National Harbor

National Harbor, Washington, D.C., is a census-designated place in Prince George’s County, Maryland, located along the Potomac River near the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, just south of Washington, D.C. The land developed as National Harbor was formerly the Salubria Plantation, established in 1827 by Dr. John H. Bain. The plantation house was destroyed by fire in 1981 and subsequently sold along with the surrounding property. In 1984, the site was put up for sale, and in 1994 it was rezoned for mixed-use development. In the fall of 1997, the Maryland Department of the Environment and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved a new development permit, paving the way for the PortAmerica project in 1998.

The Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, situated in National Harbor, opened to the public on April 1, 2008, in Oxon Hill, Maryland. Developed by Milton Peterson’s Peterson Companies, the project was initially projected to cost over $2 billion. As of April 2016, construction was still ongoing, with total expenditures estimated at $4 billion. The site was designated a census-designated place in 2010.