The Mt. Vernon trail goes right past National Airport. Looking away from the airport toward Crystal City, one can see the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The picture above shows the middle part of my journey from National Airport to the Anacostia Naval Base. In the picture, the top edge is to the South, so it takes a little thinking to get oriented. Maybe a view from the Washington Monument looking to the south will help.
I take the furthest upstream span of the 14th Street Bridge to cross the Potomac River. At one end of the span is the Jefferson Memorial.
Ducking along underneath the big roads, I get to the DC Waterfront:
Accross the water from the docks is Haines Point, and the delightful East Potomac Park. At the left side of the image, the road curves up and I follow M Street, SW accross to South Capitol Street. The South Capitol Street Bridge is quite bright in the first image, that's where I cross the Anacostia River. Or see it from the Washington Monument.
Then the Anacostia Naval Station and Bolling AFB provide nice clean roads the rest of the way to NRL.
Washington DC Area Multi-Scale Map