Silver Spring

How did Silver Spring, Maryland land one of the prettiest, most mystical-sounding names in the Washington, D.C. area? Was there really a magical silver spring that once flowed through the area? Is it as pretty and idyllic as it sounds? Actually, that's exactly where the name comes from: a "silver spring."

Rachel Carson, whose 1962 expose Silent Spring helped launch the modern environmental movement, was a longtime resident of Silver Spring.

Rock superstar David Bowie, sold 140 million albums in a career that spanned more than four decades and earned fame as perhaps the genre's most flamboyantly inventive performer. But in January of 1971, he was still a largely unknown singer-songwriter who began his first visit to America with house party in Maryland.