Last night on 1153 coming into DCA, we came out under some cloud cover and had what felt like a very steep angle of descent. It seemed like we were still very high given how close we were to the airport As we were in line with the Washington monument, we pulled back up and then circled back around. I don't know if we were close enough to landing to call this a go around or whatever the term of art is, but it was cool nonetheless. From the announcment the pilot made after we pulled back up, it sounded like ATC had cleared us to land but from a position where it wasn't feasible to do so. Second time around we landed fine, although I still think ATC made it harder for the pilot than it needed to be. My question is really just whether or not there are specific things in DCA that make it marginally more difficult to land there.