Maine Avenue Fish Market

Description:

• The Maine Avenue Fish Market is also known as The Wharf, The Fish Wharf, and The Fish Market. Visitors usually only make it here when taken by a local. It's hidden in plain sight on the water just blocks south of L'Enfant Plaza in the immense shadow of the I-395/11th Street Bridge in southwest. One of the oldest open-air fish markets on the east coast, not much has changed since the late 1700s when barges used to come up from the Carolinas and dock here with fish and produce to sell. The Fish Market still sits on barges, only now they are steel and permanently moored. Locals come here for all things seafood – fish, crabs, shrimp, mussels, clams, cooked, raw, condiments, seasonings, platter dinners and sandwiches. Hardhats jostle alongside suits & briefcases ordering fish dinners and live crabs. It always has customers but weekends are especially bustling. Come for lunch and visit with DC residents. Parking is available but the Market is tricky to find so study a map carefully (if you miss it you'll be lost amongst Monuments and there is no easy loop back). L'Enfant Plaza (blue/ orange/yellow/green lines) and Waterfront-SEU (green line) Metro stations are about 3/4 mile away.
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