Anacostia
Anacostia is a historic neighborhood in Southeast Washington, D.C.
Anacostia is a historic neighborhood in Southeast Washington, D.C. in the United States. Its downtown is located at the intersection of Marion Barry Avenue SE and Martin Luther King Jr Avenue SE. Originally known as "Uniontown" the neighborhood contains commercial and government buildings, mid-rise mixed development, city-sanctioned art murals and galleries, a performing arts center, a playhouse theater, the local landmark, "The Big Chair," Frederick Douglass's Home and is adjacent to the Fort Stanton Park neighborhood which hosts the Smithsonian affiliated Anacostia Community Museum. Anacostia is located directly east of and along the Anacostia River, after which the neighborhood is named. The community's population is more than 90 percent African American.
Adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Worth seeing in and around Anacostia
10 places within 25 km that the world writes about, in the order of how widely: the ones a visitor has heard of first, then the ones only a local would name.
- 01Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the de facto national library of the United States. It also administers copyright law through the United States Copyright Office, and it houses the Congressional Research Service.
3 km · (de facto) national library of the United States of America · Wikipedia - 02United States Securities and Exchange Commission
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission is a quasi independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street crash of 1929. Its primary purpose is to enforce laws against market manipulation.
3.9 km · U.S. federal agency that enforces securities laws and regulates securities markets and major market participants (public companies, brokers, exchanges, and asset managers) · Wikipedia - 03National Air and Space Museum
The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution is a museum in Washington, D.C., United States, dedicated to human flight and space exploration. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, its main building opened on the National Mall near L'Enfant Plaza in 1976.
4 km · aerospace museum in Washington, D.C. · Wikipedia - 04National Museum of the American Indian
The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers.
3.7 km · museum in Washington, D.C., a division of the Smithsonian Institution · Wikipedia - 05National Defense University
The National Defense University is an institution of higher education in Fort Lesley McNair, Washington, D.C., United States. It is funded by the United States Department of Defense aimed at facilitating high-level education, training, and professional development of national security leaders.
2.7 km · military university in Washington, DC, United States · Wikipedia - 06Nationals Park
Nationals Park is a baseball stadium along the Anacostia River in the Navy Yard neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It is the ballpark of Major League Baseball's Washington Nationals. It was completed in 2008, and was the first LEED-certified green major professional sports stadium in the United States.
2.2 km · baseball park in Washington, D.C., United States · Wikipedia - 07Audi Field
Audi Field is a soccer-specific stadium in the Buzzard Point neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It is the home of the D.C. United, Washington Spirit, and DC Power FC soccer teams, and the DC Defenders football team. The stadium has a capacity of 20,000.
2.5 km · soccer stadium in Washington, D.C., USA · Wikipedia - 08United States Botanic Garden
The United States Botanic Garden is a botanical garden on the grounds of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., near the James A. Garfield Monument. The Botanic Garden is supervised by the Congress through the Architect of the Capitol, who is responsible for maintaining the grounds of the United States Capitol.
3.5 km · botanical garden in Washington, DC · Wikipedia - 09Thomas Jefferson Building
The Thomas Jefferson Building, also known as the Main Library, is the oldest of the Library of Congress buildings in Washington, D.C. Built between 1890 and 1897, it was initially known as the Library of Congress Building. In 1980, the building was named in honor of Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third U.S. president.
3.1 km · first separate United States Library of Congress building · Wikipedia - 10Ulysses S. Grant Memorial
The Ulysses S. Grant Memorial is a presidential memorial in Washington, D.C., honoring American Civil War general and 18th president of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant. It sits at the base of Capitol Hill, below the west front of the United States Capitol.
3.6 km · artwork and war memorial in Washington, D.C., by Henry Shrady and Edward Pearce Casey · Wikipedia
Ranked by the number of language editions of Wikipedia with an article on each, from Wikidata; the sentences are the openings of those articles, CC BY-SA 4.0.
What Wikivoyage says to see
The principal sights—the ones you have to see in order to lay claim to having visited Anacostia—are the Smithsonian museum, the Frederick Douglass House, and, of course, the Big Chair. The two museums are small but excellent, and the latter attraction is a good photo op!
- 01America's Islamic Heritage Museum
2315 Martin Luther King Junior Avenue SE,.
- 02Anacostia Museum
The Smithsonian's least visited museum, far from the Mall, is a small but superbly exhibited tribute to Anacostia and D.C.
- 03The Big Chair
The Big Chair is Anacostia's most recognized landmark, and it sits right in downtown Anacostia on MLK Jr Ave.
- 04Historic Uniontown
The heart of historic Uniontown is bounded by MLK Jr Ave, Good Hope Dr, 14th St, and W St SE.
- 05Fort Stanton Overlook
1600 Morris Rd SE (parking lot of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church).
- 06Frederick Douglass National Historic Site
9AM-5PM daily (16 April-15 October), 9AM-4PM daily (16 October-15 April).
From Wikivoyage: Anacostia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Things to do
- 01Anacostia River Tours
- 02Fort Dupont Ice Rink
3779 Ely Pl SE, fax: +1 202 584-5008, kcox@fdia.org.
- 03Fort Dupont Summer Concerts
The National Park Service puts on well-attended weekly summer jazz concerts at the Fort Dupont Park Theatre.
From Wikivoyage: Anacostia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Not yet checked by us.
Getting to Anacostia
- Airports
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA), 5 km · Washington Dulles (IAD), 42 km · Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall (BWI), 44 km
- Stations
- Washington Union Station, 3.9 km · L'Enfant Plaza, 3.9 km · Potomac Avenue, 1.6 km · Capitol South, 2.9 km · Federal Center SW, 3.4 km
- Dulles → Anacostia41 km · quickest by road, 1h 9m · $4–5
- Baltimore → Anacostia57 km · quickest by road, 1h 21m · $5–7
- Richmond → Anacostia152 km · quickest by road, 2h 42m · $14–19
- Plan a tripFrom anywhereThe planner compares every way there from wherever you are.
Road and air are today’s quick answer; timetabled trains, buses and ferries load on the results page from the operators’ feeds.
No local-transport research exists yet for Anacostia
Our researched notes are written from a sourced entry: every shared taxi, boat and village bus with its operator, its rule, its fare and the year we saw it, and what could not be confirmed. Nobody has done that work for Anacostia. What is above is what we hold from open sources; nothing here pretends to be more.
- Get inOK, canoe is not a very practical way to visit Anacostia, but it is by far the most fun.
- Get inThe Anacostia River is easily navigable by canoe, and there are several places to launch: Anacostia Park, Bladensburg Park (in Bladensburg, Maryland), and the public boat ramp at Langston Golf Course in the east of Capitol Hill.
From Wikivoyage: Washington, D.C./Anacostia, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us; that article was last edited 2026-09.
- 01383 km
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If you know how people move in Anacostia – the stand, the rule, the fare – tell us, and the note gets an entry.
Next door to Anacostia
Anacostia is 6 km from Washington, the nearest large city, whose note carries the wider picture.
- Capitol Hillneighborhood in Washington, D.C., USA2.9 km
- AmeriCorpsprogram of the U.S. federal government engaging adults in intensive community service3.4 km