The face of every city is different. Washington D.C.

The United States of America is the fourth largest country in the world,

after Russia, Canada and China. It occupies the southern part of North

America, and includes Alaska.

The USA is made up of 50 states, and the District of Columbia, a special

federal area where the capitol of the country is situated.

If we look at the map of the USA, we can see lowlands and mountains. The

highest mountains are the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. The

highest peak is Mount McKinley which is located in Alaska. The United

States is a land of rivers and lakes. The largest and deepest lakes in the

USA are the five Great Lakes on the border with Canada. America’s largest

rivers are the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Rio Grande and the Columbia.

The Mississippi is the word’s third longest river after the Nile and the

Amazon. The climate of the country varies greatly. The climate of Alaska is

arctic. The climate of the central part is continental. The south has

subtropical climate.

The history of the country is rather long. Christopher Columbus sailed

from Spain across the Atlantic Ocean. Instead of reaching India as he had

expected he landed on an island off a continent unknown to Europeans, but

he thought that he was in India.

In the southern states white farmers used black slaves to work on their

huge plantations. When slavery was stopped in the North the southern states

left the Union and formed the Confederacy. Civil war between the North and

the South started. The Union won and the slavery was abolished all over the

USA.

Nowadays, the USA is highly developed industrial country.

There are many important cities in the USA, for example New York, one of

the largest cities in the world, a great seaport and financial center,

Chicago near the Great Lakes, one of the biggest industrial cities in the

USA, and the second largest after New York. Boston is one of the first

cities which were built on the Atlantic coast of America. Now it is a big

cultural centre with three universities. Los Angeles is a centre of modern

industries and show business. Other big and important cities of the USA are

Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, Detroit, Washington and so on.

Washington D.C. is the capitol of US. It is situated in the District of

Columbia and is like no other city in America. it’s the world’s largest one-

industry city. And that industry is government. The White House, where the

US president lives and works, the Capitol, the home of the US congress, and

the Supreme Court, are all in Washington. The city was so named in memory

of George Washington, the first president of the USA, known for the active

participation in the war with Britain. A special district was created for

the city – the District of Columbia. The city was laid out according to be

a capitol. Washington is one of the most magnificent and unusual cities in

the USA. In the centre of it rises the huge dome of the Capitol – a big

white dome standing in a circle of pillars. It’s rather easy to get lost in

this huge building, full of paintings and statues.

Not far from the Capitol is the library of Congress, the largest in US.

It contains more than 13 million books, more than 19 million manuscripts,

including the personal papers of the American presidents.

The official residence of the USA president is White House. It has 132

rooms, among them the Oval Office where the president works. The White

House used to be a president residence since it first occupied by President

John Adams in 1800.

One can hardly find a park, a square or an open area in Washington

without a monument or a memorial, the Jefferson Memorial was built in honor

of Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence and the

third president of the USA. Inside his statue, and his writings are

inscribed on the walls. The Lincoln Memorial reminds everybody of Abraham

Lincoln, the sixteenth American president who’s noted for the slavery

destruction. There’s a statue of Abraham Lincoln inside the memorial. At

the National Air and Space Museum visitors can see the history of flight

from the first airplane to the Apollo spaceship. The National Gallery of

Art, a large museum of painting, sculpture and other arts is also situated

in the capitol.

From the beginning of the twentieth century the USA became the world’s

leading country. Thousands of tourists visit Washington every day. People

from all parts of the US come to see their capitol, and also people all

over the world. Washington greets tourists with the Cherry Blossom festival

every spring. The pink and white blossoms of the Japanese cherry these near

the Washington Monument create a magnificent delicate picture, and you are

to visit Washington just to see it, and then all beauties of other cities

will seem to you gloomy.

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