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is a census designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Presbyterian Church, built in 1820 and rebuilt in 1850, which in turn took its name from Jerusalem's Pool of Bethesda. (In Aramaic,
means "house of mercy".) It is one of the most affluent and highly educated locales in the country, placing first in Forbes list of America's most educated small towns and eleventh on CNNMoney.com's list of top-earning American towns. In addition, in April 2009, Forbes ranked Bethesda second on its list of "America's Most Livable Cities."
As an unincorporated area, Bethesda has no official boundaries. The United States Census Bureau defines a Census-Designated Place named Bethesda whose center is located at 38°59' North, 77°7' West. The United States Geological Survey has defined Bethesda as an area whose center is at , slightly different from the Census Bureau's definition. Other definitions are used by the Bethesda Urban Planning District, the United States Postal Service, and other organizations. According to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2000, the community had a total population of 55,277. Most of Bethesda's residents are in Maryland Legislative District 16. The National Institutes of Health has its main campus in Bethesda.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 34.2 km² (13.2 mi²). 34.0 km² (13.1 mi²) of it is land and 0.1 km² (0.1 mi²) of it (0.38%) is water.
The main commercial corridor that runs through Bethesda is Maryland Route 355 (known as Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda and as Rockville Pike and Hungerford Drive in more northern communities), which, to the north, connects Bethesda with the communities of Kensington and Rockville, ending, after several name changes, in Frederick, Maryland. Toward the South, Rockville Pike becomes Wisconsin Avenue near the NIH Campus and continues beyond Bethesda through Chevy Chase, Friendship Heights, Maryland and into Washington, DC, ending in Georgetown.
The area commonly known as "downtown Bethesda" is centered at the intersection of Route 355 (Wisconsin Avenue) with Maryland Route 187 (Old Georgetown Road), and Maryland Route 410 (called "East-West Highway"). Much of the dense construction in that area followed the opening of the Bethesda station on the Red Line of the Washington Metro rapid transit system, also located at this intersection and the centerpiece of the Bethesda Metro Center development. The "downtown," which includes the restaurant districts of Bethesda Row and Woodmont Triangle, lies about 0.7 miles south of Bethesda's other Red Line stop, Medical Center, which serves the NIH Campus, the National Naval Medical Center, and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.