Attractions in Washington, DC

Capitol Hill

Capitol Hill is a neighborhood in Washington, D.C., located in both the Northeast and Southeast quadrants. It is bounded by 15th Street SE & NE, F Street NE, Southeast Boulevard SE, and South Capitol Street SE. Dominated by the United States Capitol, which sits on the highest point of Capitol Hill, it is one of the oldest historic districts in Washington. The neighborhood has a high concentration of rowhouses, largely dating from the 19th century. Home to around 35,000 people in just under 2 square miles (5 km2), Capitol Hill is also one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in Washington. The name Capitol Hill is frequently used as a metonym for the U.S. Congress.

Andrew Jackson Downing Urn

The Andrew Jackson Downing Urn, also known as the Downing Urn, is a memorial and public artwork located in the Enid A. Haupt Garden of the Smithsonian Institution on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Old Greenbelt Theatre

The Greenbelt Cinema is a historic two-screen cinema built between 1937 and 1938 in Roosevelt Center within the Greenbelt Historic District of Greenbelt, Maryland. It was built in the Art Deco style of architecture, or more specifically, the Streamline Moderne variant that Art Deco had largely evolved into in the 1930s. The theater opened to the public on September 21, 1938, with the first film shown at the theater Little Miss Broadway starring Shirley Temple.

Mohandas K. Gandhi Statue

The Mahatma Gandhi Memorial is a public statue of Mahatma Gandhi, installed on a triangular island along Massachusetts Avenue, in front of the Embassy of India, Washington, D.C., in the United States. A gift from the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, it was dedicated on September 16, 2000 during a state visit of Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the presence of US President Bill Clinton.

Zero Milestone

The Zero Milestone is a zero mile marker monument in Washington, D.C., erected in 1923 as the initial milestone from which all road distances in the United States would be measured.

Beach Drive Northwest

The Boulder Bridge is a historic bridge located in the Washington, D.C. portion of Rock Creek Park, an urban national park listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

DAR Museum

The DAR Museum, run by the Daughters of the American Revolution, is an art and history museum in Washington, D.C. The museum is located in Memorial Continental Hall, just down the street from DAR Constitution Hall, where some of the museum's concerts take place.

National Museum of African Art

The National Museum of African Art is the Smithsonian Institution's African art museum, located on the National Mall of the United States capital. Its collections include 9,000 works of traditional and contemporary African art from both Sub-Saharan and North Africa, 300,000 photographs, and 50,000 library volumes. It was the first institution dedicated to African art in the United States and remains the largest collection. The Washington Post called the museum a mainstay in the international art world and the main venue for contemporary African art in the United States.

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery is an art museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., focusing on Asian art. The Sackler Gallery and the Freer Gallery of Art together form the National Museum of Asian Art in the United States. The Freer and Sackler galleries house the largest Asian art research library in the country.

Art Museum of the Americas

Art Museum of the Americas (AMA), located in Washington, D.C., is the first art museum in the United States primarily devoted to exhibiting works of modern and contemporary art from Latin America and the Caribbean. The museum was formally established in 1976 by the Organization of American States (OAS) as the Museum of Modern Art of Latin America. Artists represented in the AMA's permanent collection include Carlos Cruz-Diez, Candido Portinari, Pedro Figari, Fernando de Szyszlo, Amelia Peláez, and Alejandro Obregón.

National Museum of the American Indian

The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers.

National Museum of Natural History

The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. It received 3.3 million visitors in 2024.

Memorial Chapel

Memorial Chapel is a non-denominational building on the campus of the University of Maryland, College Park, constructed to honor those associated with the university who had lost their lives serving in the United States Armed Forces. The building, designed by Henry Powell Hopkins, actually is made up of three chapels: the Main Chapel, the West Chapel, and the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament. A Vietnam Veterans Memorial was constructed on the Chapel grounds in 1988. The steeple of the chapel is the highest point on campus.

American Fazl Mosque

The Fazl Mosque in Washington, D.C. was established by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in 1950 and is the first mosque in the U.S. capital of Washington, D.C. Its full title is the American Fazl Mosque, which helps to distinguish it from its sister mosque, the Fazl Mosque, London, both of which were the first mosques in the capitals of the U.S. and the U.K., respectively. Located a few minutes from the White House, and neighboring several embassies, Fazl Mosque opened seven years prior to the Islamic Center of Washington and is the longest serving mosque in the nation's capital.

Washington D.C. Temple

The Washington D.C. Temple is the 16th operating temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Located in Kensington, Maryland, near Washington, D.C., and the Capital Beltway, it became the church's first temple east of the Mississippi River since the original Nauvoo Temple, completed in 1846. At 160,000 square feet (15,000 m2), it is the church's third-largest temple. Construction was completed in 1974 at a cost of $15 million. More than 750,000 people attended a seven-week open house before its dedication.

