Capital One Arena
A major indoor sports arena that swallowed D.C.'s Chinatown whole — the numbers say it plainly.
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Opened in 1997 as MCI Center, it has cycled through three corporate names and anchors the Penn Quarter neighborhood above a Metro station it literally sits on top of. Home to the Capitals (NHL) and Wizards (NBA), it also carries a blunt urban history: the Chinese-American population of the surrounding blocks numbered over 3,000 before construction and had fallen to roughly 300 by 2023.
What to look for
- The Gallery Place Metro station built directly beneath the arena — the two share the same footprint at street level
- The Chinatown blocks surrounding it: compare what remains of the neighborhood against a community that once exceeded 3,000 residents
- The arena's block boundary — 6th to 7th Streets, F to G Streets — land the D.C. government purchased as far back as 1973 trying to reverse urban decay
Take the Metro to Gallery Place-Chinatown; the station exits directly into the arena's lower level.
Capital One Arena is one of 37 sights worth the detour in Washington, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Washington pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Washington
- White HouseBritish forces torched it in 1814. It has been the U.S. president's home and office ever since.
- The PentagonDesigned and built in 16 months during World War II — 17.5 miles of corridors, a five-acre central courtyard, and a 9/11 memorial at the exact point of impact.
- United States CapitolEvery street address in Washington DC radiates outward from this building — it is literally the zero point of the city.
- Washington MonumentThe faint color seam partway up the shaft marks where construction stopped for 23 years.
- Smithsonian InstitutionBritish scientist James Smithson left a bequest that became 157 million objects, 21 museums, and a zoo — almost all free to walk into.
- Arlington National CemeteryThe ground holding 400,000 graves was seized from Robert E. Lee's own family over an unpaid tax bill in 1864.