Bowie

Bowie is a suburban bedroom community of Washington, D.C. in Prince George's County, Maryland.

Understand
While Bowie's history goes back over a century, much of the city consists of ranch and Cape Cod homes built in the 1960s and 1970s as a planned community by Levitt & Sons, a noted real estate development company. Lately, Bowie has grown by annexing various developments that have sprouted up around the city's edge since the mid-1980s. The visitor can still find vestiges of historical Bowie—most notably, the railroads and horse farms that defined Bowie in the pre-Levitt era. One of America's oldest historically black universities is Bowie State University, located in Old Bowie.

By plane

 * Baltimore-Washington International Airport is 20 miles southwest of Bowie via MD197 and MD295.
 * Washington Reagan National Airport is 23 miles southwest of Bowie via US 50 (through Washington, D.C.).
 * Washington Dulles International Airport is 45 miles west of Bowie via the Capital Beltway.

By train
MARC operates train service on its Penn Line to/from Baltimore and Washington, D.C.. Nearest station is at 13900 Jericho Park Rd.

By bus
Metrobus B27 operates service to/from the New Carrollton Metro Station. For more information on riding the Metrorail and Metrobus, see Washington DC.

By car
Bowie is best navigated by car.

By bicycle
The Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis Trail runs through the northern part of Bowie and there are various other networks of bike paths and on-street bike routes.

Unfortunately, Route 50 bisects the city and has few bike-friendly crossings.

See




Do




Buy
Bowie has a variety of malls, but little that's likely to pique the interest of the picky shopper. Two of the malls are Bowie Town Center and Free State Mall. Some of the antique shops in Old Town may be worth your time.

Go next

 * Greenbelt is a historic New Deal Town just next door with venues for live music and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center visitor center.
 * College Park is home to the University of Maryland's largest campus.
 * Washington, D.C.
 * Annapolis
 * Baltimore