Holy Comforter Catholic Church

Holy Comforter-St. Cyprian is a Black Catholic parish in Washington, D.C. established in 1966 by the merger of the predominately African-American St. Cyprian Catholic Church and the predominantly White Holy Comforter Catholic Church.

Young Israel Shomrai Emunah Synagogue

Young Israel Shomrai Emunah is an Orthodox synagogue located at 1132 Arcola Avenue, in Kemp Mill, Montgomery County, Maryland, in the United States. Established as a congregation in 1951, it was the first Orthodox synagogue established in Montgomery County. It is one of the largest Orthodox synagogues in Maryland and is recognized as a key synagogue in the Silver Spring, Maryland area.

Bait-ur-Rahman Mosque

Baitur Rehman Mosque is located in Silver Spring, Maryland in the United States. The mosque was inaugurated by Mirza Tahir Ahmad, the late head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, on October 14, 1994. The mosque is run by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. An estimated 5,000 Ahmadis and guests from across the United States attended the opening ceremony.

Lincoln Park

Lincoln Park, historically known as Lincoln Square, is the largest urban park located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C., United States. From 1862 to 1865, during the American Civil War, it was the site of Lincoln Hospital, then the largest hospital in Washington, D.C. It is located along East Capitol Street, which surrounds the park.

Falls Road Park

Falls Road Local Park is an urban park located in Potomac, Maryland. The park covers twenty acres acquired by Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) in 1986. The park contains multi-purpose playing fields used for recreational and sporting events such as soccer, baseball/softball, football, picnics and small fairs.

North Gate Park

Meadowlark Botanical Gardens

Meadowlark Botanical Gardens are botanical gardens and an event venue located at 9750 Meadowlark Gardens Court, in Vienna, Virginia.

Glenfield Local Park

Saddlebrook Local Park

Duke Bridge

The Duke Ellington Bridge, named after American jazz pianist Duke Ellington, carries Calvert Street NW over Rock Creek in Washington, D.C., United States. Completed in 1935 as the Calvert Street Bridge, it connects 18th Street NW in Adams Morgan with Connecticut Avenue NW in Woodley Park, just north of the Taft Bridge.

Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge

The Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge, also known as the Woodrow Wilson Bridge or the Wilson Bridge, is a bascule bridge that spans the Potomac River between Alexandria, Virginia and Oxon Hill, Maryland in Prince George's County, Maryland. The original bridge was one of only a handful of drawbridges in the Interstate Highway System. It contained the only portion of the Interstate System owned and operated by the federal government until construction was completed and it was turned over to the Virginia and Maryland departments of transportation.

National Zoological Park

The Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, commonly known as the National Zoological Park or simply the National Zoo, is one of the oldest zoos in the United States. The zoo is part of the Smithsonian Institution and does not charge admission. Founded in 1889, its mission is to "provide engaging experiences with animals and create and share knowledge to save wildlife and habitats".

Ballston Quarter

Ballston Quarter is one of the first major suburban shopping centers built in the Washington metropolitan area. It opened in 1951 as Parkington Shopping Center and was the nation's first shopping center built around a multi-story parking garage. It is located at the intersection of Glebe Road and Wilson Boulevard in the Ballston neighborhood of Arlington County, Virginia, two blocks from Ballston–MU station on the Washington Metro's Orange and Silver lines. It was remodeled as Ballston Common Mall in 1986 and again in 2019 as Ballston Quarter.

Ellsworth Place

Ellsworth Place is a 350,000-square-foot (33,000 m2), six-story, enclosed vertical power center in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland. It opened as City Place Mall on April 2, 1992, and is located at the intersection of Fenton Street and Colesville Road. Dave and Buster's opened in November 2016.

Beltway Plaza Mall

The Beltway Plaza mall is located in Greenbelt, Maryland. It was developed by Sidney J. Brown and First National Realty, opening on October 17, 1963. It was originally composed of a massive S. Klein department store separated by a large parking lot from an A&P Supermarket located in a strip shopping center along with a barbershop, single screen movie theater, and Drug Fair store. By 1972-73, a small indoor mall was created, situated between the strip shopping center and the S. Klein store, that included a 6-screen theater, steakhouse, a branch of George's appliance store chain, an ice cream shop, and in-house catalog store.

The Mall at Prince Georges

The Mall at Prince George's, formerly known as Prince George's Plaza, is an enclosed regional shopping mall located in Hyattsville, Maryland, at the intersection of Belcrest Road and East-West Highway. It is served by a Washington Metro station, Hyattsville Crossing. This station is on the Green and Yellow Lines. Located across Belcrest Road from the Mall is the University Town Center mixed-use development.

The Shops at Iverson

The Shops at Iverson is a shopping mall located at the intersection of Branch Avenue and Iverson Street, in Hillcrest Heights, Maryland, just north of the Marlow Heights Shopping Center. Originally named Iverson Mall, it was the first shopping mall in the Washington, D.C., area to be built fully enclosed and climate controlled.