Just listening to Lisa Baden on WTOP can set your head to spinning if you don’t have a few references to the local vernacular used to pinpoint specific locations around the DC metro area. For many, this is a second language that they have heard for decades.  For others, its like being dropped in the middle of the Shanxi province of China and asking for directions to Tawain.  Once you have this local commuter slang mastered, the 2 minutes of traffic garble will sing like your native tongue:

 Here’s just a sampling:

 The Mixing Bowl – the towering, multitiered, interwoven intersection where 495, 395, and 95 converge and seperate.

495 – The Washington Beltway

Inner Loop  – 495 travelling counterclockwise

Outer Loop  – 495 travelling clockwise

295 – bisects the beltway skirting downton, also known as the BW Parkway north of DC

The Merge – where the HOV lanes join the main vein of 95 South just passed mile marker 152

The Greenway – The privately owned (yes I said privately owned) toll road that runs 12 miles from Dulles to Leesburg

14th Street Bridge – actually 5 bridges , 3 for traffic two for rails.  All Cross the Potomac from Arlington VA into DC as part of 395

American Legion Bridge – Crosses the Potomac north of DC as part of 495

Woodrow Wilson Bridges – the massive expanisve recently completed bridges that cross the Potomac south of DC as part of 495

What have I missed????