Washington is a great place to visit for any number of reasons, but it's most important as a place of history. At the National Archives you can see the original documents that have created, shaped, and fine-tuned the United States of America. Visit the monuments to the nation's past, and find in them the inspiration for a strong future.
Neighborhoods
- Downtown includes the monuments dotting the National Mall but is otherwise strictly business;
- Dupont Circle is an upscale business and residential address with a funky fringe;
- Adams-Morgan is bohemian, funky and international;
- Shaw has historically elite residential areas and ghettos; and
- Georgetown has pristine historic houses, a university and lively bars.
When to Go
The most comfortable times to visit Washington are in spring (March to May) and fall (September to November). The official tourist season runs from April through September. It's a good idea to buy advance tickets to popular attractions during this period because the queues can be monstrous. Summers are hot and humid, especially in July and August. If you can bear the heat, this can be a good time to visit, as business travel to DC slumps and accommodation rates fall accordingly.
What to See
The attractions in Washington, DC are endless and cover a wide variety of interests. Before you come, plan your trip! Select a few must see items, based on what your personal interests are and then enjoy exploring everything else the city has to offer.
Government Buildings
The Capitol: The Capitol is the epicenter of the city as well as being its most prominent landmark; Washington's major avenues intersect at an imaginary point under the dome. If you want to watch Congress in session, you'll have to get a pass for the visitors' gallery from your Congressional Representative (if you have one) or the Sergeant-at-Arms (if you don't).
The White House: Every president since 1800 has called the White House home, ensuring that 1600 Pennsylvania Ave is the most famous address in the nation. Presidents have customized the property over time: Jefferson added toilets, FDR put in a pool, Truman installed a second-story porch, Bush added a horseshoe-throwing lane and Clinton put in a jogging track and a seven-seat hot tub. It is said that some residents never leave: reportedly both Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry Truman sighted the ghost of Abe Lincoln in Lincoln's old study. Daily tours are available.
J. Edgar Hoover Federal Bureau of Investigations Building: Though tours of the building's interior have been suspended indefinitely (since September 11, 2001), it's still worth walking past this hulking structure, decried from birth as hideous. Even Hoover himself is said to have called it the "ugliest building I've ever seen." Opened in 1974, it hangs over 9th Street like a poured-concrete Big Brother. Those hoping for a dose of espionage history can walk a block to the new International Spy Museum.
Monuments
Washington Monument: At the western end of the Mall, stands the 555-ft, 5-inch Washington Monument. This white obelisk rising from the center of the Mall was begun in 1848, but not completed for 37 years. The project was derailed by antipapists who opposed Pope Pius IX's contributions, then the Civil War interrupted. There's an elevator ride to the top, and you can walk back down a staircase lined with plaques from all the states, plus one from the Cherokee Nation.
Lincoln Memorial: The Lincoln Memorial is much more than a monument to the 16th US President. Completed in 1922, it quickly became a symbol of America's commitment to civil rights. From its steps in 1963, Martin Luther King Jr preached, 'I have a dream...' Designed to resemble a Greek temple, the monument's 36 columns represent the 36 states in Lincoln's union. The hands of the 19ft (5.7m) statue read A and L in American Sign Language to honor Lincoln's support for the Gallaudet College for the Deaf.
Vietnam Veterans Memorial: The most visited memorial in DC is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a stark, powerful structure designed by Maya Ying Lin, whose design was selected from a national competition when she was a 21-year-old architecture student at Yale University. Two walls of polished black marble that come together in a V shape are inscribed with the names of 58,202 veterans killed or missing as a result of the Vietnam War. Names are inscribed chronologically from date of death; alphabetical rosters are available nearby. On request, volunteers will help you get rubbings of names from 'The Wall'. The most moving remembrances are the notes, medals and mementos left by survivors, family and friends since the memorial was completed in 1982. Opponents to the design insisted that a more traditional sculpture be added; a memorial to the women who served in the war was another later addition.
Korean War Memorial: Dedicated in 1995, this memorial to the 1.5 million United States men and women who served in the Korean War highlights the high cost of freedom. The statue group in the triangular Field of Service depicts 19 multi-ethnic soldiers on patrol in rugged Korean terrain. They're heading toward an American flag. To the south of the soldiers stands a 164-ft-long granite wall etched with the faces of 2,400 unnamed service men and women with a silver inlay reading freedom is not free. The adjacent Pool of Remembrance honors all who were killed, captured, wounded, or missing in action; it's a quiet spot for contemplation.
Museums
Smithsonian
The Mall is home to some of the capital's most famous museums. The Smithsonian is among the world's finest research centers, and has 13 phenomenal museums and galleries as well as a zoo. Its collection is so immense that only 1% of it is ever on display. The Smithsonian museums on the Mall are the: red-brick Smithsonian Castle (the original Smithsonian), the Freer Gallery of American and Asian Art, the National Museum of African Art, the Arthur M Sackler Gallery of Asian Arts, the Arts & Industries Building (housing a collection of Victorian Americana), the National Gallery of Art and the Hirshhorn collection of modern art.
The Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum is packed with full-size air and spacecraft, including the Wright brothers' plane and the Apollo IX command module. You can touch a moon rock, watch a stomach-churning IMAX film or visit the planetarium. The National Museum of Natural History holds many awesome highlights, including the Hope Diamond, a model of the biggest blue whale ever seen and a giant mammoth. It's got all the favorites: dinosaur bones, insects and a newly renovated hall of gems and minerals. The National Museum of American History is full of cultural touchstones - they've got the original American flag and, more importantly, the original Kermit the Frog, as well as Fonzie's leather jacket, Dorothy's ruby slippers and a whole bunch of sensible historical stuff.
US Holocaust Museum: A haunting memorial to victims of Nazi tyranny, covering the period 1933 to 1945. A permanent exhibition tells the stories of the millions of Jews, Gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, political prisoners, mentally ill, and others killed by the Nazis between 1933 and 1945. Striving to give a you-are-there experience, the graphic presentation is as extraordinary as the subject matter: upon arrival, you are issued an "identity card" containing biographical information on a real person from the Holocaust. As you move through the museum, you read sequential updates on your card. The museum recounts the Holocaust with documentary films, video- and audiotaped oral histories, and a collection that includes such items as a freight car like those used to transport Jews from Warsaw to the Treblinka death camp, and the Star of David patches that Jewish prisoners were made to wear. Like the history it covers, the museum can be profoundly disturbing; it's not recommended for children under 11, although "Daniel's Story," in a ground-floor exhibit not requiring tickets, is designed for children ages 8 and up.
Galleries
Corcoran Gallery Of Art: The Corcoran is Washington's first art museum. The beaux arts-style building, its copper roof green with age, was designed by Ernest Flagg and completed in 1897. The gallery's permanent collection of 14,000 works includes paintings by the greatest of the early American portraitists: John Copley, Gilbert Stuart, and Rembrandt Peale. There are also portraits by John Singer Sargent, Thomas Eakins, and Mary Cassatt. The Walker Collection shows late-19th- and early 20th-century European paintings, including works by Gustave Courbet, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Dutch, Flemish, and French paintings are on display at the Clark Collection. Photography and works by contemporary American artists are also among the Corcoran's strengths.
National Gallery of Art – West Building: The two buildings of the National Gallery hold one of the world's foremost collections of paintings, sculptures, and graphics. If you want to view the museum's holdings in (more or less) chronological order, it's best to start your exploration in the West Building. The rotunda, with its 24 marble columns surrounding a fountain topped with a statue of Mercury, sets the stage for the masterpieces on display in more than 100 galleries. The National Gallery's permanent collection includes works from the 13th to 20th centuries. A comprehensive survey of Italian paintings and sculpture includes The Adoration of the Magi, by Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi, and Ginevra de'Benci, the western hemisphere's only painting by Leonardo da Vinci. Flemish and Dutch works, displayed in paneled rooms, include Daniel in the Lions' Den, by Peter Paul Rubens, and a self-portrait by Rembrandt. The Chester Dale Collection comprises works by Impressionists Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, and Mary Cassatt.
National Gallery of Art – East Building: The atrium is dominated by Alexander Calder's mobile Untitled, and the galleries display modern and contemporary art, though you'll also find major temporary exhibitions that span many years and artistic styles. Permanent works include Pablo Picasso's The Lovers and Family of Saltimbanques, four of Matisse's cutouts, Miró's The Farm, and Jackson Pollock's Lavender Mist. The East Building opened in 1978. The trapezoidal shape of the building site, which had been taken up by tennis courts and rosebushes planted during Lady Bird Johnson's spruce-up campaign, prompted architect I. M. Pei's dramatic approach: two interlocking spaces shaped like triangles provide room for galleries, auditoriums, and administrative offices. Despite its severe angularity, Pei's building is inviting. The axe-blade-like southwest corner has been darkened and polished smooth by thousands of hands irresistibly drawn to it.
Arlington, VA
Within the Beltway (the interstate highway bypass that surrounds Washington, DC), Arlington, Virginia, offers several attractions worth a trip out of urban Washington. One of the DC area's most-visited sights is Arlington National Cemetery, just west of central Washington, which is best known for its Tomb of the Unknowns, where a ritualized changing of the guard takes place periodically throughout the day. Visitors also make a pilgrimage to the Kennedy gravesites, the final resting place of John F Kennedy (memorialized with an eternal flame), Robert Kennedy and, most recently, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The nearby Pentagon - severely damaged in a terrorist attack in 2001 that claimed hundreds of lives - is the headquarters of the powerful Department of Defense. Prior to the attack, the massive five-sided structure could be visited on a guided tour. Currently only school, educational and other approved groups can tour the building - by reservation with the Pentagon Tour Office only.
