Page 197 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - USA

INTRODUCING W ASHINGT ON , DC & THE C APIT AL REGION  195
WASHINGTON, DC &

THE CAPITAL REGION

Center of government for a powerful nation, Washington, DC is a stately,
Neo-Classical city, with grand avenues and monumental public buildings
that reflect the pride and ambitions that course through the corridors of
power. Its surrounding region preserves important places where the young
nation evolved from a Colonial outpost to an independent country.
Located midway along the Atlantic Coast, History
the nation’s capital lies at the heart of the The first Europeans to this area were a
East Coast. This was also the heart of the small band of Spanish explorers and
Colonial landscape where the country Jesuit priests who tried unsuccessfully to
began, and where many of its most set up a colony around Chesapeake Bay
significant events occurred. Besides its rich in 1570. They were followed by the
tapestry of historical events, this region English, who in honor of the “Virgin
also has one of the country’s most Queen” Elizabeth I, named the entire
beautiful and varied landscapes. Just region between Spanish Florida and
30 miles (48 km) east from the White French Canada, “Virginia.” But it was not
House is Chesapeake Bay, the country’s until 1607, under the reign of James I,
largest and most productive estuary, while that Virginia’s first successful English
to the west are the lush Appalachian settlement, Jamestown, was founded a
hardwood forests. This wide variety of few miles up the James River on
topography and scenery is paralleled Chesapeake Bay. Despite the initial
by an equally wide range of social and hardships, the Colonists’ prospects
economic situations; the area in and improved after they learned to cultivate
around the nation’s capital is home tobacco and corn. By the 1630s, Virginia
to some of the wealthiest, with less had become the world’s leading
established areas rapidly gentrifying. producer of tobacco.

Natural chimney formations in the Shenandoah Valley at Front Royal, Virginia
The Governor’s Palace in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia

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