The Constitution Gardens were dedicated in May 1976 as part of the United States Bicentennial and were declared a living legacy to the US Constitution by President Ronald Reagan in September 1986. During World War I, the US government built temporary…

Architect of the Capitol, Charles Bulfinch, designed the gatehouses and matching gateposts in the 1820s. They originally flanked a grand pedestrian entrance on the west side of the Capitol. They were removed in 1874 and placed in their present…

This monument to President James Garfield (1831-1881) depicts him giving a speech, gazing outward with papers in one hand. Garfield was elected in 1880, but he served only four months of his term before his assassination in a railroad station on the…

The Peace Monument, also known as the Naval Monument and the Civil War Sailors Monument, honors naval deaths at sea during the American Civil War. Admiral David Dixon Porter conceived the idea of the monument and sketched an initial design in the…

This urn memorializing horticulturist Andrew Jackson Downing (1815-1852) was installed on the Mall in 1856 near the present location of the National Museum of American History. The urn was moved several times before it arrived in the Enid A. Haupt…

The Boy Scout Memorial is a bronze and granite sculpture honoring the Boy Scouts of America. It is located on the White House Ellipse on the site of the 1937 Boy Scout Jamboree. Built without any public funds, Boy Scouts raised all the money for the…

John Ericsson (1803-1889), a Swedish-born engineer, made inventions and improvements critical to the Union's naval success in the United States Civil War. In particular, his design of the USS Monitor, the first Union ironclad ship, represented an…

Honoring Revolutionary War hero John Paul Jones (1747-1742), this memorial lies just off the Mall in West Potomac Park. As Captain of the ship Bonhomme Richard during the Battle of Flamborough Head during the Revolutionary War, Jones famously uttered…

Frederick Law Olmsted designed the Summerhouse so that visitors to the Capitol could sit and rest as they toured the Capitol grounds. It contains intricate brickwork, several windows, wrought iron gates, and seating space for up to 22 people. The…

The current zero milestone dates from the spring of 1923, replacing a temporary marker placed on this site in President's Park in 1919. Originally intended as a central point from which to measure highway distances throughout the United States, the…