Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, established the People's Garden on the site of a former parking lot outside the Department of Agriculture in 2009. The garden is maintained by volunteers from the Department. All of the produce grown in the…

Since 1979, the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) has performed on the west front of the Capitol on the fourth of July. The concert is aired by PBS stations as "A Capitol Fourth" and features musicians and vocalists as well as the NSO and the Marine…

The 2009 Presidential Inauguration was the first in which the entire length of the Mall was open to spectators. In previous years, parts of the Mall were used as staging areas for the inaugural parade. In this photo you can see that the crowds…

Washington, DC, is home to a number of softball leagues, most of which make use of the fields on the Mall. All of the fields are managed by the National Park Service and some are first come, first served. The six fields on the Washington Monument…

This elm tree, called the Jefferson elm, is one of the original 300 elm trees planted on the National Mall in the 1930s. At the same time these trees were planted, Dutch Elm disease appeared in the United States and infected native American elms.…

The Eisenhower Memorial is a proposed monument to the 34th President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower. The proposed monument site is located on the south side of Independence Avenue, directly across from the National Air and Space Museum.…

On the afternoon of August 23, 2011, a 5.8 magnitude earthquake occurred in Mineral, Virginia which was felt as far away as New York state. In Washington, DC the Washington Monument swayed from the force of the earthquake. Visitors were evacuated by…

In the late 1990s, beavers threatened the cherry trees at the Tidal Basin, gnawing on the trunks and killing at least five trees. The National Park Service had to find a way to preserve the trees without harming the beavers. They placed protective…

On August 23, 2011, a 5.8 magnitude earthquake affected the Washington, DC area and much of the east coast. From its epicenter in Louisa County, Virginia, the unusual quake caused minimal damage. However, the exterior of the Washington Monument had…

In 2010 the DC government announced that public wireless internet was available on the National Mall. Visitors and residents can get online by logging into “DC Wifi” using wifi-enabled devices. The Smithsonian Castle Information Center, National…