Visitors usually experience the nation’s capital as a city of marble and granite — all monuments, memorials, museums, and grand buildings. It’s easy to forget that the District of Columbia was established as a waterfront city, its location selected partly for its generous exposure to the Potomac River, providing an 18th-century gateway to the world. 

Now you can connect with today’s capital waterfront again, at the D.C. Wharf — a 5-year-old waterside neighborhood and entertainment zone bursting with opportunities for travelers. It’s a great place to spend half a day of your D.C. trip, or recover after a long afternoon of all that marble and granite. You can stay overnight in one of four hotels and spend a weekend water taxiing to and from D.C.’s monumental core and other neighborhoods. 

The Wharf features some truly great restaurants — it will soon be home to a Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen, only his third in the U.S. It has a small handful of interesting one-off shops, some of the best rooftop views in — and of — the city, opportunities to get out on the water, three music venues, and a strollable mile-long promenade. All this has been developed around an open-air fish market said to be the oldest in continuous operation in the U.S. 

My wife and I have been to The Wharf many times. In no particular order, here are my seven highlights: