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Montgomery County, Maryland

Montgomery County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 1,062,061, increasing by 9.3% from 2010. The county seat is Rockville, and Germantown is the most populous place in the county. The county is adjoined to Washington, D.C., the nation's capital, and is part of the Washington metropolitan area and the Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area. Most of the county's residents live in Silver Spring, Bethesda, Germantown, and the incorporated cities of Rockville and Gaithersburg.

The average household income in Montgomery County is the 20th-highest among U.S. counties as of 2020.

The county has the highest percentage (29.2%) of residents over 25 years of age who hold post-graduate degrees. Like other counties in the Washington metropolitan area, the county has several U.S. government offices, scientific research and learning centers, and business campuses.

Etymology
The Maryland state legislature named Montgomery County after Richard Montgomery; the county was created from lands that had at one point or another been part of Frederick County. On September 6, 1776, Thomas Sprigg Wootton from Rockville, Maryland, introduced legislation, while serving at the Maryland Constitutional Convention, to create lower Frederick County as Montgomery County. The name, Montgomery County, along with the founding of Washington County, Maryland, after George Washington, was the first time in American history that counties and provinces in the Thirteen Colonies were not named after British referents.

The name use of Montgomery and Washington County were seen as further defiance to Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. The county's nickname of "MoCo" is derived from "Montgomery County", in use as early as 2001.

The county's motto, adopted in 1976, is "Gardez Bien", a French phrase meaning "Watch Well". The county's motto is also the motto of its namesake's family.

History
Prior to 1688, the first tract of land in what is now Montgomery County was granted by Charles I in a charter to the first Lord Baltimore, the head of the Calvert family. The county's creation was a focus of Thomas S. Wootton who, on August 31, 1776, introduced a measure to form a new county from Frederick County, Maryland to aid area residents in simplifying their business affairs. The measure passed, creating the new political entity of Montgomery County in what was then the colonial-era Province of Maryland.

Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 507 mi2, of which 491 mi2 is land and 16 mi2 (3.1%) is water. Montgomery County lies entirely inside the Piedmont plateau. The topography is generally rolling. Elevations range from a low of near sea level along the Potomac River to about 875 feet in the northernmost portion of the county north of Damascus. Relief between valley bottoms and hilltops is several hundred feet. Earthquakes are rare; the most recent one, on June 24, 2024, had a 1.8 magnitude and was centered near Spencerville, Maryland.

When Montgomery County was created in 1776, its boundaries were defined as "beginning at the east side of the mouth of Rock Creek on Potomac river [sic], and running with the said river to the mouth of Monocacy, then with a straight line to Par's spring, from thence with the lines of the county to the beginning".

The county's boundary forms a sliver of land at the far northern tip of the county that is several miles long and averages less than 200 yards wide. In fact, a single house on Lakeview Drive and its yard is sectioned by this sliver into three portions, each separately contained within Montgomery, Frederick and Howard Counties. These jurisdictions and Carroll County meet at a single point at Parr's Spring on Parr's Ridge.

Adjacent counties

 * Frederick County (northwest)
 * Carroll County (north)
 * Howard County (northeast)
 * Prince George's County (southeast)
 * Washington, D.C. (south)
 * Fairfax County, Virginia (southwest)
 * Loudoun County, Virginia (west)

National protected areas

 * Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park (part)
 * Clara Barton National Historic Site
 * George Washington Memorial Parkway (part)

Climate
Montgomery County lies within the northern portions of the humid subtropical climate. It has four distinct seasons, including hot, humid summers and cool winters.

Precipitation is fairly evenly distributed throughout the year, with an average of 43 in of rainfall. Thunderstorms are common during the summer months, and account for the majority of the average 35 days with thunder per year. Heavy precipitation is most common in summer thunderstorms, but drought periods are more likely during these months because summer precipitation is more variable than winter.

The mean annual temperature is 55 F. The average summer (June–July–August) afternoon maximum is about 85 F while the morning minimums average 66 F. In winter (December–January–February), these averages are 44 F and 28 F. Extreme heat waves can raise readings to around and slightly above 100 F, and arctic blasts can drop lows to -10 F to 0 F. For Rockville, the record high is 105 F in 1954, while the record low is -13 F.

Lower elevations in the south, such as Silver Spring, receive an average of 17.5 in of snowfall per year. Higher elevations in the north, such as Damascus, receive an average of 21.3 in of snowfall per year. During a particularly snowy winter, Damascus received 79 in during the 2009–2010 season.

Demographics
Since the 1970s, the county has had in place a Moderately Priced Dwelling Unit (MPDU) zoning plan that requires developers to include affordable housing in any new residential developments that they construct in the county. The goal is to create socioeconomically mixed neighborhoods and schools so the rich and poor are not isolated in separate parts of the county. Developers who provide for more than the minimum amount of MPDUs are rewarded with permission to increase the density of their developments, which allows them to build more housing and generate more revenue. Montgomery County was one of the first counties in the U.S. to adopt such a plan, but many other areas have since followed suit.

Montgomery County is by far one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse counties in the United States; four of the ten most culturally diverse cities and towns in the U.S. are in Montgomery County: Gaithersburg, ranking second; Germantown, ranking third; Silver Spring, ranking fourth; and Rockville, ranking ninth. Gaithersburg, Germantown, and Silver Spring all rank as more culturally diverse than New York City, San Jose, and Oakland. Maryland overall is one of six minority-majority states, and the only minority-majority state on the East Coast.

2010 census
As of the 2010 United States census, there were 971,777 people, 357,086 households, and 244,898 families living in the county. The population density was 1978.2 PD/sqmi. There were 375,905 housing units at an average density of 765.2 /mi2. The racial makeup of the county was 57.5% White, 17.2% Black or African American, 13.9% Asian, 0.4% American Indian, 0.1% Pacific islander, 7.0% from other races, and 4.0% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 17.0% of the population. In terms of ancestry, 10.7% were German, 9.6% were Irish, 7.9% were English, 4.9% were Italian, 3.5% were Russian, 3.1% were Polish, 2.9% were American and 2% were French. People of Central American descent made up 8.1% of Montgomery County, with Salvadoran Americans constituting 5.4% of the county's population. Over 52,000 people of Salvadoran descent lived in Montgomery County, with Salvadoran Americans comprising approximately 32% of the county's Hispanic and Latino population. People of South American descent make up 3.8% of the county, with Peruvian Americans being the largest South American community, constituting 1.2% of the county's population.

Of the 357,086 households, 35.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.4% were married couples living together, 11.3% had a female householder with no husband present, 31.4% were non-families, and 25.0% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.70 and the average family size was 3.22. The median age was 38.5 years.

The median income for a household in the county was $93,373 and the median income for a family was $111,737. Males had a median income of $71,841 versus $55,431 for females. The per capita income for the county was $47,310. About 4.0% of families and 6.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.2% of those under age 18 and 6.3% of those age 65 or over.

2000 census
As of the 2000 United States census, there were 873,058 people living in the county. The racial makeup of the county was 65.0% white, 15.1% Black or African American, 11.3% Asian, 0.3% American Indian, 0.1% Pacific islander, 5.0% from other races, and 3.5% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 11.5% of the population.

There were 324,565 households, of which 35% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.2% were married couples living together, 10.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.9% were non-families. Of all households, 24.4% were made up of individuals, and 7.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.66 and the average family size was 3.19.

25.4% of the population was under the age of 18, 6.9% from 18 to 24, 32.3% from 25 to 44, 24.2% from 45 to 64, and 11.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 92.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.1 males.

In 2000, there were 334,632 housing units at an average density of 675 /mi2.

