Washington DC was designed to impress, and it still does. A city planned from scratch on a grid of diagonal avenues overlaid with a Roman street plan, filled with neoclassical buildings on a monumental scale, and organised around the notion that a republic ought to look like one — it is, as intended, unlike anywhere else in the country. It is also, less intentionally, one of the best-value cities for visitors in the United States, because most of its greatest attractions are free.
We first went to Washington on a bus tour seeing The Smithsonian, the Lincoln Memorial and gaining views from afar of the White House. When we returned it was at the end of a nike ride and we stayed with a friend North of the city and took day trips downtown on the metrorail. It’s a beautiful city, certainly at its core, with monumental architecture, green spaces and photographic vistas.
A Little Background
The site for the national capital was chosen by George Washington in 1790, on the banks of the Potomac River between the existing cities of Georgetown (Maryland) and Alexandria (Virginia). The French engineer Pierre Charles L’Enfant was appointed to design it; his plan — a grid of lettered and numbered streets overlaid with broad diagonal avenues named for states — was the foundation for the city that grew around it, and its bones are still visible in every map of DC today.
Congress first met in the new Capitol in 1800; the British burned both the Capitol and the White House in 1814 during the War of 1812, and both were rebuilt. The nineteenth century saw the city grow slowly; the Civil War brought enormous numbers of people and a permanent transformation of its scale and character. The Federal workforce expanded massively during the New Deal (1930s) and again during the Second World War, and the city as it now exists — dominated by government employment and by the gravitational pull of federal institutions — was largely formed in that period.
Washington DC is a majority-Black city, a history shaped by its Southern location, its role during the Civil War, and the Great Migration of the early twentieth century. The National Museum of African American History and Culture, opened in 2016, is the most important museum the Smithsonian has built in a generation.
What to See and Do
The National Mall is a 3-kilometre linear park running from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial, flanked on both sides by Smithsonian museums. Walking its length — past the Washington Monument, the reflecting pool, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and the Korean War Memorial — takes an hour at a casual pace, though you can spend a day on it without effort. Everything on the Mall is free.
The Smithsonian Institution operates nineteen museums and galleries in Washington, almost all of them free. The priorities: the National Museum of Natural History (the Hope Diamond, the elephant in the rotunda, the human origins exhibit — this is a proper natural history museum, not a children’s science centre); the National Air and Space Museum (the original Wright Flyer, Lindbergh’s Spirit of St Louis, the Apollo 11 command module — the most visited museum in the world for good reason); and the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) — the newest and, in many visitors’ view, the most powerful. The NMAAHC has timed-entry passes for a reason: book several weeks in advance for busy periods, or queue for same-day passes at 1 Court Drive from 1pm. It requires at least half a day; budget a full day if you can.
The United States Capitol can be visited on free guided tours arranged through your Member of Congress (for US citizens) or through the Capitol Visitor Center. The building itself — the dome, the Rotunda, the Statuary Hall — is architecturally extraordinary. The surrounding Capitol Hill neighbourhood, with the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court building adjacent, is worth walking slowly.
The Lincoln Memorial at the western end of the Mall is best visited at dawn or dusk, when the crowds thin and the light is right. The inscriptions inside — the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural Address — are worth reading in full. From the top of the steps, looking back down the Mall toward the Capitol, is the view from which Martin Luther King delivered “I Have a Dream” in 1963.
The White House is visible from the South Lawn and from Pennsylvania Avenue (north fence). Public tours of the interior are possible but require advance arrangement through your embassy or congressman, typically weeks ahead; most visitors view it from outside. The Ellipse and Lafayette Square in front of the building are public spaces.
Georgetown is the oldest neighbourhood in Washington — a walkable grid of Federal-style townhouses, independent shops, and restaurants along M Street and Wisconsin Avenue, separated from the rest of DC by a character and a price point distinctly its own. Good for an afternoon walk and a meal; the canal towpath along the C&O Canal makes a pleasant walk.
The Library of Congress on Capitol Hill is the largest library in the world and one of the most beautiful interiors in Washington — the Thomas Jefferson Building’s Great Hall and the Main Reading Room are open to visitors. Free; book a timed entry online.
Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River in Virginia, is the burial ground for American military veterans — over 400,000 graves on 253 hectares of hillside. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (changing of the guard every hour; every 30 minutes in summer) and President Kennedy’s grave (with the eternal flame) are the most visited sites. Free; allow two hours.
Getting There
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) is the most convenient for the city centre — a short Metro Blue or Yellow Line ride (approximately 20 minutes) to central DC. Dulles International Airport (IAD), 45 kilometres west, has a Silver Line Metro connection that takes approximately 50 minutes to downtown. Amtrak’s Northeast Regional and Acela services run frequently from Union Station (central DC) to New York (approximately 3.5 hours by Acela) and Boston (approximately 7 hours).
Cost and Hours
Washington is moderately expensive for accommodation but extraordinarily good value for attractions — most of the major museums are free. Mid-range hotels run US$200–300 per night. Allow three to four days; the Smithsonian alone can occupy two full days if you are thorough about it.