Washington, D.C./National Mall

D.C.'s city planner, Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant, planned the park as the cultural center of the city in the late 1700s, but it didn't take the form it is in today until the early 1900s.

In the 1840s, the Mall was mainly used to cultivate vegetables and dump trash. In 1846, after much heated debate, under President James K. Polk, Congress established the Smithsonian Institution with the funds donated by James Smithson 20 years earlier. In 1855, construction of the Smithsonian Castle was completed, setting the precedent for educational buildings on the Mall. However, it was hard to access due to the Washington City Canal, which ran along what is now Constitution Avenue. Meanwhile, in 1848, construction on the Washington Monument began.

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Station was constructed in 1855 on the site of what is now the National Gallery of Art. The noise from trains frequently disrupted sessions of Congress. In addition, around 30 people died per year crossing the surface-level train tracks. In 1881, President Garfield was assassinated at this station 4 months into his term.

The year 1900 marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of Washington and inspired calls for a redesign of the Mall in accordance with L'Enfant's original grand plan. In 1901, Congress created the McMillan Commission, which included Frederick Law Olmstead, a landscape architect that designed New York City's Central Park. After touring cities in Europe, the McMillan Commission made numerous recommendations to emphasize the importance of the Mall including landscaping the Mall into a grassy area lined with elm trees, building the Lincoln Memorial, Memorial Bridge, the reflecting pool, the Tidal Basin, and the Jefferson Memorial, and moving the train station off the Mall.

Many monuments and memorials were added later on including those for Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as recent wars: World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

The Mall has served as the principal gathering space for the nation's most important civic events, especially major protests and inaugural events. The Mall, particularly the Lincoln Memorial, has had an important history in the civil rights movement: in the 1963 March on Washington, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous I Have a Dream speech.

Over the years, the Smithsonian expanded to include an extraordinary collection of free public museums, the majority of which are in the eastern one-mile stretch of the park. The public favorites are the National Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of Natural History, famed for their respective magnificent collections of U.S. spacecraft and complete dinosaur fossils. The expansion continues, with the National Museum of African American History and Culture having opened on the Mall in 2016.

The Metrorail was designed to be extremely convenient to the Mall and is the best option to get there if it is too far to walk or bike from your accommodation.

The Smithsonian Metrorail station is serviced by the Blue, Orange and Silver Lines, much like other stations in Downtown. The exit is convenient to get to many of the museums of the Smithsonian Institution. Federal Center Southwest Metrorail station is also serviced by the same Lines and is closer to the easternmost museums.

The Archives/Navy Memorial Metrorail station in the East End on 7th Street NW and L'Enfant Plaza Metrorail stations are both 0.3 miles from the Mall.

The closest Metrorail stations to the Lincoln Memorial on the west side of the Mall are Foggy Bottom station in the West End (0.8 miles), Arlington Cemetery, just across the Arlington Memorial Bridge in Arlington (0.8 miles), and Smithsonian station (1.2 miles)

Metrobus operates on the National Mall. For more information on riding buses in Washington DC, see Washington DC#Get_around.

Capital Bikeshare, the D.C.-area's bike-share service, has stations all over the city and throughout the Mall area, making it one of the easiest ways to get to and around the Mall. Just find the station nearest your hotel, get a daily membership, bike down to the Mall, and dock your bike at one of the stations.

Once you are on the Mall, Capital Bikeshare is the best mix of speed and convenience for moving around the Mall — or for leaving the Mall to grab lunch in the East End, where the food is better than the food trucks on the Mall. Museum-going is a tiring affair, and biking can help conserve your energy and stay out of the sun.

Driving in and around the Mall is a great recipe for a headache due to chronic traffic jams, unintuitive traffic patterns, and very limited parking. Driving towards a monument doesn't mean the road will lead you towards it - more likely, it will hurl you across the river into Virginia. If there is a special event going on, you can easily get stuck for hours. Parking garages throughout the West End and East End fill up early with office workers. Garage prices are steep. The 2,194 car garage at Union Station, costing $25/day, usually has space available. Double check the garage hours, so you can exit before the garage closes! Another nearby parking garage is at the Ronald Reagan Building, which is very close to several museums. The rates are generally $25 all day on weekdays and $17 on weekends. Open 24 hours.

On evenings and weekends during the winter, it is sometimes possible to find metered parking on the Mall, with two-hour limits, although it may take a while to find a space. There is no enforcement of the time limit on Sundays or Federal holidays, so if you are lucky enough to find a spot, you can stay as long as you wish. Pay close attention to the hourly limits marked on street signs. If you remain parked on Constitution Avenue during rush hours, your chance of receiving a ticket is 100%.

