For years Georgetown has been DC’s center of political and media power. Residents include John and Teresa Heinz Kerry; former secretary of State Madeleine Albright; journalists Ben Brad­lee and Sally Quinn, Bob Woodward, Matthew Cooper, Tracey Neale, Margaret Carlson, and Maureen Dowd; developer Anthony Lanier; pollsters Andrew Kohut and Mark Penn; and Sprint Nextel CEO Gary Forsee.

Georgetown’s densest concentration of power lies in its new waterfront condos, where VIPs include business titans Carly Fiorina, Mark Lerner, Jamie Darvish, and Sanju K. Bansal as well as lobbyist Tom Korologos.

Chain Bridge Road as it rises off the Virginia side of the Potomac is the address for Congressman Jim Moran and former senator Chuck Robb as well as moguls Roger Mody, Richard Hindin, Dwight Schar, and Steve Case.

Taking up residence in Reston’s new colony of high-rise condos are Redskins coach Joe Gibbs, Gulf War hero Anthony Zinni, home-building power couple Susan and Peter Gulick, and Fairfax politico Kate Hanley.

Thanks to its proximity to private schools and two golf courses, Avenel in Potomac is a magnet for wealth and clout. Neighbors on one street are Booz Allen CEO Ralph Shrader, Choice Hotels’ Charles Led­singer, commercial-real-estate broker James Underhill, and family-business scions John Ourisman and David Marriott.

Others who live in developments off River Road as it runs through Potomac include camera-chain CEO David Ritz, Redskins owner Dan Snyder, newsman Ted Koppel, and Caps goalie Olaf Kolzig.