Things to do in Washington, DC on foot

Washington on foot

The National Mall is two miles of grass and gravel between the U.S. Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial, and it's where the country goes to protest, to mourn and to remember. Most visitors see it in pieces, a museum here and a memorial there. Our walk ties it together in one long, flat line of stories. It starts at the Capitol's West Front, then crosses to the red sandstone Smithsonian Castle, built with money left by a British chemist who never set foot in America. At the Washington Monument you look for the line where the stone changes color, because the money ran out partway up. You stop at the World War II Memorial, at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and its wall of names, at the Lincoln Memorial, where Marian Anderson sang in 1939 and Martin Luther King Jr. spoke in 1963, and at the King Memorial on the Tidal Basin, carved from his line about a stone of hope. It ends at the Jefferson Memorial and the cherry trees. The walk is 4.2 miles and takes about 2 hours 4 minutes with the stories, so wear good shoes and carry water in summer. Spring, when the cherry trees bloom around the Tidal Basin, is the busiest season, and early mornings are quieter all year.

Washington: questions people ask

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Know someone headed to Washington? Give a walk as a gift, emailed on the day you pick.