Washington, D.C.
The National Mall: the Washington Monument, the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, the Capitol, the White House, the Library of Congress and the National Archives.
12 places
Lincoln Memorial
Lincoln’s temple: from its steps Martin Luther King Jr. said “I have a dream”
The White House
The house where every U.S. president since the second has lived
U.S. Capitol
The home of Congress, under a cast-iron dome finished during the Civil War
Washington Monument
An obelisk that took nearly forty years to build; you can see the seam between two eras in the stone
Ford’s Theatre
The theater where Lincoln was shot, and the house across the street where he died
Library of Congress
A library that grew from Jefferson’s books, with a Gutenberg Bible in the Great Hall
Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial
A stone of hope hewn from a mountain of despair, an image from the “I Have a Dream” speech
National Air and Space Museum
The Wright brothers’ airplane and the Apollo 11 capsule that came back from the Moon
National Archives
Home of the original Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights
National World War II Memorial
A wall of 4,048 gold stars, one for every hundred Americans who died
Thomas Jefferson Memorial
The temple to the author of the Declaration of Independence: cherry trees were cut down to build it, and women chained themselves to the trees
Vietnam Veterans Memorial
A black wall with more than 58,000 names of the fallen, in which the living are reflected