Wisconsin Avenue is a major thoroughfare in Washington, D.C., and its Maryland suburbs. It starts in Georgetown just north of the Potomac River, at an intersection with K Street under the Whitehurst Freeway. The section of Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown was called High Street before the street names in Georgetown were changed in 1895 to conform to those of the L'Enfant plan for the federal city (although Georgetown predates the planned capital by half a century).
From the Georgetown riverfront, Wisconsin Avenue climbs steeply north through Northwest D.C. (see picture above), through often congested, slow-moving traffic squeezed into just two travel lanes, with parked vehicles continuously filling both curb lanes. The Avenue then passes through the neighborhoods of Glover Park, Cathedral Heights (next to the Washington National Cathedral), Cleveland Park, Tenleytown and Friendship Heights with its several broadcasting towers. While in Friendship Heights, Wisconsin Avenue intersects with Western Avenue (which forms much of the Northwest border of Washington, D.C.) and then crosses into Montgomery County, Maryland. In Maryland, it is officially known as Maryland Route 355. Wisconsin Avenue then passes through Bethesda, where it is one of the main streets of the downtown area. Southbound traffic on Wisconsin Avenue can bypass downtown Bethesda by taking Woodmont Avenue.