I’ve always wondered why DC has such a confusing street layout, rather than the straightforward grids of most US cities–especially for a planned city, rather than one old enough that it just developed organically, like Boston. Now I know…

If they’d just followed Thomas Jefferson’s plan, we’d have a nice grid (I snapped that picture on a recent trip to Monticello, Jefferson’s estate converted into a museum).

Instead, we have Monsieur L’Enfant to thank for this weird “radial arrangement.”