TRANSPORTATION
Air - Gaithersburg is within an hour’s drive of Baltimore-Washington International, Dulles International and Reagan National Airports. Smaller private and business aircraft are served by the Montgomery County Airpark, less than 15 minutes away.
Subway - Gaithersburg is on the Metrorail Red Line, with the Shady Grove Metro Station accessible by I-370 and Shady Grove Road.
Bus - Regional Metrobuses and county-operated Ride-On buses serve Gaithersburg and connect with the Metrorail at the Shady Grove Station.
Train - Maryland Association of Rail Commuters (MARC) passenger trains arrive at the Gaithersburg Train Station in Olde Towne, the Metropolitan Grove stop on the west side of I-270, and the nearby Washington Grove stop, connecting Gaithersburg with downtown Washington, D.C. and the area’s most western suburbs.
Highway - Gaithersburg is accessible from I-270, a north, south route that links the I-495 Washington Beltway with I-70 West. Gaithersburg is also at the western terminus of the InterCounty Connector (ICC), which links I-95 to I-270.
HEALTH SERVICES
Shady Grove Adventist Hospital, Montgomery General Hospital, Suburban Hospital, and Holy Cross Hospital serve the Gaithersburg area.
RETAIL CENTERS
The City supports a vibrant and growing retail community. There are seventeen shopping centers of more than 25,000 square feet, giving Gaithersburg more than three million square feet of retail shopping center space. In retail centers such as Lakeforest, Rio/Washingtonian Center and the Kentlands you’ll find a variety of large retailers including Macy’s, Lord & Taylor, Barnes & Noble, Sears, Home Depot, Costco, JCPenney, K-Mart, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Best Buy, Kohl’s, Sam’s Club, Lowe’s, and Target. And in Olde Towne, in Kentlands and in all the small strip centers and stand alone businesses in between you’ll find hundreds of establishments filled with unique merchandise run by local entrepreneurs.
HIGHER LEARNING
Gaithersburg is centrally located within an hour’s drive of dozens of colleges and universities. Georgetown, Howard and George Washington Universities in nearby Washington, D.C., Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and the University of Maryland in College Park are premier institutions with international reputations. The area also boasts numerous smaller schools such as Mount Saint Mary’s (Emmitsburg, MD), Hood College (Frederick, MD), American and Catholic Universities (Washington, D.C.), George Mason University (Fairfax, VA), and Montgomery College, with three campuses in Montgomery County.
Among the 20 largest metropolitan areas, Washington and its suburbs have the fourth highest concentration of college and graduate students.
At the nearby Shady Grove Life Sciences Center, both the University of Maryland (Shady Grove) and Johns Hopkins University maintain satellite campuses focusing on technology education. Washington Adventist University and the Montgomery College Business Training Center also have facilities in Gaithersburg.
ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
Through thoughtful planning and innovative governing we are creating a City that is a leader in environmental sustainability. From wind energy purchase to stringent “green” guidelines for both residential and commercial building, Gaithersburg is at the forefront of the municipal effort to preserve and enhance our environment.
 CITY SYMBOLS
The City logo, an oak tree encircled by a green "G," reflects the small-town ambiance of Gaithersburg and the importance of the environment in its past, present and future. It is representative of the famed Forest Oak tree, a 300 year old landmark that was felled by a wind storm in 1997. In 1996 the City embraced character education as a major initiative and added the phrase, "A CHARACTER COUNTS! City" to its official logo.
The City flag is white with the green logo in the center.
The peony is the City flower, commemorating the large peony gardens of Edward Schwartz. He cultivated 40,000 plants of 400 different varieties on land that is now home to Gaithersburg City Hall. Some of the peony plants survive at City Hall and at nearby Seneca Creek State Park.
RECOGNITION
In 2010 Gaithersburg ranked #25 on CNN/Money Magazine’s Best Places to Live in the country. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognized Gaithersburg in 2010 with its Building Healthy Communities in Active Aging Commitment Award. In 2008 and again in 2009, BusinessWeek ranked Gaithersburg #1 in Maryland on its annual list of “Best Places to Raise Your Kids." In 2009, 2010 and 2011 a Farmer’s Insurance Group report placed the Bethesda-Gaithersburg-Frederick corridor within the top ten on a national list of "Most Secure Places to Live,” and in 2009 the DC Metropolitan area was ranked #6 on CNN/Money Magazine’s list of “Best Places to Launch a Small Business.” Gaithersburg was also ranked 29th on Money magazine’s 2008 list of “America’s Best 100 Small Cities.” Prevention magazine placed Gaithersburg at #63 on their national list of “Best Walking Cities in America,” while Self magazine ranked the Bethesda-Gaithersburg.
 CHARACTER COUNTS!
Gaithersburg is a CHARACTER COUNTS! City and embraces the Six Pillars of Ethics as created by the Michael Josephson Institute of Ethics. The City adopted this nationwide program in 1995 to promote respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, trustworthiness and citizenship. CHARACTER COUNTS! is an educational program that teaches ethics and good character to today's youth and trains adults on how they can become community models of character.
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