According to Freakonomics, "There’s a gas station near the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. that famously sells very expensive gas. Reporters flock there for the standard sky-high gas price story, and residents have long suspected that the station doesn’t actually want to sell gas."

Jump over to Yelp or Google Reviews and take a look at some of the reviews the Waterfront Exxon has received. They used to be known for charging 50 cents to a dollar more per gallon than the Sunoco station directly across the street.

John Kelly at the Washington Post called it "The worlds most expensive gas station" and went on to suggest that "people in China have heard of this station. People in England."

It turns out that the crazy high prices were the result of a "mortal struggle" between the owner of the station and the company that had a contract to operate it. A complex set of incentives meant that it was in the operator's best interest to minimize the amount of gas sold and focus on their auto repair business. You can read more about the gas war in this NPR investigation.

The Watergate Exxon closed in 2012 and reopened the next year as a Valero under a different operator. Gas prices have normalized.