District of Columbia Elevation & Topographic Map

Elevation

430 ft 130 m320 ft 100 m270 ft 80 m160 ft 50 m54 ft 16 m0 ft 0 m

Contours every 500 ft, bold every 2,500 ft

USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau

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How to use this mapviews, tools and data

Elevation: Ground colored by height from green (lowest) to white (highest), with contour lines every 40–500 ft (USGS data).
Satellite: A 2016 satellite photo at 33 ft (10 m) detail; contours off.
3D: Tilt and turn the terrain; hills are raised 1.5×, or set ×1 for true height.
Click or tap anywhere: The exact elevation of that spot in ft and m.
Measure: Pick two points for the climb, descent and grade along a straight line.
State area: Fades everything outside the official state boundary (US Census).

Elevation Data

District of Columbia averages about 150 ft (45 m) above sea level across all its land. Its ground runs from 0 ft on the west side to 430 ft on Point Reno.

Average elevation

150 ft 45 m

all land in District of Columbia

Highest

430 ft 130 m

on Point Reno

Lowest

0 ft 0 m

on the west side

District of Columbia spans about 430 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where most of its land lies, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.

Figure	Elevation
Average of all land	150 ft45 m
Highest point In District of Columbia, on Point Reno (3DEP terrain model; no NGS survey height)	430 ft130 m
Lowest point In District of Columbia, on the west side	0 ft0 m

Elevation profile, south to north

9.1 mi south to north through the middle of District of Columbia.

Topographic Map

Location: State in the South Atlantic division of the South region, United States
Population: 702,250 2024 est.
Land area: 61.1 sq mi + 7.2 sq mi water
Density: 11,488 per sq mi
Counties: 1
Time zone: Eastern UTC−5 / −4
Landform regions: Coastal Plain 56%, Piedmont 44%
Drains to: Atlantic Ocean

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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS

Nearby Places

Neighboring states sharing a border, by average

Virginia1,020 ft
Maryland440 ft
District of Columbia150 ft

Rankings by average elevation

States in the United States49th highest of 52

Peaks and hills highest inside

Point Reno430 ft
Mount Saint Alban390 ft
Georgetown Heights365 ft
Good Hope Hill290 ft
Lees Hill280 ft

All 1 counties by average elevation

District of Columbia150 ft

How we measure

Average: every USGS 3DEP bare-earth cell of land inside the Census state boundary (TIGER/Line, Jan 1 2026), weighted equally, on a 1 arc-second (≈100 ft, 30 m) grid. Land means the boundary minus Census area water.
Highest and lowest: the highest land cell; it is a named summit, so its height is the peak method: the 3DEP top on a ~7 ft (2 m) window, or the NGS published height when a survey mark sits within 160 ft (50 m) of it. Lowest: the lowest land cell; coastal ground within 3 ft (1 m) of named tidal water counts as sea level.
Pits: the lowest point is the lowest ground outside closed hollows (quarry floors, mine pits, terrain-model artifacts): any hollow under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²), and any hollow under 2 sq mi (5 km²) whose floor is more than 100 ft (30 m) below its rim; and outside patches below sea level of under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²). The single lowest 3DEP cell, −26 ft at 38.8107° N, 77.0235° W, is in such a hollow or patch and is not counted.
Nearby Places: neighboring states and rankings use each one's average elevation, on its own grid, the same figure its page shows. Peaks and hills: the highest summits inside the state with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence, then the highest federal (GNIS) summits inside it when there are fewer than 5; each is the 3DEP top on a ~7 ft (2 m) window, or the NGS published height when a usable survey mark sits within 160 ft (50 m) of it (shown as published).
Counties: each one's average on its own grid (1 arc-second, coarser for the largest), the same figure its own page shows.
Rounding: computed heights are rounded to 10 ft (5 m), or to 1 ft (1 m) under 100 ft; 3DEP is good to about a meter, not a foot. Published figures (NGS survey heights) are shown as their publisher gives them.
Datum: North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88). NGS plans to replace NAVD 88 with a new datum (NAPGD2022); heights will then shift slightly.
Sources: USGS 3DEP, GNIS, Watershed Boundary Dataset and physiographic provinces; U.S. Census Bureau (TIGER boundaries and water, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, county adjacency); NOAA NGS survey heights; BTS time zones. All public domain.