Impress your colleagues and stump your friends with these little-known facts about Washington DC.  What was the original name of the city?  How is Abraham Lincoln related to Elvis Presley?  Where is North America's only Da Vinci painting?  Look below for more interesting DC trivia!

• Places Rated Almanac (2000) ranked DC the second-best overall place to live in the U.S. behind Salt Lake City.
• Gallaudet University began the tradition of the football huddle in the 1890s, in order to conceal their signed plays from the opposing team.
• More than 100 nations have embassies in Washington, DC.
• The Washington Monument is 555 feet, 5 1/8 inches tall.
• Men's Fitness magazine rates DC the fourth fittest city in the U.S.
• Washington, DC's U Street neighborhood was once known as "Black Broadway" and was where Duke Ellington grew up.
• FamilyFun magazine voted DC the best city destination for family travel in the United States.
• The National Gallery of Art is home to the only Leonardo da Vinci painting in North America.
• Past Presidential Pets have included: macaws (Dolley Madison, Teddy Roosevelt), a raccoon (Grace Coolidge), and a dairy cow named Pauline (Taft).
• The first official White House Christmas Tree was decorated by Benjamin Harrison and family, defying Puritan traditions.
• Abraham Lincoln is related through his mother to Tom Hanks and Mrs. Bill Cosby and through his father to Elvis Presley.
• The National Museum of Health and Medicine displays the bullet that killed Lincoln. The Museum at Ford's Theater has the gun. The hat that Lincoln was wearing is on display at the National Museum of American History.
• Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy who warned him to cancel his evening at the theater; Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln who encouraged him to skip his trip to Dallas.
• The word "Lobbyist" originates from President Grant's disdain for the interest groups who loitered in the Willard Hotel's lavish lobby.
• The National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception's Chapel of Our Lady of Hope is endowed by Bob Hope.
• The original name of Washington, DC was "Federal City."
• The Pentagon has 17 ½ miles of corridors and can be seen from space.
• There is no "J" Street in Washington, DC. A common urban legend had it that Pierre L'Enfant, designer of the city, bore a grudge against John Jay, 1st Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, who allegedly disapproved of L'Enfant's design.
• Helen Keller and President Woodrow Wilson are buried at Washington National Cathedral.
• Movies and shows such as The West Wing, Wheel of Fortune, The X-Files, Touched By An Angel, Enemy of the State, Hannibal, Random Hearts, Five Lines, Deep Impact, Traffic, A Few Good Men, An American President, Forrest Gump, Contact, Wag the Dog, and Thirteen Days all filmed in Washington, DC.