Downtown is a neighborhood of Washington, D.C. and the central business district in the northwest quadrant of the capital city of the United States.
Geographically, downtown Washington is broadly considered to be anything north of Constitution Avenue NW, east of Rock Creek Park, south of M Street NW, and west of the U.S. Capitol. The area east of the Capitol and north of Massachusetts Avenue is sometimes called "Downtown East". However, that geographical area includes as many as nine separate neighborhoods, including Foggy Bottom, West End, Penn Quarter, Mount Vernon Square, Chinatown, Sursum Corda, Judiciary Square, Swampoodle, and NoMa.
Thus, the boundaries of the Downtown district (subtracting the above-mentioned neighborhoods) are somewhat irregular and difficult to define. The core of the area lies roughly between Constitution Avenue to the south, M Street to the north, 17th Street to the west, and 12th Street to the east. North of Pennsylvania Avenue NW, and extending five additional blocks west of 17th Street to 22nd Street, is also considered "downtown".