Montgomery County has the tenth-highest median household income in the United States, and the second highest in the state after Howard County as of 2011. The median household income in 2007 was $89,284 and the median family income was $106,093. Males had a median income of $66,415 versus $52,134 for females. The per capita income for the county was $43,073. About 3.3% of families and 4.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.6% of those under age 18 and 4.6% of those age 65 or over.

Religion
Of Montgomery County's residents, 14% are Catholic, 5% are Baptist, 3% are Methodist, 1% are Presbyterian, 1% are Episcopalian, 1% are part of the Latter Day Saint movement, 1% are Lutheran, 6% are of another Christian faith, 3% are Jewish, 1% follows Islam, and 1% are of an eastern faith. Overall, 41% of the county's residents are affiliated with a religion.

Montgomery County has the largest Jewish population in the state of Maryland, accounting for 45% of Maryland Jews. According to the Berman Jewish DataBank, Montgomery County has a Jewish population of 105,400 people, around 10% of the county's population. The Washington metropolitan area, with 295,500 Jews, has become the third-largest Jewish population in the United States.

Economy
Montgomery County is an important business and research center. It is the epicenter for biotechnology in the Mid-Atlantic region. Montgomery County, as third largest biotechnology cluster in the U.S., holds a large cluster and companies of large corporate size within the state. Biomedical research is carried out by institutions including Johns Hopkins University's Montgomery County Campus (JHU MCC), and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Federal government agencies in Montgomery County engaged in related work include the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS), and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

Many large firms are based in the county, including Coventry Health Care, Lockheed Martin, Marriott International, Host Hotels & Resorts, Travel Channel, Ritz-Carlton, Robert Louis Johnson Companies (RLJ Companies), Choice Hotels, MedImmune, TV One, BAE Systems Inc., Hughes Network Systems and GEICO.

Other U.S. federal government agencies based in the county include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC), and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

Downtown Bethesda and Silver Spring are the largest urban business hubs in the county; combined, they rival many major city cores.

Top employers
According to the county's comprehensive annual financial reports, the top employers by number of employees in the county are the following. "NR" indicates the employer was not ranked among the top ten employers that year.

Politics and government
Montgomery County was granted a charter form of government in 1948.

The present County Executive/County Council form of government of Montgomery County dates to November 1968 when the voters changed the form of government from a County Commission/County Manager system, as provided in the original 1948 home rule Charter.

The Montgomery County government had a surplus of $654million for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021.

County executives
The office of the county executive was established in 1970. The first executive was James P. Gleason. The current executive is Marc Elrich, who was sworn in for his first term on December 3, 2018.

Legislative body

The County Council is the legislative branch of Montgomery County. It has eleven members who serve four-year terms. All are elected at the same time by the voters of Montgomery County. As of January 2023, all 11 members on the council are Democrats. The council meets weekly at the county seat of Rockville—the 6th Floor of the Stella B. Werner Council Office Building.

The members of the County Council as of 2023 are:

The most recent Republican serving on the Montgomery County Council, Howard A. Denis of District 1 (Potomac/Bethesda), lost re-election in 2006. Since then, all Council members have been Democrats.

County police
The Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD) provides the full spectrum of policing services to the entire county. It was founded in 1922 and is headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland. It consists of around 1,300 sworn officers and 650 support personnel, split into 6 districts throughout the county. The department also provides assistance to other nearby departments, such as the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia and the Prince George's County Police Department, if requested.

County sheriff's office
The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) is a nationally accredited U.S. law enforcement agency and acts as the enforcement arm of the courts in the county. All of its deputy sheriffs are fully certified law enforcement officials with full authority of arrest. The office was created in July 1777 and is the oldest law enforcement agency in Montgomery County. It is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland. It was nationally accredited in 1995, the first county sheriff's office in Maryland to be so. The MCSO has authorized over 165 employees consisting of sworn law enforcement officers and civilian support staff. The office is headed by the sheriff, who has been elected every four years since the 1920s. The current Sheriff is Maxwell C. Uy (D), elected in 2022. Uy is the 62nd Sheriff and the first Asian American to hold that office.

Other agencies
Several cities including Rockville and Gaithersburg maintain their own police departments to complement MCPD. Maryland State Police patrol the Beltway and I-270, and they assist county and city police in investigation of some major crimes.

Budget
Montgomery County has a budget of $2.3 billion. Approximately $1.48 billion are invested in Montgomery County Public Schools and $128 million in Montgomery College.

Bi-county agencies
Montgomery and Prince George's counties share a bi-county planning and parks agency in the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) and a public bi-county water and sewer utility in the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC).

LGBTIQ+ bill of rights
In October 2020, the Montgomery County Council unanimously passed an ordinance that implemented an LGBTIQ+ bill of rights.

Liquor control
Montgomery County is an alcoholic beverage control county. Beer and wine may also be sold in private stores.

History
Until 1964, only three restaurants in the county had liquor licenses to serve liquor by the drink. The county stopped issuing liquor licenses to all other restaurants under a law that had existed since Prohibition.

Following a voter referendum, restaurants and bars could apply for county permits to sell liquor by the drink. The dry towns of Kensington, Poolesville, and Takoma Park were allowed to keep their own bans in place.

Anchor Inn in Wheaton was the first establishment to serve liquor in the county under the new law.

Other elected positions
There are 24 judges of the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, who are appointed by the Governor and elected by the voters to 15 year terms. James A. Bonifant has served as the County Administrative Judge since 2021. Karen A. Bushell (D) was appointed as Clerk of the Circuit Court in 2021, and was elected to a full term in 2022. Joseph M. Griffin (D) has served as the Register of Wills since 1998. John J. McCarthy (D) has served as the State's Attorney since 2007.

State representation

In the Maryland House of Delegates, Montgomery County is in districts 9A, represented by Chao Wu and Natalie Ziegler; 14, represented by Bernice Mireku-North, Pamela E. Queen, and Anne Kaiser; 15, represented by David Fraser-Hidalgo, Lily Qi, and Linda Foley; 16, represented by Sarah Siddiqui Wolek, Sara Love, and Marc Korman; 17, represented by Joe Vogel, Julie Palakovich Carr, and Ryan Spiegel; 18, represented by Emily Shetty, Jared Solomon, and Aaron Kaufman; 19, represented by Charlotte A. Crutchfield, Bonnie L. Cullison, and Vaughn M. Stewart III; 20, represented by Jheanelle Wilkins, Lorig Charkoudian, and David Moon; and 39, represented by Gabriel Acevero, Lesley Lopez, and W. Gregory Wims.

In the Maryland Senate, Montgomery County is in districts 9, represented by Katie Fry Hester; 14, represented by Craig Zucker; 15, represented by Brian Feldman; 16, represented by Ariana Kelly; 17, represented by Cheryl Kagan; 18, represented by Jeff Waldstreicher; 19, represented by Benjamin F. Kramer; and 20, represented by William C. Smith Jr.

Federal representation
In the 118th Congress, Montgomery County is represented in the U.S. House of Representatives by Glenn Ivey (D) of the 4th district, David Trone (D) of the 6th district, and Jamie Raskin (D) of the 8th district.

Montgomery County is one of the most consistently Democratic counties in Maryland. Before 1928, the County never voted Republican. In total, it has only voted Republican 8 times. The Democratic presidential candidate has won Montgomery County in every presidential election since 1988. In 2020, Donald Trump turned in the worst showing for a Republican in 152 years, not even managing to reach 20% of the vote.

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Roads
Poor transportation was a hindrance for Montgomery County's farmers who wanted to transport their crops to market in the early 18th century. Montgomery County's first roads, often barely adequate, were built by the 18th century.

