Panorama: Old Town Charm

Situated along the west bank of the Potomac River, six miles south of Washington, D.C., the compleat city of Alexandria is anything but a backwater. Having developed into a bustling port in the late 1700s, old sentimentality still mixes with commerce here. Old Town's charming waterfront downtown and slow suburban streets contrast starkly with the city's research and development firms housed in high-tech plazas set on what were once tobacco fields. Nearby historical and cultural attractions include Gadsby's Tavern, the Lee-Fendall House, the Little Theatre of Alexandria, the Torpedo Factory Art Center, Market Square and the Carlyle House, campaign headquarters of the French and Indian War.