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Washington DC Trivia: Why is there no J Street in DC?

Posted by Clever Dude | May 28, 2007 .

Happy Memorial Day everyone! I hope you’re enjoying your day off, and if you have to work, I hope you’re not too busy!

Here’s a bit of trivia about my local Washington D.C. that I didn’t know. Snopes.com answers the question:

Why is there no J Street in Washington D.C.?

I recommend reading the entire Snopes article as you’ll learn about how the District of Columbia got started, who designed it (a French man), and who then had to take over the design (a Baltimore native) , but here’s a snippet of the answer of “What happened to J Street?”:

The mundane explanation is that J Street was likely omitted simply because the letters I and J were often indistinguishable from each other (especially when handwritten), and in 18th century English they were still largely interchangeable…..Having both an “I” and a “J” street would have been redundant at best and confusing at worst, so “J” ended up as the odd man out.

Bet you didn’t know that!

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2 Comments so far

  1. Jon - The DC Traveler August 24, 2007 9:22 am

    There’s actually some good logic (oncve you understand it) to how the city’s street are named.

    Check out my post on DC streets and getting around The District.

    http://www.thedctraveler.com/getting-around-dc-%e2%80%93-part-2-%e2%80%93-driving-in-the-district-street-layout/

  2. Scotty Bones August 14, 2008 12:10 am

    Hey Clever Dude,

    College student in D.C. and stumbled on your site while searching for info about the district. Though our respective sites have literally nothing in common (I work on a blog with generally stupid viral videos), I figured I’d ask you a question while i’m here.

    I’ve become pretty interested in the green/renewable energy movement. Any tips on investing green or living green that would be financially benefical? Thanks!

    http://www.areyouseriousbro.blogspot.com

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