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| Connecticut Avenue NW | |
 Connecticut Avenue, looking north, fromFarragut Square | |
 | |
| Maintained by | DDOT |
|---|---|
| Location | Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Coordinates | 38°58′07″N77°04′38″W / 38.96861°N 77.07722°W /38.96861; -77.07722 |
| South end | Lafayette Square |
| Major junctions |  US 29 /Farragut SquareDupont Circle Florida Avenue Columbia Road Calvert Street Tilden Street Nebraska Avenue Military Road |
| North end |  MD 185 /Chevy Chase Circle |
Connecticut Avenue is a major thoroughfare in theNorthwest quadrant ofWashington, D.C., and suburbanMontgomery County, Maryland. It is one of the diagonal avenues radiating from theWhite House, and the segment south ofFlorida Avenue was one of the original streets inPierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant's plan for Washington.[1] A five-mile segment north ofRock Creek was built in the 1890s by areal-estate developer.[2]
Connecticut Avenue was first extended north fromRock Creek around 1890 as part of an audacious plan to create astreetcar suburb in present-dayChevy Chase, Maryland, several miles distant from the then-boundaries ofWashington, D.C. The area northwest of today's Calvert Street NW was largely farmland whenFrancis Newlands, a sitting Congressman from Nevada, quietly acquired more than 1,700 acres in Northwest D.C. and Maryland along a five-mile stretch from today'sWoodley Park neighborhood in D.C. to Jones Bridge Road in Maryland'sMontgomery County.[2] Meanwhile, he acquired control of the nascentRock Creek Railway, which had a charter to build a streetcar line in the District. Beginning in 1888, Newlands and his partners graded a roadway, laid streetcar track down its center, and erected abridge over a Rock Creek tributary. The road proceeded in a straight, 3.3-mile line north-northwest from today's Calvert Street to today'sChevy Chase Circle, then another 1.85 miles due north toCoquelin Run, yet another Rock Creek tributary near today's Chevy Chase Lake Drive. The streetcars began operating along the line's full length in 1892, connecting to their terminus at 18th and U Streets NW via the railway's iron trestle across theRock Creek gorge.[3]
In 1907, theTaft Bridge across Rock Creek connected the southern and northern segments of Connecticut Avenue.[4]
In 1932, the Newlands bridge over the tributary was replaced by the currentKlingle Valley Bridge.
In 2025, construction began on adeckover above the Connecticut Avenue underpass between Dupont Circle andQ Street, set to be completed in 2027.[5]
Connecticut Avenue begins just north of the White House atLafayette Square. It is interrupted byFarragut Square. North of Farragut Square andK Street, Connecticut Avenue is one of the major streets indowntown Washington, with high-end restaurants, historical buildings such asSedgwick Gardens, hotels, and shopping.
As Connecticut Avenue approaches theDupont Circle neighborhood, it splits at N Street into a through roadway andservice roadways. The through roadway tunnels under Dupont Circle, while the service roadways intersect the outer roadway of the circle. The through roadway and service roadways rejoin at R Street. Originally, there was no tunnel, and all vehicular traffic on Connecticut Avenue went through the circle. The tunnel was built in 1949 to serve vehicles and aCapital Transit streetcar line that operated until 1962.
After crossing Florida Avenue near theHilton Washington hotel, Connecticut Avenue narrows and winds between the Kalorama neighborhoods. (TheKalorama Triangle Historic District extends eastward from Connecticut, while theSheridan-Kalorama Historic District lies to the west.) The avenue then crossesRock Creek Park on theWilliam Howard Taft Bridge and goes through upperNorthwest Washington, D.C., including theWoodley Park,Cleveland Park, Forest Hills, andChevy Chase, D.C. neighborhoods. Between Woodley Park and Cleveland Park, Connecticut Avenue is carried over a deepvalley on anotherbridge. Numerous older,Art Deco high-rise apartment buildings line the 3000 block, with slightly newer apartment buildings in the 4000 and 5000 blocks.
TheNational Zoological Park sits halfway between the Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan and Cleveland ParkMetro stations. A bit further north is the strikingly futuristicformer headquarters ofIntelsat; a bit further south are theOmni Shoreham Hotel and the landmarkWardman Park Hotel building, once the city's largest hotel. This section is also a major commuter route; until 2020, it hadreversible lanes along most of its length that operated during the morning and evening rush hours (7–9:30 a.m. and 4–6:30 p.m.). It connects with theRock Creek and Potomac Parkway via 24th Street. Mid-century-era high-rise apartments line the avenue, with elegant, older detached homes on shady side streets.
The road passes the main campus of theUniversity of the District of Columbia near theVan Ness metrorail station.
Connecticut Avenue is an arterial route in theNational Highway System betweenK Street and Nebraska Avenue.
Connecticut Avenue leaves the District of Columbia at Chevy Chase Circle, at the intersection of Connecticut andWestern Avenues. Upon entering Maryland, it gains the route designationMaryland State Highway 185 and runs through theChevy Chase, Maryland, postal area. This stretch is lined by the Chevy Chase Club, the former National4-H Youth Conference Center, andColumbia Country Club.
After interchanging with theCapital Beltway at Exit 33, Connecticut Avenue entersKensington, where it is the major north-south street of the central business district.
Connecticut Avenue long ended at University Boulevard (Maryland State Highway 193). Then Concord Avenue was extended northward to form an extension of Connecticut Avenue that passes throughWheaton andAspen Hill. The state route designation ends atGeorgia Avenue (Maryland State Highway 97). Connecticut Avenue, now simply a local street, continues past Georgia Avenue and ends at Leisure World Boulevard.
For more than six decades, Connecticut Avenue was host to variousstreetcar lines. The first was the Connecticut Avenue and Park Railway (soon absorbed by theMetropolitan Railroad), which opened in April 1873 and ran from theWhite House toBoundary Avenue.[6] In 1890, theRock Creek Railway began operating from a terminus on Boundary Avenue two blocks east of Connecticut Avenue; after 1892, its streetcars ran across the Rock Creek gorge on an iron bridge near today'sDuke Ellington Bridge, then turned north onto Connecticut near today's Calvert Street intersection. The line continued down the middle of Connecticut Avenue to Chevy Chase Circle, then ran on to its terminus at Chevy Chase Lake, an amusement park just south of today's Jones Bridge Road.[7] A third streetcar line, theChevy Chase Lake & Kensington Railway (later, the Kensington Railway Company) began operations in 1895, running north from Chevy Chase Lake on Connecticut Avenue for a half mile before diverging to the right and heading on toKensington, Maryland. Streetcar operations on Connecticut north of Rock Creek ended in 1935; their service wasreplaced by buses.[8] "It was the most significant District streetcar abandonment up to that time", theWashington Post would write.[9]
TheRed Line of theWashington Metro subway system runs beneath Connecticut Avenue. Metro stations along or near Connecticut Avenue include:
The followingMetrobus routes travel along the street (listed from south to north):
The followingRide On routes travel along the street (listed from south to north):
The followingMARC Train stop lies on the street:
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