One early road connected Frederick and Georgetown. There was a road that connected Georgetown and the mouth of the Monocacy River. Plans to continue the road to Cumberland did not come to fruition. Another road connected the Montgomery County Courthouse with Sandy Spring and Baltimore, and one other road connected the courthouse with Bladensburg and Annapolis.

The county's first turnpike was chartered in 1806, but its construction began in 1817. In 1828, the turnpike was completed, running from Georgetown to Rockville. It was the first paved road in Montgomery County.

In 1849, the Seventh Street Turnpike (now called Georgia Avenue) was extended from Washington to Brookeville. The Colesville–Ashton Turnpike was built in 1870 (now parts of Colesville Road, Columbia Pike, and New Hampshire Avenue).

The United States Army Corps of Engineers built the Washington Aqueduct between 1853 and 1864, to supply water from Great Falls to Washington. The aqueduct was covered in 1875, and it became known as Conduit Road. The Union Arch Bridge, which carries the aqueduct across Cabin John Creek, was the longest single-arch bridge in the world at the time it was completed in 1864. The road is now named MacArthur Boulevard.

Bus
Montgomery County operates its own bus public transit system, known as Ride On. Major routes closer to its rail service area are also covered by WMATA's Metrobus service.

The county began building a bus rapid transit (BRT) system along US 29 in 2018. The system has been providing service between Silver Spring and Burtonsville since 2020; more routes are planned.

The Corridor Cities Transitway is a proposed BRT line that would provide an extension of the Red Line corridor from Gaithersburg to Germantown, and eventually to Frederick County.

Rail
Montgomery County is served by three passenger rail systems, with a fourth line under construction.

Amtrak, the U.S. national passenger rail system, operates its Capitol Limited to Rockville, between Washington Union Station and Chicago Union Station.

The Brunswick line of the MARC commuter rail system makes stops at Silver Spring, Kensington, Garrett Park, Rockville, Washington Grove, Gaithersburg, Metropolitan Grove, Germantown, Boyds, Barnesville, and Dickerson, where the line splits into its Frederick and Martinsburg branches.

Both suburban arms of the Red Line of the Washington Metro serve Montgomery County. It follows the CSX right of way to the west, roughly paralleling Route 355 from Friendship Heights to Shady Grove. The eastern side runs between the two tracks of the CSX right of way from Washington Union Station to Silver Spring, and roughly parallels Georgia Avenue, from Silver Spring to Glenmont.

The Purple Line, a light rail system, is currently under construction and is scheduled to open in 2026. The line will run in a generally east-west direction, connecting Montgomery and Prince George's Counties near the Beltway, with 21 stations. The Purple Line will connect directly with four Metro stations, MARC trains and Amtrak.

Air
The Montgomery County Airpark (FAA GAI, ICAO KGAI), a general aviation facility in Gaithersburg, is the major airport in the county. Davis Airport (FAA Identifier W50), a privately owned airstrip, is located in Laytonsville on Hawkins Creamery Road. Commercial air service is provided at the nearby Ronald Reagan Washington National, Washington Dulles International, and BWI Airports.

Education
Education in the county is provided by Montgomery County Public Schools, Montgomery College and other institutions.

Montgomery County Public Schools
Elementary and secondary public schools are operated by the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). The county public school system is the largest school district in Maryland, serving about 162,000 students with 13,000 teachers and 10,000 support staff. The public school system operating budget for Fiscal Year 2019 is $2.6 billion (~$ in ).

MCPS operates under the jurisdiction of an elected Board of Education. Its current members are:

MCPS conducted its first 'data deletion week' in 2019, purging its databases of unnecessary student information. Parents said they hoped to shield children from being held accountable in adulthood for youthful mistakes, as well as to guard them from exploitation by what one parent termed "the student data surveillance industrial complex".The district also requires tech companies to annually delete data they collect on schoolchildren. In December 2019 it said GoGuardian had sent formal certification that it had deleted its data, but the district was still waiting for confirmation from Google.

Montgomery College
The county is also served by Montgomery College, a public, open access community college that has a budget of US$315 million for FY2020. The county has no public university of its own, but the state university system does operate a facility called Universities at Shady Grove in Rockville that provides access to baccalaureate and Master's level programs from several of the state's public universities.

Montgomery County Public Libraries
The Montgomery County Public Libraries (MCPL) system includes 23 individual libraries, and had a budget $38 million (~$ in ) for 2015.

Religion
Montgomery County is religiously diverse. In 2010, Montgomery County's population, according to the Association of Religion Data Archives, was 13% Catholic, 5% Baptist, 4% Evangelical Protestant, 3% Jewish, 3% Methodist/Pietist, 2% Adventist, 2% Presbyterian, 1% Episcopalian/Anglican, 1% Mormon, 1% Muslim, 1% Lutheran, 1% Eastern Orthodox, 1% Pentecostal, 1% Buddhist, and 1% Hindu.

Montgomery County is the most religiously diverse county in the US outside of New York City. A 2020 census by the Public Religion Research Institute (unconnected to the official US census) calculates a religious diversity score of 0.880 for Montgomery County, where 1 represents complete diversity (each religious group of equal size) and 0 a total lack of diversity. Only two other counties in the US have higher diversity scores than Montgomery County, both in urban New York.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church maintains its General Conference headquarters in Silver Spring in Montgomery County.

Sports
The county is home to the National Women's Soccer League team Washington Spirit, a professional soccer team that played its home games at the Maryland SoccerPlex sports complex in Boyds. In 2021, the Spirit will play its seven home games at Audi Field, in Washington, D.C., and five home games at Segra Field in Leesburg, Virginia. Starting in 2022, the team will work to maximize the number of games played at Audi Field.

Bethesda's Congressional Country Club has hosted four Major Championships, including three playings of the U.S. Open, most recently in 2011 which was won by Rory McIlroy. The Club also hosts the Quicken Loans National, an annual event on the PGA Tour which benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation. Previously, neighboring TPC at Avenel hosted the Booz Allen Classic.

The award-winning Members Club at Four Streams is located on a former farm in Beallsville, Maryland.

The Bethesda Big Train, Rockville Express, and Silver Spring–Takoma Thunderbolts all play college level wooden bat baseball in the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League.

Montgomery County is home of the Montgomery County Swim League, a youth (ages 4–18) competitive swimming league composed of ninety teams based at community pools throughout the county.

The King Farm Park in Rockville, open and accessible 24/7 without cost, provides a first-class 16-station Bankshot Playcourt, the Home Court for the Rockville based Bankshot Sports Organization advocating "Total-mix diversity based on Universal Design." Hundreds of communities provide Bankshot Playcourts mainstreaming differently-able participants in community sports. Bankshot basketball Playcourts are also at Montrose park, the JCC among other locations.

Montgomery County Agricultural Fair
Since 1949 the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair, the largest in the state, showcases farm life in the county. The week long event offers family events, carnival rides, live animals, entertainment and food. Visitors can also view entries of canned and baked goods, clothing, quilts and produce from local county farmers.

