Where to Stay in Washington, District of Columbia

What is Washington known for?

Washington is known as the capital of the United States, laid out across the District of Columbia. Its monuments line the open Mall. The Lincoln Memorial stands at one end, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Korean War Veterans Memorial nearby, and the museums of the Smithsonian Institution range along the green.

The National Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of Natural History draw the largest crowds. Art fills the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The city was built to govern.

What are the main landmarks in Washington?

Washington's landmarks gather along and around the open Mall. The Lincoln Memorial closes its western end, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Korean War Veterans Memorial stand among the trees nearby. The Smithsonian Institution runs its museums down both sides of the green, among them the National Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of Natural History, and much more besides.

Newer halls tell harder stories. The National Museum of African American History and Culture and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum stand among them, and art hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.

What is the history of Washington?

Washington was founded in 1790 as a planned federal capital, a new city cut from open ground to seat the government of the United States. It answered to no existing state. The District of Columbia was laid out for the purpose, its avenues drawn in long diagonals across a gridded plan around a central axis.

That axis became the Mall. Along it the young republic raised its monuments and its museums over the following century, and the Smithsonian Institution grew from a single hall into a chain of galleries down the green. In memory of the president who held the union together through its civil war, the Lincoln Memorial rose at the western end.

Later years filled the capital with memory. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Korean War Veterans Memorial were cut into the ground near the older monuments, and afterward the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum brought harder histories onto the Mall. Green quarters spread beyond the core, and the National Zoological Park and Dumbarton Oaks filled the wooded northwest.

From a planned capital on empty ground to a city of monuments and museums, Washington has grown as the seat of the nation across the District of Columbia.

Where is Washington?

Washington lies on low ground within the District of Columbia, where a broad tidal basin spreads below the plain. The land sits close to the water. The Mall runs flat along the river flats, its long reflecting pools set below the Lincoln Memorial at the western edge of the green.

Wooded hills climb gently to the northwest, where Dumbarton Oaks and the National Zoological Park spread across the higher ground above the basin. Water and terrace shape the whole of Washington across the District of Columbia.

What is the climate of Washington?

Washington has a warm humid climate over the low ground of the District of Columbia. Summers turn hot and heavy. Thick humid air settles over the Mall through the long summer months, and afternoon thunderstorms build and break across the river basin.

Washington's winters keep to the mild side. Snow falls only lightly most years, and spring brings the cherry blossom and the gentlest weather to the streets of Washington.

How do you get to Washington?

Most travellers reach Washington by air or rail. Airports serve the capital from across the river and beyond. Interstate highways and mainline railways converge on the District of Columbia, tying the city into the corridor that runs the length of the eastern seaboard, and a rail network threads the centre underground.

The trains run frequently. The routes of government and travel alike lead into the heart of Washington.