Looping in Washington DC
The roadways of the DC Metro Area
Traveling through Anacostia (southern part of DC) back over to the 495 beltway, and found that more roadways are being stacked hither and yon.
I think that most Americans are familiar with Washington DC as the place of Presidents and Senators passing laws and making mischief in general while surrounded by monuments and flags. In actual fact that part of DC is small, but the infrastructure supporting it is gigantic and getting bigger day by day. The number of people required for the Federal government and the thousands and thousands of companies big and small, colleges, embassies, schools, etc., surrounding Washington DC is enormous. During the recession period of approximately 2000 - 2002, DC added 10,0000 workers while the rest of the country was dropping 100,000s. And it has accelerated since.
Part of the business of DC is Lobbying, which is where K Street receives so much attention, since so many are headquared on this street. But plenty of lobbyists are working from other places where there's just as much access to Capitol Hill.
[Below] This is what K Street looks like. Just a bunch of buildings full of people doing a job.
[Below 2121 K Street] Back in the 1970s, I came here from time-to-time with a friend who was seeing a Doctor here. IOnt he 1980s I passed the building regularly while working as a messenger. In the late 1990s I had a Doctor in the same building. Showing how much change is part of the world of Washington DC, the building has now been gutted and something bigger is being built into its place. Space in the Washington DC business districts is a high-priced commodity, and if an existing structure that would be perfectly serviceable for another 50 years in some other city could instead be broken down and replaced with something with even more square-footage, then it happens in Washington on block after block.
[Below] Do these look like cigar smoking lobbyists, cutting deals and handing over bags of cash?
The answer, of course, is no. The cigar-smoking lobbyists don't pound the pavement, they take elevators to the parking garages and hit the streets in an air conditioned sedan or SUV. Or they walk out of the front doors to the curb and grab a cab, or jump into a limo. But the army of middle-class worklers who lubricate the mechanism of lobbying walk the streets.
Related:
Washington DC Key Bridge (Photos etc)
Memorial Bridge in Washington DC
Original page Wednesday, Auguest 1, 2007 | Updated April 2012