This shed stood south-east of the first Smithsonian building, now called the Castle. Smithsonian staff stored gardening and grounds keeping equipment used on the institution's grounds. This shed was removed in the 1870s when construction of the Arts…

Much like the food trucks that line the Mall today, food wagons in the late 1800s catered to office workers and tourists. Here a wagon offering "Hot Waffles 6 for 5c" sits on the Mall near the southside of the Treasury Department building.

During the 1800s the White House was much more accessible than it is today and informal social events were often held at the executive mansion. In this photo, a group is picnicking on the White House grounds with the Treasury Department building…

In the 1920s, the land on the western end of the Mall was transformed from a field into the planned landscape surrounding the newly-built Lincoln Memorial, designed by architect James Greenleaf. In this photo, a two-person team tills the land near…

The National Park Service employs many special maintenance teams to keep the Mall beautiful. Their role is to preserve the monuments and maintain the landscapes. Landscapers care for the grounds and remove 3-4 tons of trash daily. A special crew…

Foot traffic from 25 million annual visitors is hard on the Mall’s natural resources. In 2017, the National Park Service completed a restoration project that re-engineered a total of 18 acres of turf between 3rd and 14th Streets to ensure…

The National Park Service employs a team of professional arborists to ensure the continued health of the Mall's 9,000 trees. Sometimes known as "tree doctors," the arborists care for the cherry trees along the Tidal Basin, which have been a fixture…

In April 1987 a one-ton fiberglass Allosaurus sculpture was moved into the National Museum of Natural History.  A crowd formed on the Mall at the steps of the museum to watch the dinosaur lifted into the building with a winch. The 20-foot-long model…

Before the National Air and Space Museum opened in July 1975, objects like this WWII-era "Spitfire" airplane arrived. To get the plane inside the museum, its wings were temporarily removed and it was led through the museum's west end windows. These…

The American Locomotive Company of Richmond, Virginia built this 280-ton passenger stream train in 1926 which arrived at the National Museum of History and Technology (now the National Museum of American History) to go on permanent display in the…