Best of D.C. 2009

In theory, you should never get lost in D.C. It’s a grid, after all, with numbered avenues running north-south and lettered streets running east-west. But if you stray too far from downtown, the grid can get funky. That happens most dramatically near Gallaudet University, where F Street NE morphs into E Street NE. Another baffling breakdown occurs in Columbia Heights, where drivers heading north on 15th Street find themselves merging onto 16th. Both of these intersections happened when civil engineers extended downtown streets into existing neighborhoods and had to drop the grid to avoid running through existing buildings, says John Lisle, a spokesperson for the D.C. Department of Transportation. Whether you agree with their decision may hinge on whether your car has GPS.