The main north-south routes are 7th St, 14th St, and 17th St, while Pennsylvania and Independence Ave are the main routes for east-west traffic. If coming from Arlington, the simplest routes are I-395 to 14th St, or the Arlington Memorial Bridge to Independence Ave.

Taxis and rideshares are easy to get all day and night, and can be an especially convenient option from Georgetown, Capitol Hill, or Arlington. Aside from peak tourist seasons such as during the National Cherry Blossom Festival, when traffic slows to a halt, these can be a nice way to take a load off your feet and quickly get from one end of the Mall to the other. Uber and Lyft drivers often have difficulty locating passengers who have input a destination such as "Natural History Museum" or "Lincoln Memorial". It is advisable to check your exact location on the map provided or the driver may be sent to the other side.

Pedicab guides have been authorized by the National Park Service to provide transportation and tours around the National Mall. You might find a few available pedicab guides near the memorials on the National Mall. Pedicab guides also tour on Capitol Hill and through other areas of Washington, DC. Nightlife rides and culinary tours can also be arranged, throughout the year, not just during the peak spring and summer travel seasons. These guides are available by SMS text message, telephone appointments, and website messages. Tours are typically offered for an hourly fee. Many visitors find a pedicab tour or ride to be the highlight of their trip to Washington D.C. Local residents find them a memorable way to enjoy a day on the mall, or a night on the town. A few companies offer pedicab tours of Washington, DC such as DC Pedicab, Nonpartisan Pedicab, and Wheel The People Pedicab Tours [1] For more information, see Washington D.C.#Get around.

The Smithsonian is a complex of 19 large museums, the majority of which are on the east end of the Mall, all of which are free, and are open every day except Christmas.

East–west along the north side:

1 National Gallery of Art, ☏ +1 202 737-4215. M-Sa 10AM-5PM; Su 11AM-6PM. The staggering depth and breadth of the world-class collections here are a clear testament to U.S. wealth and power. The east building of this museum is devoted to modern art, while the west building showcases traditional, mostly European, paintings and sculptures. The west wing's impressionist gallery is likely the most popular, although it would be a shame to skip the east wing's fauvist and abstract expressionist galleries. Just west of the buildings is the relaxing sculpture garden, with a foot pool for cooling off tired feet. There are dining options within the Gallery. Among popular options are the Garden Café and various dining options in the area connecting the east and west wings of the museum. Also, food is available in the park on the Gallery grounds.

2 National Museum of Natural History, ☏ +1 202 633-1000. 10:30AM-5:30PM daily, 10AM-7:30PM during the summer. The real show stoppers here are the gargantuan, complete dinosaur fossils, and you won't have to search to find them! Further into the museum you'll find displays of world cultures, meteorites, mineral samples, and the evolution of life from beginnings to today. Don't leave without seeing the overawing precious rock collection, including the Hope Diamond, the enormous blue diamond of legend. A dining area is on the first level of this museum. The food is good, but somewhat pricy.

3 National Museum of American History, ☏ +1 202 633-1000. 10AM-5:30PM daily. There is a lot here in one of the city's most informative museums, covering topics ranging from war to technology, social and political history. The biggest draw, though, is the Treasure Room, with an astonishing set of iconic Americana objects, ranging from the original Star-Spangled Banner and Abraham Lincoln's top hat, to Kermit the Frog and Dorothy's ruby slippers!

4 National Museum of African American History and Culture, ☏ +1 844 750-3012. 10AM-5:30PM. The newest museum on the Mall, with a collection of remarkable artifacts illustrating the history of African American culture, from the years of slavery to the Civil Rights Movement to pop culture figures. Given the interest in the museum, admission is refused without a timed entry pass. A few walk-up passes are released on weekdays (not weekends) at 1PM, but otherwise passes must be booked online. A limited number of same-day passes are available online every morning starting at 6:30AM, but they go quickly; the only other option are advanced passes, booked 3 months in advance. (updated Jan 2017)

East–west:

12 Washington Monument, ☏ +1 202 426-6841. open daily except for July 4th and December 25th- regular hours-9AM-4:45PM, summer hours (Memorial Day to Labor Day) 9AM to 9:45PM. No man looms larger over American history than the first president, and no monument looms larger over D.C. than this, both the world's tallest stone structure and its tallest obelisk. When completed in 1884 it was the world's tallest structure, and remains one of the tallest buildings in D.C. Viewed from either end of the Mall its size may not be evident, but enter the enormous square on which it stands, and you'll realize just how monumental it is. The view from the 555-foot top is great on a clear day, allowing you to see up and down the Mall, and out as far as the Shenandoah Valley. The observation level reopened in September 2019 and is open for viewing with a ticket. Entrance is by timed ticket, which are distributed on a first come first served basis starting at 8:30AM from a National Park Service booth on 15th St east of the monument or online, if booked months in advance. Free.