Sister cities
Montgomery County maintains sister city agreements with:

 * Morazán Department, El Salvador
 * Gondar, Ethiopia
 * Xi'an, China
 * Hyderabad, India
 * Daejeon, South Korea

Cities

 * Gaithersburg
 * Rockville (county seat)
 * Takoma Park

Towns

 * Barnesville
 * Brookeville
 * Chevy Chase
 * Chevy Chase View
 * Chevy Chase Village
 * Garrett Park
 * Glen Echo
 * Kensington
 * Laytonsville
 * Poolesville
 * Somerset
 * Washington Grove

Villages

 * Chevy Chase, Village of, Section 3
 * Chevy Chase, Village of, Section 5
 * Martin's Additions
 * North Chevy Chase

Special Tax Districts
Occupying a middle ground between incorporated and unincorporated areas are Special Tax Districts, quasi-municipal unincorporated areas created by legislation passed by either the Maryland General Assembly or the county. The Special Tax Districts generally have limited purposes, such as providing some municipal services or improvements to drainage or street lighting. Special Tax Districts lack home rule authority and must petition their cognizant governmental entity for changes affecting the authority of the district. The four incorporated villages of Montgomery County and the town of Chevy Chase View were originally established as Special Tax Districts. Four Special Tax Districts remain in the county:
 * Drummond
 * Oakmont

Census-designated places
Unincorporated areas are also considered as towns by many people and listed in many collections of towns, but they lack local government. Various organizations, such as the United States Census Bureau, the United States Postal Service, and local chambers of commerce, define the communities they wish to recognize differently, and since they are not incorporated, their boundaries have no official status outside the organizations in question. The Census Bureau recognizes the following census-designated places in the county:

 * Ashton-Sandy Spring
 * Aspen Hill
 * Bethesda
 * Brookmont
 * Burtonsville
 * Cabin John
 * Calverton (partly in Prince George's County)
 * Chevy Chase
 * Clarksburg
 * Cloverly
 * Colesville
 * Damascus
 * Darnestown
 * Fairland
 * Forest Glen
 * Four Corners
 * Germantown
 * Glenmont
 * Hillandale (partly in Prince George's County)
 * Kemp Mill
 * Layhill
 * Leisure World
 * Montgomery Village
 * North Bethesda
 * North Potomac
 * Olney
 * Potomac
 * Redland
 * Silver Spring
 * South Kensington
 * Travilah
 * White Oak
 * Wheaton

Unincorporated communities

 * Ashton
 * Beallsville
 * Boyds
 * Derwood
 * Dickerson
 * Hyattstown
 * Sandy Spring

title: Montgomery County, Maryland


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Rockville, Maryland

Rockville is a city in and the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, and is part of the Washington metropolitan area. The 2020 census tabulated Rockville's population at 67,117, making it the fourth-largest incorporated city in Maryland.

Rockville, along with neighboring Gaithersburg and Bethesda, is at the core of the Interstate 270 Technology Corridor which is home to numerous software and biotechnology companies as well as several federal government institutions. The city, one of the major retail hubs in Montgomery County, has several upscale regional shopping centers.

Early history
Situated in the Piedmont region and crossed by three creeks (Rock Creek, Cabin John Creek, and Watts Branch), Rockville provided an excellent refuge for semi-nomadic Native Americans as early as 8000 BC. By the first millennium BC, a few of these groups had settled down into year-round agricultural communities that exploited the native flora, including sunflowers and marsh elder. By AD 1200, these early groups (dubbed Montgomery Indians by later archaeologists) were increasingly drawn into conflict with the Senecas and Susquehannocks who had migrated south from Pennsylvania and New York. Within the present-day boundaries of the city, six prehistoric sites have been uncovered and documented, along with numerous artifacts several thousand years old. By 1700, under pressure from European colonists, the majority of these original inhabitants had been driven away.

The indigenous population carved a path on the high ground, known as Sinequa Trail, which is now downtown Rockville. Later, the Maryland Assembly set the standard of 20 feet for main thoroughfares and designated the Rock Creek Main Road or Great Road to be built to this standard. In the mid-18th century, Lawrence Owen opened a small inn on the road. The place, known as Owen's Ordinary, took on greater prominence when, on April 14, 1755, Major General Edward Braddock stopped at Owen's Ordinary on a start of a mission from George Town (now Washington, D.C.) to press British claims of the western frontier. The location of the road, near the present Rockville Pike, was strategically located on higher ground, making it dry year-round.

18th century
The first land patents in the Rockville area were obtained by Arthur Nelson between 1717 and 1735. Within three decades, the first permanent buildings in what would become the center of Rockville were established on this land. Still a part of Prince George's County at this time, the growth of Daniel Dulaney's Frederick Town prompted the separation of the western portion of the county, including Rockville, into Frederick County in 1748.

Being a small, unincorporated town, early Rockville was known by a variety of names, including Owen's Ordinary, Hungerford's Tavern, and Daley's Tavern. The first recorded mention of the settlement later known as Rockville dates to the Braddock Expedition in 1755. On April 14, one of the approximately 2,000 men who were accompanying General Braddock through wrote the following: "we marched to larance Owings or Owings Oardianary, a Single House, it being 18 miles and very dirty." Owen's Ordinary was a small rest stop on Rock Creek Main Road (later the Rockville Pike), which stretched from George Town to Frederick Town, and was then one of the largest thoroughfares in the colony of Maryland.

On September 6, 1776, the Maryland Constitutional Convention agreed to a proposal introduced by Thomas Sprigg Wootton wherein Frederick County, the largest and most populous county in Maryland, would be divided into three smaller subdivisions. The southern portion of the county, of which Rockville was a part, was named Montgomery County. The most populous and prosperous urban center in this new county was George Town, but its location at the far southern edge rendered it worthless as a seat of local government. Rockville, a small but centrally located and well-traveled town, was chosen as the seat. At the time, Rockville did not have a name; it was generally called Hungerford's Tavern, after the well-known tavern in it. After being named the county seat, the village was referred to by all as Montgomery Court House. The tavern served as the county courthouse, and it held its first such proceedings on May 20, 1777.

In 1784, William Prather Williams, a local landowner, hired a surveyor to lay out much of the town. In his honor, many took to calling the town Williamsburg. In practice, however, Williamsburg and Montgomery Court House were used interchangeably. Rockville came to greater prominence when Montgomery County was created and later when George Town was ceded to the federal government to create the District of Columbia.

19th century

A proposal to name the town Wattsville, after the nearby Watts Branch, failed because the stream was later considered too small to give its name to the town. On July 16, 1803, when the area was officially entered into the county land records with the name "Rockville", derived from Rock Creek. Nevertheless, the name Montgomery Court House continued to appear on maps and other documents through the 1820s.

By petition of Rockville's citizens, the Maryland General Assembly incorporated the village on March 10, 1860. During the American Civil War, General George B. McClellan stayed at the Beall Dawson house in 1862. In addition, General J.E.B. Stuart and an army of 8,000 Confederate cavalrymen marched through and occupied Rockville on June 28, 1863, while on their way to Gettysburg and stayed at the Prettyman house. Jubal Anderson Early also crossed through Rockville on his way to and from his 1864 attack on Washington.

In 1913, on the birthday of Jefferson Davis, the United Daughters of the Confederacy erected a statue near the Rockville courthouse dedicated to Confederate soldiers from Montgomery County. The monument was removed in 2017 as part of a wave of removals of Confederate monuments and memorials in response to the 2015 Charleston church shooting, and is now located in White's Ferry.

In 1873, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad arrived, making Rockville easily accessible from Washington, D.C. (See Metropolitan Branch.) In July 1891, the Tennallytown and Rockville Railway inaugurated Rockville's first trolley service connecting to the Georgetown and Tennallytown Railway terminus at Western Avenue and Wisconsin Avenue.

20th century to today

The newly opened railroad provided service from Georgetown to Rockville, connecting Rockville to Washington, D.C., by trolley. Trolley service operated for four decades, until, eclipsed by the growing usage of the automobile, service was halted in August 1935. The Blue Ridge Transportation Company provided bus service for Rockville and Montgomery County from 1924 through 1955. After 1955, Rockville would not see a concerted effort to develop a public transportation infrastructure until the 1970s, when the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) began work to extend the Washington Metro into Rockville and extended Metrobus service into Montgomery County. The Rockville station of Washington Metro began service on July 25, 1984, and the Twinbrook station began service on December 15, 1984. Metrobus service was supplemented by Montgomery County's own Ride On bus service starting in 1979. MARC, Maryland's Rail Commuter service, serves Rockville with its Brunswick line. From Rockville MARC provides service to Washington Union Station in Washington D.C. (southbound), and Frederick and Martinsburg, West Virginia (northbound), as well as intermediate points. Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, provides service from Rockville to Chicago and Washington D.C.

