Guides · Washington DC
Washington DC
154 places · 17 areas · a free route, then $4.99 for the whole city · offline map 33.1 MB
The free route
Free in the app, permanently, before you pay anything. 8 stops, 1 day, about 4.8 km, planned by the app's own engine.
Day 1 · ~4.8 km
1
White House
The North Portico from Pennsylvania Avenue, no ticket needed to look
Look at it from both sides: the North Portico from Pennsylvania Avenue is the one on the twenty dollar note, the South Lawn view from the Ellipse is the one on the news. Neither needs a ticket and they are a ten-minute walk apart.
2
Reflecting Pool
The 618-metre mirror between Lincoln and the Monument
Walk the north edge rather than the south; the afternoon light puts the Monument's reflection in front of you the whole way instead of behind.
3
Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Maya Lin's black granite wall, cut into the earth
Enter from the west end where the wall is ankle-high and walk down; the granite rises over your head at the middle, then falls away again — the descent is the design.
4
Lincoln Memorial
Nineteen feet of seated marble at the Mall's western end
Climb to the chamber and read the Gettysburg Address off the north wall, then turn around: the Mall runs dead straight to the Washington Monument and the Capitol behind it, and that alignment is the whole point of the building.
5
Korean War Veterans Memorial
Nineteen steel figures advancing through juniper
Come after dark if you can; the nineteen steel figures are lit from below and the juniper they wade through disappears, so the patrol reads as if it were moving.
6
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial
Four outdoor rooms, one per term
Walk it in order, first room to fourth; the water changes with each term — a single drop, then a stepped fall, then chaos for the war, then stillness — and reading the rooms out of sequence loses the whole design.
7
Tidal Basin Cherry Trees
Three thousand trees given by Tokyo in 1912
Walk the full loop anticlockwise from the paddle boat dock; the densest trees are on the western arm between the FDR and the Jefferson, and at peak the crowd thins after the first bend.
8
Thomas Jefferson Memorial
A domed rotunda facing the White House across the water
Stand at the top of the steps facing north: the White House is directly across the water on the axis Roosevelt insisted on, so that a president would see Jefferson every morning.
More of the top sights
A few of the 154 places in the full guide. Each one has its own written guide in the app: what to do, what to notice, the history, and why it hits.
Municipal Fish Market
The oldest continuously operating fish market in the country
United States Capitol
The dome above the legislature, cast iron painted to look like stone
Arlington National Cemetery
Four hundred thousand graves on Lee's confiscated hillside
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
The Stone of Hope, pushed out from the mountain
National Museum of African American History and Culture
Three tiers of bronze lattice, history from the bottom up
Arlington House
The Custis-Lee Mansion, aimed straight at the Lincoln Memorial
Washington Monument
A 555-foot obelisk, the tallest stone structure in the world
Ben's Chili Bowl
A half-smoke counter open since 1958
Washington National Cathedral
A twentieth-century Gothic cathedral with a Darth Vader grotesque
Areas
National Mall · Tidal Basin & West Potomac Park · Smithsonian Museums · Capitol Hill · Penn Quarter & Chinatown · Federal Triangle & Downtown · White House & President's Park · Georgetown · Dupont Circle & Embassy Row · Foggy Bottom & West End · U Street & Shaw · Adams Morgan & Columbia Heights · Upper Northwest & Rock Creek · H Street & NoMa · Navy Yard & The Wharf · Anacostia & Southeast · Arlington
Illustrations are drawn for the app. Place descriptions are written by hand and checked against a primary source; facts draw on Wikidata (CC0) and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Maps © OpenStreetMap contributors.