Park sights in Washington, DC
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A
Rock Creek Park
At 1700 acres, Rock Creek is twice the size of New York’s Central Park and feels a hell of a lot more wild. You can be out here and feel utterly removed from the city. Even coyotes have settled into the wilderness (they’re not dangerous, by the way). Rock Creek Park begins at the Potomac’s east bank near Georgetown and extends to and beyond the northern city boundaries. Narrow in its southern stretches, where it hews to the winding course of the waterway it’s named for, it broadens into wide, peaceful parklands in Upper Northwest DC. Terrific trails extend the entire length, and the boundaries enclose Civil War forts, dense forest and wildflower-strewn fields. Cell phone …
reviewed
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B
George Washington Memorial Parkway
The 25-mile Virginia portion of this highway honors its namesake with recreation areas and memorials all the way south to his old estate at Mt Vernon. It’s lined with remnants of George Washington’s life and works, such as his old Patowmack Company canal (in Great Falls National Park) and parks that were once part of his farmlands (Riverside Park, Fort Hunt Park). The road is a pleasant alternative to the traffic-choked highway arteries further away from the river, but you need to pull off to really appreciate the sites. The 18.5-mile-long Mt Vernon Trail parallels the parkway from Francis Scott Key Bridge to Mt Vernon – it’s paved and perfect for cycling. Along the w…
reviewed
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C
Georgetown Waterfront & Waterfront Park
The Waterfront is a favorite with couples on first dates, singles hoping to hook up, families on an evening stroll and yuppies showing off their big yachts. The heart of all this activity is the space between K St and the Potomac River. The riverside Washington Harbor (look for it east of 31st St) is a modern complex of towers set around a circular terraced plaza filled with fountains (they light up like rainbows at night). Here you’ll find loads of restaurants and alfresco bars. The waterfront on either side has been earmarked by the National Park Service to become Georgetown Waterfront Park (www.georgetownwaterfrontpark.org), a clot of pedestrian-friendly lanes, shady…
reviewed
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D
Lincoln Park
Lincoln Park is the lively center of Capitol Hill’s east end. Freed black slaves raised the funds to erect the 1876 Emancipation Memorial, which portrays the snapping of slavery’s chains as Lincoln proffers the Emancipation Proclamation. The Mary McLeod Bethune Memorial, DC’s first statue of a black woman, honors the educator and founder of the National Council of Negro Women. Near the park, the Car Barn (cnr 14th & E Capitol Sts), now private housing, was DC’s 19th-century trolley turnaround. South of here on 11th St SE, an 1860s builder constructed the lovely Philadelphia Row (124-54 11th St SE) for his homesick Philly-born wife.
reviewed
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E
Glover Archbold Park & Battery Kemble Park
Glover is a sinuous, winding park, extending from Van Ness St NW in Tenleytown down to the western border of Georgetown University. Its 180 tree-covered acres follow the course of little Foundry Branch Creek, along which runs a pretty nature trail. Further west, skinny Battery Kemble Park, about a mile long but less than a quarter-mile wide, separates the wealthy Foxhall and Palisades neighborhoods of far northwestern DC. Managed by the National Park Service, the park preserves the site of a little two-gun battery that helped defend western DC against Confederate troops during the Civil War.
reviewed
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F
Malcolm X Park
This is an incredible bit of green space that gets short shrift in the list of America’s great urban parks. What makes it special is the way the park emphasizes its distinctive geography. Lying on the fall line between the upland Piedmont Plateau and flat Atlantic Coastal Plain, the grounds are terraced like a hanging garden replete with waterfalls, sandstone terraces and assorted embellishments that feel almost Tuscan. Out-of-towners call this Meridian Hill Park.
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