The Mall

The Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum opened in 1976. It contains the largest collection of historic air and spacecraft in the world including the Wright 1903 Flyer, the Spirit of St. Louis, the Apollo 11 command module, the Columbia Space Shuttle model and a lunar rock sample that visitors can touch. The museum is so immense and interesting that it's easy to spend an entire day here – be sure to give yourself plenty of time to enjoy it.

The size of 18 football fields, the National Museum of Natural History contains a vast array of unique treasures including dinosaurs, rare gemstones and living creatures from land and sea. The museum is so immense that visitors may want to sample the best exhibits and leave the rest to future visits. Some of the most intriguing exhibits include Dinosaur Hall, the Insect Zoo and the Hope Diamond.

The National Museum of American History contains more than 3 million artifacts from America's past. Some particularly extraordinary exhibits include: America on the Move, which highlights an original Ford Model T; The Price of Freedom: Americans at War; The First Ladies at the Smithsonian, which includes inaugural gowns worn by Americas first ladies; and the Star-Spangled Banner. The museum is free.

The Roosevelt Memorial opened in 1997 in honor of America’s 32nd president. It is a massive park made up of four granite open-air rooms, one for each of Roosevelt’s terms. Despite being stricken with polio at age 39 and paralyzed from the waist down, he emerged as a true leader, guiding our country through some of its darkest times, including the Great Depression and World War II. The statue of Roosevelt is one of the memorials’ most controversial elements as it shows the disabled president sitting in a wheelchair hidden by his cape.

Commissioned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, thls memorial honors Thomas Jefferson: political philosopher, architect, musician, book collector, scientist, horticulturist, diplomat, inventor and the third American president. The words of Thomas Jefferson, written more than 200 years ago, have shaped American ideals. His immortal Declaration of Independence is etched on the walls of the memorial along with other impressive writings. The Neo-Classical memorial was dedicated in 1943 and covers 2.5 acres.

The Lincoln Memorial stands at the west end of the National Mall as a neoclassical monument to the 16th President. It is 190 feet long, 119 feet wide, and almost 100 feet high and is surrounded by 38 fluted Doric columns, one for each of the 36 states in the Union at the time of Lincoln's death, and two columns in recessed porticos behind the colonnade. The north and south chambers contain carved inscriptions of Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address and Gettysburg Address; the central hall contains the solitary figure of Lincoln sitting in contemplation. The Memorial is visited by millions of visitors each year and has been the site of many large public gatherings and protests. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech to a crowd at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963.

21-year-old Yale student Maya Lin submitted a design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to fulfill a requirement for her architecture course. Her design won, chosen for its simplicity – two triangular black walls engraved with the names of 58,000 Americans who died in the Vietnam War, in chronological order from the first casualty in 1959 to the last in 1975. (Ironically, Lin earned only a grade of “B” in the course.)

Made from 36,000 pieces of marble and granite, the Washington Monument may be the most prominent structure in D.C. It was built in honor of George Washington, who led the country to independence and became its first president. The monument was completed on December 6, 1884 - elevators take visitors to the top, which offers views in excess of thirty miles. Admission is free, but requires a ticket.

The World War II Memorial honors the 16 million who served in the armed forces of the U.S. and the more than 400,000 who died. 4,048 gold stars (the “Field of Stars”) on the Freedom Wall pay tribute to these casualties. Millions more ordinary citizens contributed in some way to the war effort, and the memorial also honors the spirit, sacrifice, and commitment of the American people. World War II is the only 20th-century event commemorated on the National Mall’s central axis.