The mid-20th century saw substantial growth in Rockville, especially with the annexation of the Twinbrook subdivision in 1949, which added hundreds of new homes and thousands of new residents to the city. In 1954, Congressional Airport closed, and its land was sold to developers to build residences and a commercial shopping center. The shopping center, named Congressional Plaza, opened in 1958. These new areas provided affordable housing and grew quickly with young families eager to start their lives following World War II.

During the Cold War, it was considered safer to remain in Rockville than to evacuate during a hypothetical nuclear attack on Washington, D.C. Bomb shelters were built, including the largest one at Glenview Mansion and 15 other locations. The I-270 highway was designated as an emergency aircraft landing strip. Two Nike missile launcher sites were located on Muddy Branch and Snouffer School Roads until the mid-1970s.

From the 1960s, Rockville's town center, formerly one of the area's commercial centers, suffered from a period of decline. Rockville soon became the first city in Maryland to enter into a government funded urban renewal program. This resulted in the demolition of most of the original business district. Included in the plan was the unsuccessful Rockville Mall, which failed to attract either major retailers or customers and was demolished in 1994, various government buildings such as the new Montgomery County Judicial Center, and a reorganization of the road plan near the Courthouse. Unfortunately, the once-promising plan was for the most part a disappointment. Although efforts to restore the town center continue, the majority of the city's economic activity has since relocated along Rockville Pike (MD Route 355/Wisconsin Avenue). In 2004, Rockville Mayor Larry Giammo announced plans to renovate the Rockville Town Square, including building new stores and housing and relocating the city's library. In the past year, the new Rockville Town Center has been transformed and includes a number of boutique-like stores, restaurants, condominiums and apartments, as well as stages, fountains and the Rockville Library. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's headquarters is just south of the city's corporate limits.

The city is closely associated with the neighboring towns of Kensington and the unincorporated census-designated place, North Bethesda. The Music Center at Strathmore, an arts and theater center, opened in February 2005 in the latter of these two areas and is presently the second home of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and the Fitzgerald Theatre in Rockville Civic Center Park has provided diverse entertainment since 1960. In 1998, Regal Cinemas opened in Town Center and the city annexed 900 acres of land.

The city also has a brass band in the British style.

The R.E.M. song "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville", released in 1984, was written by Mike Mills about not wanting his girlfriend Ingrid Schorr to return to Rockville, Maryland.

In 1975, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Fitzgerald's caskets were reinterred at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Rockville, Maryland where his father, Edward, and a number of Key family members had been buried.

Historic places
Historic structures on the Register in and around downtown Rockville are:
 * Beall–Dawson House (1815)
 * Bingham-Brewer House (1821)
 * Dawson Farm (1874)
 * Glenview Mansion (1926)
 * Montgomery County Courthouse Historic District (1939)
 * New Mark Commons (1967)
 * Old St. Mary's Church (1817)
 * Rockville Park Historic District (1884)
 * Rockville Railroad Station (1873)
 * West Montgomery Avenue Historic District (1880)

Rockville vicinity

 * Montrose Schoolhouse (1909)

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 13.57 sqmi, of which 13.51 sqmi is land and 0.06 sqmi is water.

Climate
The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system Rockville has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, Rockville is in hardiness zone 7a, meaning that the average annual minimum winter temperature is 0 to 5 F. The average first frost occurs on October 21, and the average final frost occurs on April 16.

Income
The median income for a household in the city as of 2020 was $111,797. As of 2007, the median income for a family was $98,257. Males had a median income of $53,764 versus $38,788 for females. In 2015, the per capita income for the city was $49,399. 7.8% of the population and 5.6% of families were below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 8.9% of those under the age of 18 and 7.9% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.

2010 census
As of the census of 2010, there were 61,209 people, 23,686 households, and 15,524 families residing in the city. The population density was 4530.6 PD/sqmi. There were 25,199 housing units at an average density of 1865.2 /sqmi. The racial makeup of the city was 60.4% White (52.8% non-Hispanic white), 9.6% African American, 0.3% Native American, 20.6% Asian, 5.3% from other races, and 3.8% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 14.3% of the population.

There were 23,686 households, of which 31.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.3% were married couples living together, 9.9% had a female householder with no husband present, 3.4% had a male householder with no wife present, and 34.5% were non-families. 27.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.54 and the average family size was 3.08.

The median age in the city was 38.7 years. And 21.5% of residents were under the age of 18; 7.2% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 31.1% were from 25 to 44; 26.3% were from 45 to 64; and 14% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 47.9% male and 52.1% female.

Economy
Choice Hotels, Westat, and Bethesda Softworks/ZeniMax Media are headquartered in Rockville.

Largest employers
According to the city's 2023 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:

Sports

 * Rockville Express, a Cal Ripken, Sr. Collegiate Baseball League team, 2007 CRSCBL League Champions
 * The city is also home to the Rockville Baseball Association, a youth baseball and softball organization that has offered programing every year since its founding in 1954.
 * In addition, the city also runs a number of recreational sports leagues for both adults and youths. These include softball, pickleball, soccer, kickball, and volleyball.

Government
Rockville has a council-manager form of government.

In November 2023, Rockville voted in the 67th election for Mayor and Council with voters electing Monique Ashton as mayor. Six councilmembers were also elected: Kate Fulton, Adam Van Grack, Izola (Zola) Shaw, David Myles, Marissa Valeri, and Barry Jackson.

Mayor
The current mayor of Rockville is Monique Ashton.

Rockville was incorporated in 1860, but its early records were destroyed by Confederate soldiers in July 1864.

Past mayors of Rockville include:

Representative body
Rockville was a four-member City Council, whose members, along with the mayor, serve as the governing body of the city. In 2023, the City Council voted to expand the Council from four members to six, along with the mayor. The six councilmembers are Kate Fulton, Adam Van Grack, Izola (Zola) Shaw, David Myles, Marissa Valeri, and Barry Jackson.

Rockville has 26 boards and commissions: Animal Matters Board, Board of Appeals, Board of Supervisors of Elections, Charter Review Commission, Community Policing Advisory Board, Compensation Commission, Cultural Arts Commission, Environment Commission, Ethics Commission, Financial Advisory Board, Historic District Commission, Human Rights Commission, Human Services Advisory Commission, Landlord-Tenant Affairs Commission, Personnel Appeals Board, Planning Commission, Recreation and Park Advisory Board, Retirement Board, Rockville Economic Development Inc. (REDI), Rockville Housing Enterprises, Rockville Recreation and Parks Foundation, Rockville Seniors Inc. (RSI), Rockville Sister City Corporation, Senior Citizens Commission, Sign Review Board, and Traffic and Transportation Commission. Boards and commissions allows members of the community to partner with city staff to shape Rockville's future by sharing expertise and advising the Mayor and Council.

Education
Rockville is served by the Montgomery County Public Schools system. Public high schools in Rockville include Thomas S. Wootton High School, Richard Montgomery High School, and Rockville High School. Prior to integration in 1961, black students were educated at George Washington Carver High School in Rockville. The John L. Gildner Regional Institute for Children and Adolescents provides education for children with special educational needs.

St. Elizabeth Catholic School of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington is in Rockville.

Private schools located near Rockville (with Rockville postal addresses) include: Montrose Christian School in North Bethesda has closed.
 * Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School (North Bethesda)
 * Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy (Aspen Hill)

Higher education
The Montgomery College (MC), main campus is located within Rockville and enrolls more than 15,000 students as of March 2019. The college is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.

