy. The city exhibits a spectacular beauty unparalleled across the nation: the drama of the monuments; the masterfull marble architecture of its world-class museums; the magnitude of the National Mall, a dazzling super-sized football field of emerald green. DC is seductive, internationally chaotic, ethnically diverse, enigmatic, diplomatic, philanthropic, restless, helpless, poor, wealthy, hungry, and opinionated. Political strategies and their supporting casts change daily in the capital, and like the national debt there's not much veto when it comes to what can and does happen here. Where more appropriate than the streets of the capital city to lay a finger on the national pulse, glimpse its moral fiber, and taste its gritty sauce'

About the Expert

Aaron Anderson is coauthor of Lonely Planet's Washington, D.C. City Guide, a contributor on western states to Lonely Planet USA, and he wrote the Austria chapters for Lonely Planet's Western Europe and Europe on a Shoestring.