Landmarks & Locations

L'Enfant envisioned a 'grand avenue' from the Capitol to the Potomac. What's now the National Mall — 2 miles of open lawn flanked by Smithsonian museums — only took its modern form after the 1901 McMillan Plan cleared train tracks and Victorian gardens.

The Mall is technically a National Park. Free, open 24/7, and home to inaugurations, protests, the Cherry Blossom Festival, and the Fourth of July fireworks.

Washington Monument (1884): 555 ft 5⅛ in. Tallest stone structure in the world when finished. Color change at the 150-ft mark shows where construction paused for 23 years during the Civil War.

Lincoln Memorial (1922): Daniel Chester French's 19-ft seated Lincoln. The Gettysburg Address is carved on the south wall. Site of MLK's 'I Have a Dream' speech (1963).

Jefferson Memorial (1943): Modeled on the Pantheon, surrounded by cherry trees on the Tidal Basin.

Japan gifted 3,000 cherry trees to the U.S. in 1912 as a gesture of friendship. They ring the Tidal Basin and bloom for about two weeks in late March or early April. The National Cherry Blossom Festival draws 1.5 million visitors a year.

Don't miss the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (Maya Lin, 1982 — 140 black granite panels with 58,000+ names), the Korean War Veterans Memorial (19 stainless-steel soldiers in ponchos), Washington National Cathedral (Gothic, finished in 1990), the Library of Congress Jefferson Building, and the National Archives (the actual Declaration of Independence).