The Washington City Canal ran for approximately two miles of canal through Washington from the present day Navy Yard, across the Capitol grounds, and down present day Constitution Avenue. Completed in 1815, the Canal incorporated Tiber Creek near…

Tiber Creek had been known as Goose Creek before 1790 when the city of Washington, DC was laid out and designated the nation's capital. The creek extended from the base of Capitol Hill to its mouth near the present day Washington Monument. In 1815,…

Eighteen steps from the top landing of the Lincoln Memorial, an inscription marks the spot where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood to give his "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963. The marker was placed in 2003 to mark the 40th anniversary of that speech.…

Dedicated by President Herbert Hoover in 1931, the District of Columbia War Memorial honors the residents who served and died in World War I. Inscribed on the floor of the domed monument are the names of the 499 DC residents who perished in that…

Constructed between 1914 and 1922, the Lincoln Memorial consists of a large, columned, classically inspired structure with a statue of Lincoln in the interior. Inscribed on the interior walls are Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address and his Gettysburg…

The Jefferson Memorial features a classically-inspired dome surrounded by columns. The centerpiece of the memorial is a 19 foot bronze statue of Jefferson. The statue was the second one of Jefferson placed in the Memorial, replacing a work made of…

Now encompassing several buildings and several dozen acres, the US Botanic Garden began with an original plot of 5 acres set aside by President James Monroe. The original location of the garden buildings was on 3rd Street in line with Capitol dome,…

Commemorating the first air mail flight connecting Washington, Philadelphia, and New York, the Aero Club of Washington placed this plaque in 1958 to mark the 40th anniversary of that flight. Following 52 experimental flights by the Post Office…

This is the second memorial to Roosevelt in the city; the first is near the National Archives and matches Roosevelt's own statement about what a memorial to him should look like: a block of stone about the size of a desk. However, in the 1970s,…

Originally created for the 1876 Philadelphia Exposition, sculptor Frederic Bartholdi had hoped to sell the fountain after the exposition concluded. The only offer to purchase it was made by Congress, who bought the work for $6,000. The sculpture was…