4th of July Data Visualized: Top 5 Cities that Flocked to the Fireworks
No matter what your plans were for the Fourth of July, I’m sure you had to shape your day around crowds, lines, and traffic. Fortunately, location data can help alleviate the hassle of waiting in crowds. Our team, using our clean and accurate data, explored location data trends from this Fourth of July in Washington, D.C. for you to keep in mind for years to come.
The first thing we looked at was the number of people that visited Washington DC. The map below makes it fairly easy to see the number of tourists in Washington DC. These tourists in addition to locals made for massive crowds on this holiday weekend.
From this data, we were able to pinpoint the five cities that sent the most people to Washington DC for the Fourth of July:
- Atlanta, GA
- New York, NY
- Los Angeles, CA
- Baltimore, MD
- Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX
Next, we looked at Washington, D.C. specifically to see where the crowds moved and at what time. We found the National Mall was busy for the majority of the day. People began to arrive as early as 6:00 am and began to draw serious crowds at 10:00 am. Below is a heatmap showing activity between the hours of 3:00 am-5:00 am (top) versus 10:00 am-12:00 pm (bottom).
Additionally, we were able to see how many people attended the Fourth of July parade. The parade proceeded down Constitution Ave., starting at 7th Street and ending at 17th Street. Looking at location data between 11:00 am (when the parade started) and 2:00 pm (when the parade ended), we were able to see about 1,700 people were in attendance within that two-hour time-frame.
The National Mall was busy all day from people arriving early in the morning to see the monuments and memorials to staying past dark to view fireworks. To solve this problem, we shifted our focus to areas of the city that were not as overwhelmingly busy. We identified places where people may be able to get food or water without waiting in long lines.
The above heat maps depict location data between the hours of 10:00 am and 6:00 pm on the Fourth of July. The top heatmap shows the National Mall- the busiest area in Washington, D.C. on the Fourth of July. The middle heatmap shows West End and Georgetown. The bottom heatmap shows Shaw.
Areas like Georgetown and Shaw are great places to grab food, as they are comparatively less busy, and are located far enough away from the Mall so they won’t be hotspots for visitors. In addition to the food options, Georgetown offers a number of historical activities such as the Self-Guided Kennedy Walking Tour, Tour the Tudor Place, and more. The African-American Civil War Monument and the Howard Theatre are both great options to explore historical sites in Shaw. The transportation options in Washington DC make it fairly easy to get to places like Georgetown and Shaw despite the big crowds. Links to all of the transportation options in Washington, D.C. can be found here.
These are just some of the location data trends that we analyzed from the Fourth of July in Washington, D.C. You can visit the data sources we used for travelers coming to DC and people in Washington DC on the Fourth of July to explore other trends.
By: Caroline Shelquist
