What the Guidebooks Don't Tell You, but Should! Chapter 2: What a Difference a Quadrant Makes!

DC is divided into 4 quadrants: NE, NW, SE, and SW. The magic spot that divides one quadrant from another is the US Capitol. I suspect that the guidebooks you read in preparation for your trip to our fair city did, in fact, tell you this important piece of information, but you were either on information overload or didn't realize it would be on the test, so you glossed over it. Bad move!

As you plan your visit to the various landmarks & points of interest DC has to offer, you'll want to notice in which quadrant each point of interest is located. Knowing that you want to go to a building/statue/memorial/whatever at the intersection of X and Y streets isn't enough; you also need to know which quadrant it's in. This is especially true when said intersection is in the vicinity of the US Capitol as there very well could be 4 different intersections of X and Y street and they might be a goodly number of blocks away from each other. Without the quadrant information, you'll sound like agent Maxwell Smart as you hear yourself saying, "Missed it by that much!"

Oh and one last note: the building/landmark/statue/memorial that you expect to be at the intersection of X and Y streets isn't going to magically appear when you're in the wrong quadrant, no matter how long you stare at the map or point at the street signs & declare, "but we're at the intersections of X and Y street just like it says". This is DC, not Brigadoon!