You won’t see any skyscrapers in Washington, DC—by law, no building may be taller than the 12-story-high Washington Monument—but you will find world-renowned museums, first-rate restaurants and shopping, captivating monuments and memorials, quaint neighborhoods, grassy parks and tree-lined streets, a modern and efficient mass-transit system, a thriving arts scene, and a zoological park housing not one, but two giant pandas. So if you want skyscrapers, head elsewhere. For everything else, pay a visit to Washington.

Washington is best known as the capital of the United States, but the city did not even exist at the time the nation gained its independence in 1789. For a year, the nation’s new government met in New York City, before relocating to Philadelphia. Dissension soon grew between the northern and southern states over the location of the permanent capital. Ultimately, it was agreed that the capital would be situated in the southern region, but only after the northern states were relieved of debts incurred during the Revolutionary War. In 1790, President George Washington selected a site for the nation’s capital at the junction of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers, 14 miles north of his home in Mount Vernon. Andrew Ellicott conducted a survey of the area, which consisted mainly of swampland and dense forest. Ellicott was aided by Benjamin Banneker, a free black from Maryland. Using celestial calculations, Banneker, a self-taught astronomer and mathematician, laid out 40 boundary stones at 1-mile intervals to mark the city’s borders.

President Washington chose Pierre-Charles L’Enfant to plan the new capital. L’Enfant, a French-born architect and urban designer who served in the American Revolutionary Army, created a bold and original plan, one that is widely considered the nation’s greatest achievement in municipal planning. L’Enfant’s plan called for a grid pattern of streets, with these streets intersected by wide, diagonal avenues. The diagonal avenues would meet at circles, and these circles would anchor the residential neighborhoods. An example can be seen today at Logan Circle, where four different thoroughfares converge, including Rhode Island and Vermont avenues. The large open circle sits at the core of a beautiful neighborhood, with many of the residences built soon after the Civil War in the Late Victorian and Richardsonian Romanesque styles.

L’Enfant envisioned the “Congress House” (now the Capitol) situated atop Jenkins Hill, which offered sweeping views of the Potomac River. To the west of Jenkins Hill, L’Enfant planned a 400-foot-wide avenue (now the National Mall) bordered by embassies and cultural institutions. Not everyone was pleased with his plan. Though he had the support of President Washington, L’Enfant faced opposition from some of the district commissioners who had been appointed to oversee the capital city’s development. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, a noted architect in his own right, disapproved of the plan, but L’Enfant refused to compromise or modify his vision for the capital. In 1792, following a series of incidents between L’Enfant and those who challenged his plan, Washington dismissed the genius planner whom he had appointed only a year earlier. In L’Enfant’s place, Washington appointed Andrew Ellicott to prepare a map of the city. With the help of his assistant, Benjamin Banneker, Ellicott produced a map of the city that adhered closely to L’Enfant’s plan.

L’Enfant sought $95,500 for his services in planning the capital city, though he was ultimately paid less than $4,000. L’Enfant lived with friends during his later years. He died in 1825, financially destitute and never having received acclaim for his work in planning Washington. He was buried in Maryland, then disinterred and reburied at Arlington National Cemetery in 1909. A marble monument marks the site of his grave.

L’Enfant’s visionary plan fostered the growth of the city’s eclectic mix of neighborhoods, each containing its own distinct qualities: the surprising charm of Capitol Hill, with its 19th-century row houses and brick-lined streets; the massive stone monuments, museums, and government buildings in and around the National Mall; the quaint shops and restaurants of Georgetown; the cosmopolitan style and atmosphere of Dupont Circle; the bustling nightlife of Adams Morgan; and the leaf-shaded residential streets of Woodley Park. The layout of the city, with its broad avenues converging on circles and squares designated for public use, made the growth of these neighborhoods possible. As a result, the city as a whole has a small-town feel even though its population exceeds 570,000.

Most first-time visitors to Washington are surprised by the city’s considerable natural beauty. L’Enfant’s plan, which identified parks and open spaces as essential elements in urban design, helped to shape a city that is not merely functional but also quite lush and green, possessing the “sorts of places,” as L’Enfant wrote, that “may be attractive to the learned and afford diversion to the idle.” Were he alive today, L’Enfant would be pleased to see congressional staffers playing softball on the National Mall, walkers strolling alongside the Potomac River, and hikers venturing off for a trek on the trails within Rock Creek Park. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough has expressed his appreciation of the capital’s natural beauty. “In many ways it is our most civilized city,” McCullough wrote of Washington. “It accommodates its river, accommodates trees and grass, makes room for nature as other cities don’t.”

The C&O Canal Towpath is a popular destination for bikers and hikers. The towpath begins in Georgetown and parallels the Potomac River, meandering 184 miles west to Cumberland, Maryland. Just outside of Washington, the towpath cuts through Great Falls Park. The park’s ferocious rapids and giant boulders may cause visitors to forget that they’re only a few miles from the city. The George Washington Parkway leads from the park back to the capital. McCullough penned of this route, “There is no more beautiful entrance to any of our cities than the George Washington Parkway, which sweeps down the Virginia side of the Potomac. The views of the river gorge are hardly changed from Jefferson’s time.”

Beyond the gorge, the capital unfolds in a rich blend of people, neighborhoods, parks, embassies, offices, memorials, monuments, and museums. Rising above it all, the white marble of the Washington Monument stretches for the sky, a constant reminder of the capital’s namesake and the remarkable history and growth of not just this great city but also the nation it serves and represents.