13 National World War II Memorial, toll-free: +1-800-639-4992. Many of D.C.'s monuments have a simple, sudden, and grandiose impact, and don't require much time to visit. Not so for this new memorial. WWII was the defining event of the twentieth century, in which sixteen million U.S. soldiers served, and 400,000 died—the enormity of the war is hard to grasp in one's mind, and the architect aimed to convey that enormity in this central memorial. To best appreciate it, you will have to walk around and slowly take it in. Kilroy was here—look for the hidden carving behind the Pennsylvania obelisk.

14 Reflecting Pool. The view from the Lincoln Memorial, with the 2,000 ft Reflecting Pool in the foreground and the Washington Monument just behind, and the Capitol Building in the distance, is famous and not to be missed. This was the setting for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech, which he gave from the steps of the memorial over a crowd of 200,000 that didn't fit very well—many of them stood in the pool itself!

15 Declaration of Independence Memorial. A little known memorial stands on the island in the Constitution Gardens Lake, dedicated to the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Not content to reside only on the document itself, their signatures have been reproduced here, etched in large granite blocks. (updated Apr 2026)

16 District of Columbia War Memorial. The Mall's only local memorial, and the only memorial to WWI, is this small secluded structure in the form of a Doric-style open-air temple serving as tribute to the 26,000 Washingtonians who served in the Great War. You'll find here the names of the 499 who died engraved at the memorial's base. Recent attempts to re-dedicate the memorial as a national WWI memorial have ironically sparked fierce Washingtonian pride in the monument—the only local monument on the Mall, with locals seeing this as just one more indignity aimed at the city by a Congress for which it cannot vote.

20 Bureau of Engraving and Printing, 14th and C Streets SW, ☏ +1 202 874-2330, toll-free: +1-866-874-2330. Not a museum; this is where the Treasury prints money. Free 1-hour tours run every 15 minutes on weekdays, but no, they do not give out free samples. It's plenty worth it to come, if only to drool at the millions of dollars created literally in the space of your tour. (updated Nov 2024)

21 Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. Filled with sculptures, wartime and depression era quotes, and numerous waterfalls (beautifully lit up at night), the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial is one of the city's most peaceful and contemplative places for a walk. It is divided into four sections, each dedicated to one of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's four terms in his twelve year presidency.

22 George Mason Memorial. Possibly the hardest memorial to find on the Mall—perhaps fitting for the least known founding father memorialized here. George Mason is best known in the D.C. area for the nearby university named in his honor. Ideally, though, he would be better known as the drafter of the 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights, which served as the basis and inspiration for the American Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, as well as the French Declaration of the Rights of Man, and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It's a beautiful memorial, and can be empty even in the height of tourist season.

23 Jefferson Memorial, ☏ +1 202 426-6841. Thomas Jefferson played an outsized role as one of the republic's founding fathers, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third president. Accordingly, he has an enormous statue in a circular, neoclassical, open-air building, based largely on the design of the Roman Pantheon (and Jefferson's Monticello and University of Virginia), and standing prominently on the bank of the Tidal Basin. Quotes from Jefferson's writings, including the Declaration of Independence, are reproduced on the walls.

24 Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, ☏ +1 202 426-6841. The newest of the Mall's memorials, dedicated to the fallen civil rights leader. You enter between two slabs of granite that symbolize a "Mountain of Despair" before standing before the "Stone of Hope", both named based on a line in King's "I Have a Dream" speech. A 30-foot likeness of King is carved out of the Stone of Hope overlooking the Tidal Basin, while a nearby wall contains inscriptions of quotes from many of King's speeches.

25 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, ☏ +1 202 488-0400. 10AM-5:30PM daily. Both a museum and a memorial, this space is dedicated to the exposition of just what exactly occurred during the Holocaust, its pointless inhumanity and unbelievable suffering. Exhibits include video and audio testimonies as well as more traditional museum exhibits. This is without a doubt the most somber, and even disturbing place for visitors on the Mall, and a good portion of the visitors leave sobbing—make sure your kids are old enough for this material. Entrance is by free timed ticket on a first come, first served basis during the busy months of March-August.

3 Jazz in the Garden, 700 Constitution Ave NW (Pavilion Café in the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden), ☏ +1 202 289-3360. 5PM-8:30PM every Friday night, starting on the last Friday of May, ending on the last Friday of August. Summer open-air jazz concerts at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden. Hugely popular, and a great time if you don't mind the crowds. Get there early. Free.