Places to go in National Mall.

The monuments, memorials, and the Mall's Smithsonian museums. 13 places worth the drive in this corner of Washington DC.

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13 places

Attractions

Lincoln Memorial

Washington, DC · National Mall

Anchoring the west end of the National Mall, this marble temple frames Daniel Chester French's 19-foot seated Lincoln, who gazes out past the Reflecting Pool toward the Washington Monument. Climb the steps and you stand where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered "I Have a Dream," with the Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural carved into the side chambers. It is free and open around the clock, and the view back down the Mall at dusk is the one people remember.

Attractions

National Gallery of Art

Washington, DC · National Mall

One of the great free museums anywhere, sitting right on the Mall in a pink-marble palace with a domed rotunda you could mistake for the Pantheon. Inside hang Leonardo da Vinci's Ginevra de' Benci, the only Leonardo painting in the Americas, alongside rooms of Vermeer, Rembrandt, Monet, and Van Gogh, plus a glass-tunnel walk over to I.M. Pei's sharp-angled East Building. Out back, the Sculpture Garden trades its summer fountain for a winter ice rink, and admission never costs a cent.

Attractions

National Museum of African American History and Culture

Washington, DC · National Mall

Sheathed in a three-tiered bronze corona that catches the light differently every hour, the Smithsonian's African American history museum rises on the National Mall in sightline of the Washington Monument. Start at the bottom of the History Galleries, where ramps carry you up out of the dark of slavery through Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the civil rights years into the music, sports, and art on the upper floors. Admission is free, though same-day and advance timed-entry passes go fast, so reserve before you go.

Attractions

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

Washington, DC · National Mall

This is the place where the actual machines of flight hang overhead: Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, the Wright brothers' 1903 Flyer, and the Apollo 11 command module Columbia that carried three astronauts to the Moon and back. A phased reopening is rolling out all-new galleries and a renovated planetarium for the building's 50th anniversary on the Mall. Admission is free, though you should grab a free timed-entry pass online before you go.

Attractions

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Washington, DC · National Mall

The big domed limestone hall on the north side of the Mall is where the Hope Diamond glints behind glass, a 45-foot ocean hall is anchored by a life-size right whale overhead, and the Deep Time fossil hall walks you from the first cells to the last mammoths. Start in the rotunda under the African bush elephant, then pick your rabbit hole: gems and minerals, the live butterfly pavilion, or a wall of insects you can hold. Admission is free, no timed pass needed, and you can lose a whole afternoon without spending a dime.

Attractions

Tidal Basin

Washington, DC · National Mall

The most photographed water in Washington, a man-made inlet ringed by roughly 3,000 Yoshino cherry trees that Tokyo gifted the city in 1912 and that erupt into pink for about two weeks every spring. A flat 2.1-mile loop strings together the Jefferson, FDR, and Martin Luther King Jr. memorials, and from mid-March you can rent a pedal boat and drift out under the blossoms. Walking the basin is free and open year-round, with peak bloom and the National Cherry Blossom Festival turning late March into the busiest, prettiest weeks on the Mall.

Attractions

Washington Monument

Washington, DC · National Mall

At 555 feet, this marble obelisk is the tallest thing in the capital, and the eye keeps finding it from every corner of the Mall. Completed in 1888, it wears a faint color seam about a third of the way up, where construction stalled for two decades and the new marble came from a different quarry. A timed-entry elevator carries you to the 500-foot observation level for a clean look out over the Lincoln Memorial, the Capitol, and the Tidal Basin; entry is free, though you will want to grab a same-day ticket at the lodge by morning or reserve ahead online.

Attractions

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Washington, DC · National Mall

Maya Lin's black granite wall descends into the earth and rises again, carved with more than 58,000 names in the order they were lost. Walk the slope and the polished stone hands your own reflection back to you, set among the names and the trees behind you. It is open day and night, free to all, and a few steps west of the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall.

Attractions

Smithsonian National Museum of American History

Washington, DC · National Mall

This is the museum that keeps the country's actual stuff: the giant Star-Spangled Banner that flew over Fort McHenry, Dorothy's ruby slippers, Julia Child's whole kitchen, and the gowns of every First Lady. It is the rare place where pop culture, invention, and the heavy moments of American history share a roof, so you can go from a 1960 lunch-counter sit-in to Kermit the Frog in a single afternoon. Admission is free, it is open daily on the National Mall, and you could spend an hour or a whole day and still leave with things unseen.

Attractions

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial

Washington, DC · National Mall

Dr. King steps forward from a split block of granite here on the northwest rim of the Tidal Basin, carved as if emerging from the rock itself. The line that named the memorial runs along the stone: out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope, drawn from the 1963 speech he gave a short walk away at the Lincoln Memorial. A 450-foot inscription wall gathers fourteen of his quotations on justice, democracy, hope, and love, and the whole memorial sits open and free, with the Washington Monument framed across the cherry trees and the Jefferson Memorial reflected over the water.

Attractions

World War II Memorial

Washington, DC · National Mall

Set between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, this is the National Mall's grand open-air tribute to the 16 million Americans who served in World War II. A ring of 56 granite pillars, one for each state and territory, wraps around the oval Rainbow Pool, with Atlantic and Pacific arches anchoring each end and a Freedom Wall of 4,048 gold stars marking the fallen. It is free, open 24 hours a day, and best at dusk when the fountains catch the last light and the whole plaza quiets down.

Attractions

United States Botanic Garden

Washington, DC · National Mall

Tucked at the foot of the Capitol, this living museum of plants is one of the oldest botanic gardens in the country, and stepping into its great glass Conservatory feels like trading the National Mall for a jungle, a desert, and a room of orchids all in one afternoon. Wander the steamy Tropics under a soaring iron canopy, find the carnivorous plants and a rare corpse flower that draws a crowd when it blooms, then head outside to the Bartholdi Fountain and the native gardens. Best of all, admission is free, no tickets required, so it is an easy, year-round detour between the museums.

Attractions

Thomas Jefferson Memorial

Washington, DC · National Mall

Set on the south bank of the Tidal Basin, this white-marble rotunda answers the Lincoln and Washington memorials across the water with a low dome and a ring of columns built in the neoclassical style Jefferson himself loved. Step inside and a 19-foot bronze of the third president stands under the dome, encircled by his own words carved into the walls, from the Declaration to his thoughts on liberty. It is free and open 24 hours, and in late March the cherry trees lining the basin bloom right up to its steps, which is when the reflection across the water is at its best.