National Mall Walking Guide: Memorials and Monuments

The National Mall is not a shopping street but a two-mile lawn running west from the Capitol, with the museums along its sides and the memorials at its western end. Walked in one go, the route below is about five miles (eight kilometres). Split it over two sessions, or rent a bike-share for the western half.

1. The Capitol. Start on the west front, facing down the Mall. The building's dome, finished during the Civil War, is best seen from the Reflecting Pool below it, where the view runs all the way to the Washington Monument.
2. The Smithsonian museums. Walk west along the gravel paths, with the National Gallery of Art and the Natural History Museum on your right and the Air and Space Museum and the red-brick Smithsonian Castle on your left. Leave the museums for another day, or pick one from our Smithsonian guide.
3. The Washington Monument. The marble obelisk changes colour a third of the way up, where construction stopped for more than twenty years around the Civil War and new stone had to be found. The lift to the top needs a timed ticket, released online 30 days ahead and the day before.
4. The World War II Memorial. Fountains, pillars for each state and territory, and a wall of gold stars, one for every hundred Americans killed in the war.
5. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Maya Lin's black granite wall, cut into the ground and carved with more than 58,000 names. Visitors still leave letters and flowers. It is the most powerful place on the Mall.
6. The Lincoln Memorial. The seated Lincoln, the words of his two great speeches, and the spot on the steps where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963, marked by an engraving.
7. The Korean War Veterans Memorial. Nineteen steel soldiers on patrol through juniper bushes, just southeast of Lincoln. At night, lit from below, they look almost alive.
8. The Tidal Basin. Walk round the water past the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, where King's figure emerges from a granite "Stone of Hope", and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, a series of outdoor rooms with waterfalls, to the domed Jefferson Memorial on the far side.

When to walk it

Early morning is cool and quiet, and the light is on the Lincoln Memorial's face. After dark is even better for the western memorials, which are lit and open all night, though the Tidal Basin path is dark in places. In summer, avoid the middle of the day completely. There are water fountains and toilets near most memorials, and park rangers are on duty at the main ones to answer questions.

This walk fills the first day of our 3-day itinerary.