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…

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…

During World War I, the federal government built a number of temporary office buildings in Washington to hold all the new workers. The group shown in this photograph stretched across the Mall from north to south just east of 7th Street, visible…

In 1870 the Army Corps of Engineers, headed by Major Nathaniel Michler, began dredging the Potomac to remove silt and improve ship traffic. Dredged material was dumped into the tidal flats along the Washington waterfront. In 1875 the project was…

British troops invaded Washington during the War of 1812. On August 24, 1814, British soldiers marched into the city and set fire to federal buildings, including the U.S. Capitol. At the time, the Capitol only consisted of two wings; the connecting…

The Tripoli Monument was commissioned by members of the US Navy's Mediterranean fleet in memory of 6 officers who died during the Barbary Wars of the early 1800s. Built in Italy in 1806, the monument came to the US on board the USS Constitution and…

The mud flats and marshland to the west of the Washington Monument (on the left side of this image) were called the Potomac Flats for most of the 1800s. In 1870, the Army Corps of Engineers began dredging the Potomac to remove silt and to deepen the…