Thomas Circle

About

Thomas Circle is a traffic circle in Northwest Washington, D.C., United States. It is located at the intersection of 14th Street, M Street, Massachusetts Avenue, and Vermont Avenue NW. A portion of Massachusetts Avenue travels through a tunnel underneath the circle. The interior of the circle includes the equestrian statue of George Henry Thomas, a Union army general in the American Civil War.

The area around present-day Thomas Circle was included as an intersection in the 1791 L'Enfant Plan, but plans to make it a circle took place the following year. Development around the circle was slow, due to the area being in the city's "countryside." A few large houses were built around the circle before the Civil War, but major changes took place in the second half of the 19th century. The circle was improved with landscaping, a horse-drawn rail for commuters, and sewer lines. The statue of Thomas was dedicated in 1879, the same year one of the city's first apartment buildings was constructed, the Portland Flats.