Census-designated place in Maryland, United States
Bethesda
Bethesda is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States.
Located just northwest of Washington, D.C., it is a major business and government center of the Washington metropolitan region and a national center for medical research. According to the 2020 census, the community had a population of 68,056.
How locals move
Getting around Bethesda the local way
- Get inOn the weekends, you can take Ride On bus #29 to Glen Echo and start hiking north from there, but it is a significantly longer trek to Great Falls.
- Get inAlthough it is also possible to kayak or canoe the Potomac through the park, make sure you know what you're doing—the rapids are very dangerous, especially around Great Falls, and many people drown every year.
- Go nextAmong the most important are Harpers Ferry, just across the Potomac in West Virginia, and Antietam National Battlefield.
From Wikivoyage: Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us. Last edited 2026-09.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Rhododendrites (see Commons), Wikimedia Commons.