Drivers making their way into Washington along Connecticut Avenue in Chevy Chase may not notice them, but a pair of historical markers identify the boundary between Maryland and the District of Columbia. They’re nestled inside a screen of hedges, flowers and trees in Chevy Chase Circle.
The markers are not to be confused with the 1792 survey markers that demarcated the boundaries of the District of Columbia, then a 10-square-mile piece of land taken from Maryland and Virginia to create the seat of the federal government. (Because the Potomac was then so hard to cross, the Virginia portion was ceded back to Virginia in 1846.) These markers are part of a set erected by the Garden Club of America in 1932 to mark the bicentennial of George Washington’s birth. There are others at Georgia, Wisconsin and Massachusetts Avenues.
The markers have the District of Columbia seal on one face and the Maryland seal on the opposite face. In the picture above, the fountain at the center of the circle is in the background.
Photo © Bob Cullen
There is another such entrance marker just inside Virginia from the Francis Scott Key Bridge. It is in a park-like area between the roads into and out of Rosslyn near Crystal City.