National Mall

The National Mall: Two Miles of American Memory and How to Use Them

The National Mall in Washington D.C. is a 2-mile (3.2-kilometre) open strip of parkland running from the Lincoln Memorial on the west to the United States Capitol Building on the east. It is not a shopping mall. The name derives from the British term for a promenade. It is the site of most of the major Smithsonian museums, all of the principal war memorials, and the Washington Monument at its midpoint.

Everything on the Mall (the museums, the memorials, the grounds) is free to enter, which distinguishes it from almost every comparable cultural district in the world.

The Memorials

The Lincoln Memorial at the western end was completed in 1922. The seated statue of Lincoln is 5.8 metres tall, which makes it twice the height of a standing person and considerably larger than it appears in photographs. The Gettysburg Address is inscribed on the south wall; the Second Inaugural Address on the north. The view east from the top of the Memorial steps, looking down the reflecting pool toward the Washington Monument and, beyond it, the Capitol, is the image most Americans associate with Washington D.C.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial (designed by Maya Lin in 1982) is sunken below the Mall’s surface, a V-shaped black granite wall cut into the earth with 58,318 names inscribed chronologically by date of casualty. The design was controversial on its completion; it is now considered one of the finest memorials in any country. The experience of walking down the descending path with the wall rising on your left, finding a name, and then walking back out is structured to produce a specific emotional arc. It works.

The World War II Memorial between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument was completed in 2004. The 56 pillars represent the 48 states and 8 territories of the wartime US. The Field of Stars, 4,048 gold stars on the western Freedom Wall (each representing 100 American deaths), represents approximately 405,000 killed. The memorial is less powerful in photographs than in person, where the scale communicates the numbers.

The Korean War Veterans Memorial, near the Lincoln Memorial, has 19 stainless steel figures in a patrol formation moving through a juniper grove. The figure count is deliberate: 19 real figures plus the 19 reflections in the granite wall produce 38, representing the 38th parallel.

The Smithsonian Museums

Fourteen Smithsonian museums line the Mall, all free, and collectively they constitute the greatest free museum complex in the world. The four most consistently impressive:

The National Museum of Natural History has the Hope Diamond (45.52 carats, deep blue, cursed according to legend) and the largest collection of marine specimens on earth. The geology and prehistoric life galleries are exceptional. Allow 3 hours.

The National Air and Space Museum has the Wright Flyer, Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis, the Apollo 11 command module Columbia, and the spacesuit Neil Armstrong wore on the Moon. The density of historically significant objects per square metre is extraordinary. Allow 3 hours.

The National Gallery of Art (actually two buildings, on the north side of the Mall) has a permanent collection that would be the best in any other city: Vermeer, Rembrandt, Raphael’s Alba Madonna, Leonardo’s Ginevra de’ Benci (the only Leonardo in the Americas). The East Building has the Matisse cut-outs and a rotating modern and contemporary programme. Allow 3 hours for one building.

The National Museum of American History has the Star-Spangled Banner (the actual 1814 flag that inspired the national anthem), Julia Child’s kitchen, and presidential artefacts. It is consistently underrated.

Getting There and Around

The Washington Metro’s Blue, Orange, and Silver lines serve the Mall at Smithsonian station (between the monument and the Capitol) and Federal Triangle (between the natural history museum and the archives). The Mall is also extremely bikeable; Capital Bikeshare has docking stations throughout.

Walking from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol takes about 45 minutes at a leisurely pace, stopping for monument views. Allow a full day for the Mall itself; the museums each deserve several hours. A long weekend is barely enough to see everything properly.

The Cherry Blossom Festival (typically late March to early April) surrounds the Tidal Basin south of the Mall with 3,750 cherry trees, gifted by Japan in 1912, at peak bloom. The crowd is substantial; arrive before 8am for the best experience.