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Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

Photo: Paulo JC Nogueira / CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

🎡 Attractions

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

Washington, DC · National Mall

About

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.

Highlights

Spirit of St. Louis and the 1903 Wright FlyerApollo 11 command module ColumbiaEight new galleries plus a renovated planetariumFree admission with a timed-entry pass

Getting there

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Lincoln Memorial 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.

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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.

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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.

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Washington D.C. Attractions23 places

Washington D.C. Attractions

No city packs more world-class attractions into a walk than Washington, and most of it is free. The Smithsonians line the National Mall like a museum mile, from the moon lander hanging in Air and Space to the Hope Diamond and the Wright Flyer. Between them stand the monuments and memorials: Lincoln gazing down the reflecting pool, the Washington Monument over the Tidal Basin cherry trees, the marble halls of the Capitol and the Library of Congress. Bring good shoes and a full day, and you still will not see it all.