National Mall and Memorials

The National Mall is a two-mile-long open parkway in the heart of Washington, DC, stretching from the Lincoln Memorial at the west end to the US Capitol at the east, flanked on both sides by Smithsonian Institution museums and bordered to the north by the White House. The Mall serves as the symbolic center of the United States, hosting presidential inaugurations, civil rights marches, and public gatherings on a scale matched by few civic spaces in the world. Walking its length, visitors pass the Washington Monument — the world's tallest obelisk at 555 feet — which offers panoramic views of DC from observation windows near its summit. Beyond the reflecting pool, the Lincoln Memorial's 36-column exterior and Daniel Chester French's colossal seated Lincoln create one of the country's most photographed silhouettes at night. On the Mall's western edges, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial's black granite wall carries the names of 58,318 American service members, while the Korean War Veterans Memorial and the WWII Memorial provide equally moving tributes. The Tidal Basin, just south of the Mall, is ringed by the Jefferson Memorial, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, and the FDR Memorial, and is best known in spring when the Japanese cherry trees blossom along its banks. Flanking the Mall, the Smithsonian's free museums include the National Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of American History, the National Air and Space Museum, the National Gallery of Art, and others. All Smithsonian institutions are free, though many require timed entry passes reserved online. A full circuit of the Mall and the Tidal Basin memorials on foot covers about five miles and takes four to six hours at a leisurely pace.