The brick Baltimore and Ohio Railway Depot stood at the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and Second Street on lots formerly occupied by a cabinet maker and a boarding house. Fitted with offices, living rooms, and a waiting room, an agent and a…

This detail of Adolph Sachse's stylized bird's-eye view of Washington highlights the section of the National Mall west of the US Capitol on present-day 6th Street. The National Mall was still parkland, a series of gardens, experimental plots, and…

On July 2, 1881, a deranged Charles Guiteau shot President James A. Garfield at the Baltimore and Potomac Railway Station. Guiteau was an unsuccessful lawyer, evangelist, and insurance salesman, who thought that the President owed him a government…

The Baltimore and Potomac Railroad, a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad, crossed the National Mall between 1870 and 1907. Sheds for waiting trains and empty freight cars extended into the parklands of the National Mall. As the population grew…

On June 11, 1927, President Calvin Coolidge awarded American aviator Charles Lindbergh the Distinguished Flying Cross in a ceremony held on the north side of the Washington Monument Grounds. Lindbergh, who was 25 years old, had completed the first…

On May 2, 1810, Washington officials and citizens flocked to the groundbreaking for the Washington Canal, which would connect the Potomac River to the Eastern Branch, also called the Anacostia River. Although the canal had been part of the original…

One of the highest floods to hit Washington, DC, occurred on March 20, 1936. Flood waters crested at the Key Bridge at 18.5 feet. Around the Mall, much of East and West Potomac Parks were underwater, and some cherry trees were killed. Advance warning…

The Aircraft Building was constructed in 1917 for the use of the US Signal Service during World War I. After the war ended, the building was transferred to the Smithsonian. It opened to the public in October 1920 as an exhibit space housing aircraft.…

This memorial commemorates photography pioneer, Louis Daguerre, inventor of the daguerreotype. The Photographer's Association of America presented the memorial to the people of the United States in a ceremony at the Smithsonian Arts and Industries…

This statue of Dr. Samuel D. Gross was unveiled in May 1897 outside the National Army Medical Museum and Library on the National Mall. Gross, who died in 1884, was a celebrated surgeon and professor at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. He…