The changing of the guards is a must see....in the summer it's every 30 minutes.
The Changing of the Guard is every half an hour from 0800 - 1700; starting April 1st, Arlington is open til 1900, last Guard change 1900
Construction began in 1914, and the memorial was opened to the public in 1922. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech to a crowd by the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 .
Visit the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial and help bring his vision to life: “With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.” Read more.
Completed in 1931, the Peristyle Doric Temple was the first war memorial on the Mall, and lists all 499 DC residents who lost their lives in the war, regardless of their rank, race, or gender.
President Roosevelt asked the Commission of Fine Arts about the possibility of erecting a memorial to Thomas Jefferson. Construction went from 1938-43, & Roosevelt laid the first cornerstone himself.
Opened in 1993, this museum is devoted to the history of the Holocaust, the state-sponsored murder of 6 million Jews in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945.
The museum first opened in 1964, and among the items on display are the original Star-Spangled Banner and Dorothy's ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz.
The Smithsonian Institution was founded for the "increase and diffusion" of knowledge from a bequest to the United States by the British scientist James Smithson, who had never visited the US himself.
The current building was designed by Robert Mills and constructed over a 33-year period beginning in 1836. It is the oldest departmental building in Washington.
The Smithsonian Institution was founded for the "increase and diffusion" of knowledge from a bequest to the United States by the British scientist James Smithson, who had never visited the US himself.
Originally called the National Air Museum when it was formed on August 12, 1946 by an act of Congress, some pieces in the National Air and Space Museum collection date back to 1876.
Congress established the National Archives Establishment in 1934 to centralize federal record keeping & holds Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights & a copy of the 1297 Magna Carta
On the second floor of the Theater, you can see the boxseat where Abe Lincoln was sitting when he was killed. On the lower level the museum displays exhibits about Lincoln’s life and his tragic death.
Opened in 1941, this museum, founded by financier Andrew Mellon, has some 116,000 works of Western art dating from the Middle Ages to the modern era.
Opened in 2004, this museum is devoted to the history and culture of Native people in the Western Hemisphere.
Newseum numbers: 250,000 sq. ft., 35,000 historic newspaper front pages, 15 theaters, 8 sections of the Berlin Wall (each is 3 tons), First Amendment tablet on Pennsylvania Ave. is 50 tons of marble.
The garden is a living plant museum & was established by Congress in 1820. The Conservatory reopened in Dec 2001 after a four-year renovation,with approx 4,000 seasonal, tropical & subtropical plants.
Did you know that one of the windows contains a moon rock? There is a tiny piece of the moon embedded in the 'Space Window,' delivered there personally by the astronauts who brought it back. Read more.
Approved to be built in 2001. Cost was $621 million. Opened in December 2008. 580,000 sq. ft. (larger than the Capitol itself).
The Capitol is among the most architecturally impressive and symbolically important buildings in the world. Begun in 1793, the Capitol has been built, burnt, rebuilt, extended, and restored.
Created in 1800 the library is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution & the largest library in the world. In 1815 Thomas Jefferson sold his entire personal collection of books to the library
Mount Vernon was home to George Washington for more than 45 years. Washington enlarged the residence and built up the property from 2,000 to nearly 8,000 acres. See video for more history. Read more.
Walk to all the museums via the Mall or just stroll from the Capitol to Lincoln Memorial - its the quintessential walk in DC (WH,Cap,Smithsonian,Wash Mem,Lincoln Mem,WW2 Mem,Vietnam Mem,Korea Mem,etc)
The museum opened on July 19, 2002 and is the only public museum in the United States solely dedicated to espionage that has shaped history and continues to have a significant impact on world events.
Judiciary Square was originally designated as the site for the Supreme Court, in accordance with L’Enfant’s Plan to place the three branches of government in a geographical relationship.
Finished and occupied in 1935, the Supreme Court's great marble temple is a fitting home for the nation's third branch of government. Read more.
