Seniors Enjoy Bethesda

 This senior was watching a PGA Tour Golf tournament recently that was being played in Bethesda. I had not ever been to this city and wanted to know more about it.

Bethesda is the home of Congressional Country Club, which is recognized as one of the most prestigious country clubs in the world. Congressional has hosted four major golf championships.

Senior visitors will find this city in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, just northwest of Washington, D.C.

It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in turn took its name from Jerusalem’s Pool of Bethesda.

The National Institutes of Health main campus and the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center are in Bethesda, as are a number of corporate and government headquarters.

 Seniors Look For Bethesda’s Landmarks

Bethesda is full of landmarks and important medical institutions, defense conglomerates and a host of other firms that call Bethesda home. Bethesda is one of the most affluent and highly educated communities in the United States.

Bethesda is situated along a major thoroughfare that was originally the route of an ancient Native American trail. Henry Fleet, an English fur trader, was the first European to travel to the area, which he reached by sailing up the Potomac River.

After staying for two years with the Piscataway tribe—either as a guest or prisoner…you guess—he returned to England, spoke of potential riches in fur and gold, and won funding for another North American expedition.

 Seniors Find Prestigious Schools and Notable People

I learned that most early settlers in Maryland were tenant farmers who paid their rent in tobacco. The extractive nature of tobacco farming meant that colonists continued to push farther north in search of fertile land, and in 1694 Henry Darnell surveyed a 710-acre area that became the first land grant in present-day Bethesda.

Senior visitors will find 18 prestigious private schools located in Bethesda including Georgetown Prep. and Sidwell Friends lower school. And notable people is a Who’s Who listing that includes Mike Tyson, Red Auerbach, Connie Chung, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Maury Povich, Daniel Stern and a host of others.

I’d want to spend some time in Downtown Bethesda, a thriving urban center home to numerous restaurants, retailers, arts venues and community events. Bethesda Avenue is an awesome street lined with a wide variety of businesses.

Bethesda: One Destination. One Community. A World of Excitement. Forbes Magazine selected Bethesda as one of the “Coolest Cities” in the country. Seniors, check out Bethesda and discover all that it has to offer.  -jeb