Additional institutions of higher education in Rockville include the University of Maryland Global Campus (main campus is in Adelphi, Maryland), the Johns Hopkins University Montgomery County Campus (main campus is in Baltimore), and the Universities at Shady Grove, a collaboration of nine Maryland public degree-granting institutions, all with Rockville addresses but outside the city limits.

Public library
The Rockville Memorial Library is available to the residents of Rockville. The Rockville Memorial Library offers services for residents and visitors to access books, databases, newspapers, magazines, and internet access.

Roads and highways
The most prominent highway directly serving Rockville is Interstate 270. I-270 is the main highway leading northwest out of metropolitan Washington, D.C., beginning at Interstate 495 (the Capital Beltway) and proceeding northwestward to Interstate 70 in Frederick. Maryland Route 355 was the precursor to I-270 and follows a parallel route, and now serves as the main commercial roadway through Rockville and neighboring communities. Other state highways serving Rockville directly include Maryland Route 28, Maryland Route 189, Maryland Route 586, Maryland Route 660 and Maryland Route 911. Interstate 370 and Maryland Route 200 do not directly enter the city, but pass just outside the city limits.

Public transportation
The Washington Metro Red Line rail system can be accessed at Rockville station and Twinbrook station. The Brunswick Line of the MARC commuter rail system runs to and from Washington, D.C., and can be accessed at Rockville Station. Amtrak trains also serve Rockville.

Bus service connects Rockville directly to the regional transit hub at Baltimore–Washington International Airport, and to downtown Baltimore via the Maryland Transit Administration ICC Bus and the Baltimore Light Rail. Ride On buses provides service within the city and to places within the county like Gaithersburg, Clarksburg and Silver Spring.

Law enforcement
The city is served by the Rockville City Police Department and is aided by the Montgomery County Police Department as directed by the relevant authorities.

Notable people

 * Tori Amos, singer-songwriter and pianist
 * Jamshid Amouzegar, former Prime Minister of Iran
 * Dragoslav Avramović, former Governor of the National Bank of Yugoslavia
 * BT, musician
 * Gordy Coleman, Major League Baseball player
 * Jerome Dyson (born 1987), professional basketball player
 * Pablo Eisenberg (1932–2022), scholar, social justice advocate, and tennis player
 * Paul Goldstein (born 1976), tennis player
 * Virginia Hall, American spy and OSS operative, died in Rockville
 * Elden Henson, actor known for The Mighty Ducks franchise and as Pollux in the Hunger Games movie series
 * Spike Jonze, film director
 * Charles Lazarus, founder of Toys "R" Us, opened the first Toys "R" Us toy store in Rockville in 1957.
 * Logic, rapper and record producer
 * Helen Maroulis, Olympic wrestler
 * Rachel Parsons, figure skater, 2017 junior national champion
 * Cassandra Pinataro, singer-songwriter
 * Haley Skarupa, professional ice hockey player
 * Josh Tillman ("Father John Misty"), musician
 * James Wood, professional baseball player
 * Frederick Yeh, biologist and animal welfare activist

Sister cities
Rockville has two sister cities:
 * 🇩🇪 Pinneberg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
 * Yilan City, Yilan County, Taiwan

Rockville's sister city relationship with Yilan City gained notoriety as diplomats from the Embassy of China, Washington, D.C. unsuccessfully attempted to scuttle the agreement.

Although not a sister city, Rockville also has friendly relations with another city:
 * Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, China

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Rockville, Maryland


text:
Bethesda, Maryland

Bethesda is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. According to the 2020 census, the community had a total population of 68,056. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in turn took its name from Jerusalem's Pool of Bethesda. The National Institutes of Health's main campus and the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center are in Bethesda, in addition to several corporate and government headquarters.

History
Bethesda is located in the traditional territory of the indigenous Native Piscataway and Nacotchtank at the time of European colonization. Fur trader Henry Fleet became the first European to visit the area, reaching it by sailing up the Potomac River. He stayed with the Piscataway tribe from 1623 to 1627, either as a guest or prisoner (historical accounts differ). Fleet eventually secured funding for another expedition to the region and was later granted proprietary rights to 2,000 acres of land in the nascent colony and became a member of Maryland's colonial legislature. Raids from the Senecas and Susquehannock resulted in the creation of the Maryland division of Rangers in 1694 to patrol the frontier.

Most settlers in colonial Maryland were tenant farmers who paid their rent in tobacco, and colonists continued to expand farther north in search of fertile land. Henry Darnall (1645–1711) surveyed a 710 acre area in 1694 which became the first land grant in Bethesda. Tobacco farming was the primary way of life in Bethesda throughout the 1700s. The city avoided seeing action during the Revolutionary War, although it became a supply region for the fledgling Continental Navy. The establishment of Washington, D.C., in 1790 deprived Montgomery County of its economic center at Georgetown, although the event had little effect on the small farmers throughout Bethesda.

Between 1805 and 1821, Bethesda became a rural way station after the development of the Washington and Rockville Turnpike, which carried tobacco and other products between Georgetown and Rockville, and north to Frederick. The Bethesda Meeting House, a Presbyterian church, was built in 1820. The church burned in 1849 and was rebuilt the same year about 100 yards south, and its former location became the Cemetery of the Bethesda Meeting House.

In 1852, the postmaster general established a post office in the area and appointed Rev. A. R. Smith its first postmaster. By 1862, a small settlement had grown around a store and tollhouse along the turnpike known as "Darcy's Store" for the store's owner, William E. Darcy. It consisted of a blacksmith shop, a church and school, and a few houses and stores. In 1871, postmaster Robert Franck renamed the settlement for the church.

A streetcar line was established in 1890 and suburbanization increased in the early 1900s, and Bethesda grew in population. Communities near railroad lines had grown the fastest during the 19th century. In 1910, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad completed its Georgetown Branch line from Silver Spring to Georgetown, including a storage yard there and multiple sidings serving industries in Bethesda. B&O successor CSX ceased train service on the line in 1985, so the county transformed it into a trail in the rails-to-trails movement. The tracks were removed in 1994, and the first part of the trail was opened in 1998; it has become the most used rail-trail in the United States, averaging over one million users per year.

Subdivisions began to appear on old farmland in the late 19th century, becoming the neighborhoods of Drummond, Woodmont, Edgemoor, and Battery Park. Farther north, several wealthy men made Rockville Pike famous for its mansions. These included Brainard W. Parker ("Cedarcroft", 1892), James Oyster ("Strathmore", 1899), George E. Hamilton ("Hamilton House", 1904; now the Stone Ridge School), Luke I. Wilson ("Tree Tops", 1926), Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor ("Wild Acres", 1928–29), and George Freeland Peter ("Stone House", 1930). In 1930, Armistead Peter's pioneering manor house "Winona" (1873) became the clubhouse of the Woodmont Country Club on land that is now part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) campus. Merle Thorpe's mansion "Pook's Hill" (1927, razed 1948) became the home-in-exile of the Norwegian royal family during World War II.

Before the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, restrictive covenants were used in Bethesda to exclude racial and ethnic minorities—primarily African-Americans, but also Asian-Americans and ethnic groups regarded as "Semitic", including Armenians, Jews, Iranians, Greeks, Turks, and Syrians. One 1938 restrictive covenant in the Bradley Woods subdivision of Bethesda said, "No part of the land hereby conveyed, shall ever be used, or occupied by or sold, demised, transferred, conveyed, unto, or in trust for, leased, or rented, or given to negroes, or any person or persons of negro blood or extraction or to any person of the Semitic Race, blood, or origin, which racial description shall be deemed to include Armenians, Jews, Hebrews, Persians, Syrians, Greeks and Turks, or to any person of the Mongolian Race, blood, or origin, which racial description shall be deemed to include Chinese, Japanese, and Mongolians, except that this paragraph shall not be held to exclude partial occupancy of the premises by domestic servants of the purchaser or purchasers." In practice, covenants excluding "Semitic races" were generally used to exclude Jews as Montgomery County did not have notable Armenian, Greek, Syrian, or Turkish populations at the time.

