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Bethesda and Chevy Chase
Bethesda is one of the largest and wealthiest business and residential communities in Montgomery County. It is one of the most well-known communities in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, and a great destination for excellent restaurants, shops and entertainment.
Downtown Bethesda is located at the intersections of Wisconsin Avenue, East-West Highway and Old Georgetown Road, as can be seen below:
In addition to local bus lines, Bethesda is also serviced by the METRO Red Line, and is well known for its many retail stores and close to 200 restaurants that draw diners from all over the county
For many years, there has been sustained and increased development in downtown Bethesda, including high-rise offices, condominiums and retail stores.
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In spite of the ongoing development, one of the unchanged and historical highlights of downtown Bethesda is the Montgomery County Farm Womens Cooperative Market, the oldest indoor and outdoor country market in the area, established in 1932. It is open three days a week and in addition to fresh local dairy and produce, an additional variety of non-food items are sold outside under the twin Sycamore trees when the weather is warm.
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Two major indoor shopping centers in the Bethesda area are White Flint Shopping Center on Rockville Pike north of the Beltway, and Westfields Shopping Town, which everyone still refers to as Montgomery Mall. With major anchor stores like Bloomindales and Nortstroms, Macy's and Lord and Taylor, these malls are favorite destinations for many shoppers.
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A recent and notable addition to North Bethesda is the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, which provides Montgomery County with state-of-the-art convention facilities, supurb dining, as well as luxury accomodations. It boasts the largest ballroom in Maryland with 12 meeting rooms and a total of 35,000 sq ft of meeting space. With the White Flint Metrorail directly across Rockville Pike, this new and elegant facility is truly a superb and premiere destination in which to hold events, exhibits and conventions.
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The North Bethesda area has also been graced by the new Music Center at Strathmore.
Located just north of the Grosvenor METRO on a lovely 11 acre site, this elegant new concert hall has one of the finest acoustics in the nation. It also serves as a second home to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and a new home to the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestra, an outstanding group of young performers. Additional resident partners of the Music Center at Stratford are the National Philharmonic, the Washington Performing Arts Society, the Levine School of Music and the City Dance Ensemble.
The mission of this fine institution is to "nurture art, artists and community through creative and diverse programming of the highest quality."
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A very important part of Bethesda is the National Institutes of Health, a government agency responsible for both the funding and the conducting of biomedical research. Among the very many branches of the NIH are the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute on aging, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the National Library of Medicine.
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Across Wisconsin Avenue /Rockville Pike from HIH is the National Naval Medical Center. It is one of the nations largest and most renowned military medical centers, best known for its history of providing care to war heroes and presidents alike for the past 65 years. People go there to heal, to stay healthy, to help others, to teach the next generation, to practice quality medicine, and to take part in cutting-edge clinical research. Its is a focus of outstanding care given to our troops wounded overseas.
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Bethesda is also situated adjacent to the well-known and wealthy town of Chevy Chase, extending northward on both sides of Connecticut Avenue just north of the Washington DC line. Developed in 1890 by the Chevy Chase Land Company and one of the area's first planned communities, Chevy Chase is well known for its eclectic mix of lovely homes and as the location of the National 4-H Council Headquarters. In addition, the Chevy Chase area is known for its own fashionable residential and shopping district of Friendship Heights at Western and Wisconsin Avenues, just bordering Washington.
Pictures of NIH and the National Naval Medical Center are taken from official Government web sites and are in the public domain.
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