The view from David Murray's home in Washington, D.C., is among the best in the city, a panorama of the Washington Channel bookended by the army's Fort McNair and the Washington Monument. "What more could I ask for?" asks Murray, surveying his surroundings as his shirt flutters in a breeze city dwellers would envy.
Murray, 30, is one of about 140 waterborne householders who live in Washington's Gangplank Marina, a vibrant, tightknit and quirky community of folks who have given up life on land — "on the hard," as they say — and maintain year-round homes on the ebb and flow of a waterway.
It might sound like an odd living situation, fraught with inconvenience and seasickness, but talk to anyone who lives at Gangplank and they'll gladly list the advantages: the great views and neighborhood feel; the proximity to Interstate 395, the subway and a Capital Bikeshare stand; a Safeway grocery within walking distance. All this, but at a lower cost than living on terra firma near the waterfront, where one-bedroom condos average $267,486, according to real estate listing service MRIS — about twice the cost of similarly sized houseboats.