World War II and the subsequent expansion of government fed the rapid growth of Bethesda. Both the National Naval Medical Center (1940–42) and the NIH complex (1948) were built just to the north of the developing downtown, and this drew government contractors, medical professionals, and other businesses to the area.

Bethesda became the major urban core and employment center of southwestern Montgomery County. This recent vigorous growth has followed the 1984 expansion of Metrorail with a station in Bethesda. Alan Kay built the Bethesda Metro Center over the Red line metro rail, which opened up further commercial and residential development in the immediate vicinity. In the 2000s, the strict height limits on construction in the District of Columbia led to the development of mid-and high-rise office and residential towers around the Bethesda Metro stop.

Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 13.2 sqmi, of which 13.1 sqmi is land and 0.1 sqmi (0.38%) is water. The main commercial corridor that passes through Bethesda is Maryland Route 355 (known as Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda and as Rockville Pike and Hungerford Drive in more northern communities), which, to the north, connects Bethesda with the communities of North Bethesda and Rockville, ending, after several name changes, in Frederick. Toward the South, Rockville Pike becomes Wisconsin Avenue near the NIH Campus and continues beyond Bethesda through Chevy Chase, Friendship Heights and into Washington, D.C., ending in Georgetown.

The area commonly known as Downtown Bethesda is centered at the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue, Old Georgetown Road and East-West Highway. This intersection is about two and one-half miles from Washington, D.C.'s western boundary, making Bethesda a close-in suburb of the nation's capital. Other focal points of downtown Bethesda include the Woodmont Triangle, bordered by Old Georgetown Road (Maryland Route 187), Woodmont and Rugby Avenues, and the Bethesda Row, centered at the intersection of Woodmont Avenue and Bethesda Avenue. Much of the dense construction in that area followed the opening of the Bethesda station on the Red Line of the Washington Metro rapid transit system, also located at this intersection and the centerpiece of the Bethesda Metro Center development. The Medical Center Metro stop lies about 0.7 miles north of the Bethesda stop, Medical Center, which serves the NIH Campus, the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

2000
As of the census of 2000, there were 55,277 people, 23,659 households, and 14,455 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 4,205.8 PD/sqmi. There were 24,368 housing units at an average density of 1,854.1 /sqmi. The racial makeup of the CDP was 85.86% White, 2.67% Black or African American, 0.17% Native American, 7.92% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 1.23% from other races, and 2.11% from two or more races. 5.43% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 23,659 households, out of which 28.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.4% were married couples living together, 6.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 38.9% were non-families. 32.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.30, and the average family size was 2.92.

In the CDP, 21.8% of the population was under the age of 18, 4.6% from 18 to 24, 29.2% from 25 to 44, 27.1% from 45 to 64, and 17.2% was 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females, there were 87.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.0 males.

Bethesda is a very wealthy and well-educated area. According to the 2000 census, Bethesda was the best-educated city in the United States of America, with a population of 50,000 or more. 79% of residents 25 or older have bachelor's degrees, and 49% have graduate or professional degrees. According to a 2007 estimate, the median income for a household in the CDP was $117,723, and the median income for a family was $168,385. Males had a median income of $84,797 versus $57,569 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $58,479. About 1.7% of families and 3.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 1.8% of those under age 18 and 4.1% of those age 65 or over. Many commute to Washington, D.C., for work. The average price of a four-bedroom, two-bath home in Bethesda in 2010 was $806,817 (which ranks it as the twentieth most expensive community in America).

Bethesda is often associated with its neighboring communities, Potomac, Chevy Chase, Great Falls, Virginia, and McLean, Virginia, for their similar demographics.

2020
The racial makeup in 2020 was 69.5% non-Hispanic White, 8.9% Hispanic or Latino, 4.9% Black, 11.7% Asian, 0.3% American Indian, and 8.2% of two or more races. 24.4% of the population was foreign born.

Landmarks
Important medical institutions located in Bethesda include the National Institutes of Health campus, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and the adjoining Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, as well as a number of other military medical and research institutions. Other federal institutions include the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division.

The headquarters of defense conglomerate Lockheed Martin, managed health care company Coventry Health Care and hotel and resort chains Marriott International and Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. are located in Bethesda. Software company Bethesda Softworks was originally located in Bethesda but moved to Rockville in 1990. The Discovery Channel also had its headquarters in Bethesda before relocating to Silver Spring in 2004. On the professional services side, numerous banks (PNC, Capital One Bank) brokerage firms (MorganStanley, Merrill Lynch, Charles Schwab, Fidelity) and law firms (Ballard Spahr, JDKatz, Paley Rothman, Lerch Early & Brewer) maintain offices in Bethesda. Bethesda has two farmers markets, the Montgomery Farm Woman's Cooperative Market and the Bethesda Central Farmer's Market. In the summer of 2021, Fox Television Stations relocated the broadcast facilities of its Washington-area television stations, WTTG and WDCA, to Bethesda.

Bethesda is the home of Congressional Country Club, which is recognized as one of the world's most prestigious private country clubs. Congressional has hosted four major golf championships, including the 2011 U.S. Open, won by Rory McIlroy. The National, a golf tournament hosted by Tiger Woods, was played at Congressional seven times between 2007 and 2016. Bethesda is also home of the exclusive Burning Tree Club, Bethesda Country Club, and the Bethesda Big Train, a summer collegiate baseball team.

A number of ambassador residences are in Bethesda, including Bangladesh, Haiti, Cape Verde, Guyana, Honduras, Lesotho, Morocco, Nicaragua, Uruguay, and Zimbabwe.

Also located in downtown Bethesda is one of the Madonna of the Trail monuments, erected by the National Old Trails Association working in concert with the Daughters of the American Revolution; U.S. President Harry S. Truman presided over the dedication of the Bethesda monument, on April 19, 1929. Nearby is the Bethesda Post Office. Also starting in the heart of downtown Bethesda is the Capital Crescent Trail which follows the old tracks of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad stretching from Georgetown, Washington, D.C., to Silver Spring, Maryland. Walter Reed Medical Center and the Bethesda Theater are two important Art Deco architectural structures in the suburbs surrounding Washington, D.C.

Bethesda Row
Federal Realty Investment Trust has developed much of the west side of downtown Bethesda into an area called Bethesda Row, incorporating principles of new urbanism and a mixed-use district including residential apartments and condos (100,000 ft2), retail (300,000 ft2), dining, office space (100,000 ft2), hotels, entertainment, public art and fountains, forming the new core of revitalized downtown Bethesda. Retail stores include an Apple Store, Anthropologie, and Bethesda Bagels.

Education
Bethesda is located in the Montgomery County Public School District.

