The Sights

How the sights are arranged

Washington's sights are laid out by its plan, and this page follows it. It starts on Capitol Hill, the zero point where the four quadrants meet, and runs west along the Mall, first past the museums on Constitution and Independence Avenues, then out among the monuments beyond 15th Street to the Lincoln Memorial and the Tidal Basin. From there it turns north to the White House and the neighborhoods of Northwest, and finally east across the Anacostia River to Frederick Douglass's house (see the plan).

Each page says what the place is, what you actually see, how a visit works, and what to check before you go. Every sight is inside the District of Columbia; the famous places across the rivers have their own page.

Where the District ends

The District of Columbia is small, about sixty-eight square miles, and its edges come sooner than visitors expect. The Potomac River is the boundary with Virginia: the Pentagon, Arlington National Cemetery, Old Town Alexandria, Mount Vernon and Great Falls are all in Virginia, and the airports at Reagan National and Dulles too. Annapolis and BWI airport are in Maryland. They are not on this list of city sights, and they have their own page (see day trips).

Inside the line, the city includes much more than the Mall: Georgetown, older than the capital itself, the cathedral on the heights of Northwest, and Anacostia across the river in Southeast are all part of Washington, and each has a page here.

The Hill

Capitol Hill holds the seat of Congress and the institutions around it. The Capitol, with its cast-iron dome, is the point from which the city's streets and quadrants are measured; behind it stand the Library of Congress, whose Jefferson Building has the grandest interior in the city, and the Supreme Court. At the foot of the hill to the north is Union Station, Daniel Burnham's station of 1907 and the arrival point for trains from the Northeast. A day here mixes a booked Capitol tour, the Library's timed entry and the free walk between them.

Along the Mall

The museums on the Mall are the heart of any visit, and nearly all of them are free. On the north side are the National Archives, with the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in its rotunda; the two buildings of the National Gallery of Art; the Natural History Museum; and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. On the south side are the Air and Space Museum and the Hirshhorn, the Smithsonian's museum of modern art in its concrete drum. Choose two a day, one side of the Mall at a time (see the Mall).

West of 15th Street

West of the Washington Monument, the Mall becomes a landscape of memorials and water. The Monument itself, the obelisk at the center of the city, can be climbed by elevator with a timed ticket. Beyond it lie the World War II Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial and Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Reflecting Pool and the Lincoln Memorial at the end of the axis. To the south is the Tidal Basin, ringed with the Japanese cherry trees and the memorials to Jefferson, Franklin Roosevelt and Martin Luther King Jr. These places stand in the open air, cost nothing and never close; go early or after dark.

Northwest and across the river

North of the Mall stand the White House and Lafayette Square, seen from the pedestrian stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue and from the Ellipse, and the National Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum in the old Patent Office, a Greek Revival block in Penn Quarter. Farther west, Georgetown, the old tobacco port where the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal begins, keeps its brick streets and riverfront, and on the heights to the north the Washington National Cathedral, built from 1907 to 1990, stands on the highest ground in the city.

Across the Anacostia River, on a hill in the Anacostia neighborhood, is Cedar Hill, the house where Frederick Douglass lived from 1877 until his death in 1895. The Park Service shows it on ranger-led tours with limited places, and from its lawn you can see the Capitol dome across the river. It is the least visited sight on this list and one of the most rewarding.

Choosing what to see

With one day, walk the Mall from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial, with one museum on the way. With three days, add the Hill and the Library, the monuments and the Tidal Basin, and two or three of the big museums. With five, add the White House, Georgetown, the cathedral and Cedar Hill (see itineraries). Everyone has different priorities, but few visitors regret the Lincoln Memorial at night, the reading room of the Library of Congress or the view from Frederick Douglass's porch.

Tickets and transit

Most of these sights are free. The ones that need something arranged in advance are the White House, which needs a request through a member of Congress; the Washington Monument and the Library of Congress, which use timed tickets; Cedar Hill, with limited tour places; and at busy times the African American History and Culture Museum. The Capitol tour and the National Archives are free with optional reservations. Nearly every building screens visitors at the door (see booking ahead).

The Metro reaches almost all of them: Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Archives and L'Enfant Plaza stations for the Mall; Capitol South and Union Station for the Hill; Foggy Bottom for the western memorials; Anacostia for Cedar Hill. Georgetown and the cathedral are reached by bus (see getting around).

What is not here

Some famous places are left out on purpose. The Pentagon, Arlington National Cemetery and Mount Vernon are in Virginia and belong to a day out, not to the city. Many fine museums and sights, from the American History Museum to the Holocaust Memorial Museum and Ford's Theatre, are covered on the Mall and booking pages rather than on pages of their own. And the government buildings that are not open to visitors, such as the agencies along Constitution Avenue, are not sights, however grand their fronts.