Explore Washington, D.C.

The Washington Monument is a marble-faced obelisk on the National Mall, about 169 metres tall, built to commemorate George Washington, the first US president. Designed by Robert Mills, it was begun in 1848, interrupted for more than two decades and completed in 1884. An elevator takes visitors to an observation level near the top.

The National Museum of Women in the Arts was founded by Wilhelmina and Wallace Holladay and opened in 1987 in a former Masonic Temple of 1908 on New York Avenue. Its collection of more than 6,000 works by women artists ranges from the 16th century to today, with works by Mary Cassatt, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun and Frida Kahlo.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is the national memorial and museum of the Holocaust, opened in 1993 beside the National Mall in a building by James Ingo Freed. Its Permanent Exhibition documents the persecution and murder of Europe's Jews and other victims of Nazi Germany; the Hall of Remembrance is the memorial to the victims and survivors.

Planet Word is a museum of language that opened in 2020 in the Franklin School, an 1869 building by Adolf Cluss on Franklin Square. Its interactive galleries deal with how words are learned, where English words come from, the languages of the world, poetry, humour and the spoken word, and visitors speak or sign to take part.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum shares the Old Patent Office Building in Penn Quarter with the National Portrait Gallery. Its collection covers art made in the United States from the colonial period to today by more than 7,000 artists, and the glass-roofed Kogod Courtyard links the two museums.

The National Archives Museum occupies the National Archives Building on Constitution Avenue, designed by John Russell Pope and completed in the 1930s. Its Rotunda displays the original Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and further galleries show records from the nation's archives.

The International Spy Museum is a non-profit museum about the history and practice of espionage and intelligence work. It opened in 2002 in Penn Quarter and moved in 2019 to a new building by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners at L'Enfant Plaza. Its galleries show spy equipment, real cases and tradecraft from ancient times to the present, with interactive stations.

The National Air and Space Museum is the Smithsonian's museum of flight and space exploration on the National Mall, founded in 1946 and housed in a building opened in 1976. Its galleries show original aircraft and spacecraft, among them the 1903 Wright Flyer, Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis and the Apollo 11 command module Columbia.

The Phillips Collection is an art museum near Dupont Circle, opened in 1921 by Duncan and Marjorie Phillips in his family's 1897 Georgian Revival house, later extended by two additions. The collection centers on Impressionist and modern art, including Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party and a room of paintings by Mark Rothko.

The Museum of the Bible is a museum two blocks south of the National Mall, opened in 2017 by a nonprofit founded by the Green family. It occupies a brick refrigerated warehouse of 1923, extended with two new floors under a glass roof. Its exhibitions cover the history, narrative and impact of the Bible, with manuscripts, printed Bibles and archaeological objects.

The United States Botanic Garden lies at the foot of the Capitol and is run by the Architect of the Capitol; Congress first granted it land in 1820. Its glass Conservatory, on this site since 1933, has rooms for jungle, desert, Hawaiian and orchid plants. The outdoor National Garden adjoins it, and Bartholdi Park lies across Independence Avenue.

The United States Capitol is the seat of Congress at the eastern end of the National Mall. Its central part was completed in 1800 and its cast-iron dome around 1866. Visitors enter through the underground Capitol Visitor Center, which holds an exhibition hall and starts guided tours of the Crypt, the Rotunda and National Statuary Hall.

Union Station is Washington's main railway station, designed by Daniel Burnham and opened in 1907 on Massachusetts Avenue near the Capitol. Its Beaux-Arts facade draws on the Arch of Constantine, and the vaulted main hall on the Baths of Diocletian. Besides Amtrak, commuter and Metro trains, the station houses shops and restaurants.

The Thomas Jefferson Building, built between 1890 and 1897 across from the Capitol, is the oldest building of the Library of Congress. Visitors walk through the Great Hall with its marble staircases and painted ceilings, see the Main Reading Room under the central dome and visit exhibitions drawn from the library's collections.

The Folger Shakespeare Library on Capitol Hill holds a collection of Shakespeare's printed works that includes 82 copies of the 1623 First Folio. Founded by Henry Clay and Emily Jordan Folger, it opened in 1932 in an Art Deco building by Paul Philippe Cret, and a 2024 renovation added public exhibition galleries and gardens.

Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens is the former home of businesswoman Marjorie Merriweather Post, a 1920s Georgian Revival mansion she bought in 1955; it opened as a museum in 1977. It holds her collection of Russian imperial art, including two Fabergé Easter eggs, and 18th-century French decorative arts, set in 25 acres of gardens with a French parterre and a rose garden.

President Lincoln's Cottage is a Gothic Revival house of 1842–1843 on the grounds of the Soldiers' Home, today the Armed Forces Retirement Home. Abraham Lincoln and his family lived here from June to November in 1862, 1863 and 1864, and he drafted the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation here. Restored by the National Trust, it opened in 2008 and is seen on guided tours.

The Frederick Douglass National Historic Site preserves Cedar Hill, the hilltop house in Anacostia where the abolitionist and writer Frederick Douglass lived from 1877 until his death in 1895. Rangers lead guided tours of the furnished house; the grounds include a visitor centre, a rebuilt stone study called the Growlery and a view of the Capitol.

The United States National Arboretum covers 446 acres in Northeast Washington and was established by Congress in 1927; the Department of Agriculture runs it as a research centre. Its gardens include Asian collections, azaleas, the National Herb Garden and the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum, and 22 sandstone columns from the Capitol's 1828 east portico stand in a meadow.