Public primary schools located in Bethesda include:
 * Ashburton Elementary School
 * Bannockburn Elementary School
 * Bethesda Elementary School
 * Bradley Hills Elementary School
 * Burning Tree Elementary School
 * Carderock Springs Elementary School
 * Seven Locks Elementary School
 * Westbrook Elementary School (The only building in Montgomery County MD built under the WPA)
 * Wood Acres Elementary School
 * Wyngate Elementary School

Public middle schools located in Bethesda include:
 * North Bethesda Middle School
 * Thomas W. Pyle Middle School
 * Westland Middle School

Public high schools located in Bethesda include:
 * Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School
 * Walt Whitman High School
 * Walter Johnson High School

Private schools located in Bethesda include:
 * Bethesda Community School
 * Feynman School
 * Rochambeau French International School – The secondary campus/administrative headquarters (Forest Road Campus) and the preschool campus (Bradley Campus) is in Bethesda. Circa 2022, the school plans to open a new preschool, and elementary campus in Bethesda.
 * Georgetown Preparatory School
 * The Harbor School
 * Holton-Arms
 * Landon
 * Little Flower School (K–8 )
 * Mater Dei School
 * Norwood (in the Potomac CDP)
 * Oneness-Family School
 * Our Lady of Lourdes School
 * St. Andrew's Episcopal School (in the Potomac CDP)
 * St. Bartholomew (Blue Ribbon elementary school PK–8)
 * Saint Jane de Chantal Catholic School (preK–8)
 * Sidwell Friends School (Lower School)
 * Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart
 * Washington Episcopal School (N–8)
 * Washington Waldorf School
 * The Woods Academy

Bethesda is also home to a federally funded and operated health science university, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU). The primary mission of USU is to prepare graduates for service in the Medical Corps of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Public Health Service. The university consists of the F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine, a medical school, and the Graduate School of Nursing, a nursing school. National Intelligence University is also in Bethesda.

The Washington Japanese Language School (WJLS, ワシントン日本語学校 Washington Nihongo Gakkō), a supplementary weekend Japanese school, holds its classes at the Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bethesda. The WJLS maintains its school office in North Bethesda, adjacent to Garrett Park. The institution, giving supplemental education to Japanese-speaking children in the Washington, D.C., area, was founded in 1958, making it the oldest Japanese government-sponsored supplementary school in the U.S.

The Writer's Center in Bethesda publishes Poet Lore, the longest continuously running poetry journal in the United States.

Economy
Notable companies based in Bethesda include:

 * AdvisorShares
 * AREVA (U.S. headquarters)
 * ASCII Group
 * Calvert Investments
 * Cambridge Information Group
 * Clark Construction
 * Coventry Health Care
 * Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
 * Enviva
 * Fox Television Stations
 * WTTG and WDCA
 * HMSHost
 * Host Hotels & Resorts
 * International Neuroethics Society
 * JBG Smith
 * Lockheed Martin
 * Marriott International
 * NBC Sports Washington
 * ProShares
 * Ritz Carlton
 * RLJ Companies
 * United States Enrichment Corporation
 * Youth For Understanding USA
 * Wellness Corporate Solutions

Management
Downtown Bethesda is managed by the Bethesda Urban Partnership, a non-profit organization established in 1994 by Montgomery County.

Transportation
Washington Metro's Red Line services two primary locations in Bethesda: the downtown area at the Bethesda station, and the area near the National Institutes of Health and the Walter Reed Medical Center at the Medical Center station. The Maryland Transit Administration's Purple Line, a light rail line currently under construction, will provide a direct connection from Bethesda to Silver Spring, the University of Maryland, College Park, and New Carrollton. The Purple Line will allow riders from Bethesda to move between the Red, Green, and Orange lines of the Washington Metro transportation system, as well as to MARC and Amtrak trains, without needing to ride into central Washington, D.C.

Local buses include:
 * WMATA's Metrobus
 * The Montgomery County Ride On bus system also has several routes through Bethesda.
 * Bethesda Circulator, a free loop bus that operates Monday-Saturday and covers most of downtown Bethesda.

Long-distance buses include Vamoose Bus and Tripper Bus, both of which provide service from downtown Bethesda to the proximity of Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.

 * Tripper Bus, a privately owned company, provides service from Bethesda 4681 Willow Ln, Bethesda, MD 20814 at the corner of Wisconsin Ave., opposite side of Panera Bread, the same side of Bethesda's Farm Women's Market to New York City between 8th and 9th Ave near Penn Station, in close to proximity to Port Authority Bus Terminal.

Notable people

 * Jonathan Allen, journalist
 * José Andrés, chef
 * Trace Armstrong, former NFL player
 * Red Auerbach, former NBA coach
 * Aran Bell, ballet dancer
 * Deane Beman, PGA Tour Commissioner and professional golfer
 * Ezra Taft Benson, the Secretary of Agriculture under President Eisenhower
 * Wolf Blitzer, journalist
 * Mike Brey, basketball coach
 * James Brown, sportscaster
 * Preston Burpo, former MLS player
 * Patrick Byrne, entrepreneur
 * Andrea Carroll, soprano
 * Michael Cerveris, actor
 * Connie Chung, television journalist
 * Colin Cloherty, NFL player
 * Steve Coll, journalist and author
 * Candy Crowley, journalist
 * E. J. Dionne, journalist, political commentator, and author
 * David Dobkin, director, screenwriter, and producer
 * Michael Dunn, National Football League (NFL) offensive lineman
 * William Eacho, former U.S. ambassador to Austria
 * Gregg Easterbrook, sports columnist.
 * Jo Ann Emerson, former U.S. Representative, Missouri
 * Kenneth Feinberg, attorney
 * John Feinstein, author
 * Thomas Frank, journalist and author
 * Neal Fredericks, cinematographer
 * Thomas Friedman, journalist and author
 * Merrick Garland, 86th United States Attorney General
 * Howard Gutman, former U.S. ambassador to Belgium
 * Mark Halperin, journalist and author
 * Steve Handelsman, journalist
 * Laura Hillenbrand, author
 * Henry Hodges, actor, played Horace Robedaux in The Orphans' Home Cycle.
 * Antawn Jamison, basketball player
 * Walter Johnson, baseball player
 * Spike Jonze, director, producer, screenwriter, and actor
 * Larry Kaufman, chess Grandmaster
 * Brett Kavanaugh, United States Supreme Court Justice
 * Julie Kent, ballet dancer
 * Greg Koch, former NFL player
 * Ferenc Körmendi, Hungarian novelist and broadcaster
 * Judy Kuhn, actress
 * Tim Kurkjian, ESPN analyst
 * Katie Ledecky, Olympic champion swimmer
 * Nils Lofgren, musician
 * Julia Louis-Dreyfus, actress
 * Allison Macfarlane, chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 * Justin Maxwell, MLB player
 * Matt McCoy, actor
 * Alice McDermott, author
 * Sean Murray, actor
 * Alondra Nelson, sociologist and Dean of Social Science at Columbia University
 * Martin O'Malley, politician, former governor of Maryland, former Democratic presidential candidate
 * Reza Pahlavi, Iranian royalty, son of Iran's last monarch.
 * Nick Palatas, actor
 * Periphery, progressive metal band
 * Maury Povich, television host
 * Mark Pryor, former U.S. Senator, Arkansas
 * Giuliana Rancic, celebrity news personality
 * Patricia Richardson, actress, Home Improvement
 * James Risen, journalist
 * Alexandra Robbins, author
 * Cokie Roberts, journalist and author
 * Wayne Rooney, British soccer player
 * Richard Schiff, actor
 * Dan Shanoff, sports columnist
 * David Simon, author, journalist, and television producer
 * Gordon Smith, former U.S. Senator, Oregon
 * Daniel Stern, actor
 * John J. Sweeney, Former President of the AFL-CIO
 * Jacob Tamarkin, mathematician
 * George Spiro Thanos, martial artist champion
 * Jeff Tremaine, director, screenwriter, and producer
 * Christopher Weaver, software developer
 * Meredith Whitney (born 1969), businesswoman
 * Thomas Wieser, American-Austrian economist
 * Michael Wilbon, journalist, sportscaster
 * Gedion Zelalem, professional footballer (soccer)

title: Bethesda, Maryland