Foggy Bottom
Foggy Bottom Information
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Foggy Bottom is one of Washington, D.C.’s oldest 19th century neighborhoods, thought to have been named because, as a low-lying area, fog (widespread in the swamps of early Washington) tended to concentrate there. (Ironically, this setting was the original location for The United States Naval Observatory.) It is located to the west of downtown D.C. in the Northwest quadrant, bounded roughly by 17th Street to the east, Rock Creek Park to the west, Constitution Avenue to the south, and Pennsylvania Avenue to the north.
“Foggy Bottom” is often used as a metonym for the United States Department of State, whose headquarters is located in the neighborhood. The main campus of George Washington University is also located here, as well as the infamous Watergate Hotel and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The University has grown significantly over the past decade and now covers much of the neighborhood.
Foggy Bottom was once a community of Irish, German, and African-American laborers employed at the nearby breweries, glass plants, and the city gas works. These industrial facilities are also cited as a possible reason for the neighborhood’s name, the “fog” being the smoke given off by the industries. The historic neighborhood is preserved and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Foggy Bottom area was the site of one of the earliest settlements in what is now D.C., when Joseph Funk subdivided 130 acres near the meeting place of the Potomac River and Rock Creek in 1763. The settlement was officially named Hamburg, but was colloquially known as Funkstown, and attracted few settlers until the 1850s when more industrial enterprises came into the area. Foggy Bottom is served by the Foggy Bottom-GWU Washington Metro station.
“Foggy Bottom” is also the name of a line of beer by the Olde Heurich Brewing Company. The firm was founded in the neighborhood, but the modern beer is actually brewed in Utica, New York. This company presents another possible source of the neighborhood’s name, as the air pollution from the factory is rumored to have cast a layer of smog over the surrounding area.