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Alexandria, Virginia sits just eight miles south of the US Capitol, separated from Washington DC by the Potomac River, and it predates the federal capital by more than a century. Founded in 1749 on land that was partly owned by the Lawrence Washington family, it was one of the most prosperous ports in colonial America. George Washington worshipped at Christ Church on Cameron Street, drilled his troops on Market Square, and patronized Gadsby's Tavern at the corner of Royal and Cameron, a building that still operates as a restaurant and museum. The bar he used, the table he sat at, are still there.

Old Town Alexandria is one of the best-preserved colonial streetscapes in the United States, and King Street, the main commercial spine running from the waterfront up to the King Street Metro station, is a genuine pleasure to walk.

The red brick Federal-style townhouses are not reproductions but the actual eighteenth and nineteenth century originals, carefully maintained but inhabited. The waterfront along the Potomac has been developed into a pleasant park, and across the river on clear days, the monument and the dome of the Capitol are perfectly framed.