Foggy Bottom is a neighborhood in the city of Washington, D.C. One of the oldest neighborhoods, in fact - it dates from the original 18th century construction of the city.
It is also the site of many locations of present-day and historical significance. Foggy Bottom is perhaps most famous as the location of the main headquarters of the United States Department of State, such that "Foggy Bottom" is often used as a metonym for the State Department, much the way "Capitol Hill" is used to mean the United States Congress.
Foggy Bottom is also the location of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the main campus of George Washington University, and the infamous Watergate Hotel, site of the Watergate break-in that precipitated the scandal that ultimately forced US President Richard M. Nixon to resign from office.
The exact borders of Foggy Bottom have never been rigidly defined, but the neighborhood is roughly bounded by Pennsylvania Avenue to the north, 17th Street to the east, Constitution Avenue to the south, and by the Potomac River and Rock Creek to the west.
Primarily consisting of high-rise government and office buildings today, the neighborhood was originally a warren of wharves, warehouses, brickyards, and breweries, and also included a gas works and a glassworks. It is believed to have received its nickname "Foggy Bottom" from the fact that its low-lying location along the riverbank was often susceptible to the concentration of large pools of fog and industrial air pollution.