11 Best Sights in Washington, D.C., USA

April 14, 1865, shocked the nation: during a performance of Our American Cousin, John Wilkes Booth entered the Presidential Box at Ford's Theatre and shot Abraham Lincoln in the back of the head; the president died later that night. This block-long, Lincoln-centered, cultural campus encompasses four sites. In the Museum, you'll explore Lincoln's presidency and Civil War milestones and learn about Booth and those who joined his conspiracy to topple the government. Artifacts include Lincoln's clothing and weapons used by Booth. The Theatre, which stages performances throughout the year, is restored to look as it did when Lincoln attended, including the Presidential Box draped with flags as it was on the night he was shot. In the restored Petersen House, you can see the room where Lincoln died and the parlor where his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, waited in anguish through the night.

The centerpiece of the Aftermaths Exhibits at the Center for Education and Leadership is a jaw-dropping, three-story tower of 6,800 books written about Lincoln. Visitors take an immersive step back in time, entering a 19th-century street scene where they find a reproduction of Lincoln's funeral train car and see its route to Springfield, Illinois. Visitors also learn about the chase for John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators' trial, and they interact with an "escape map" to the tobacco barn where Booth was captured. Exhibits also explore the fate of Lincoln's family after his death, explain the milestones of Reconstruction, and describe Lincoln's legacy and enduring impact on U.S. and world leaders. A visit ends with a multiscreen video wall that shows how Lincoln's ideas resonate today.

Visits to Ford's Theatre require a free, timed-entry ticket. Same-day tickets are available at the theater box office beginning at 8:30 am on a first-come, first-served basis. You can also reserve tickets in advance at  www.fords.org with a $3 fee per ticket.

Founded in 1888, the National Geographic Society is best known for its magazine, and entering this welcoming, 13,000-square-foot exhibition space feels like stepping into its pages. The compact museum offers family-friendly interactive exhibitions delving into the historical, cultural, and scientific research that distinguishes National Geographic magazine. There are items from the permanent collections—cultural, historical, and scientific—and traveling exhibitions. It also has a virtual-reality theater experience. Nat Geo Nights—presentations by explorers with interactive activities, music, and food and drink specials—are held on the third Thursday of every month. The M Street Lobby photography exhibit, as well as the outdoor photo display around the perimeter of the museum, are free.

The intersection of art, biography, and history is illustrated here through images of people who have shaped U.S. history. There are prints, paintings, photos, and sculptures of subjects from George Washington to Madonna.

This museum shares the National Historic Landmark building Old Patent Office with the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Built between 1836 and 1863 and praised by Walt Whitman as the "noblest of Washington buildings," it is deemed one of the country's best examples of Greek Revival architecture.

America's Presidents gallery, offering insights into the leaders---from George Washington until the present---is one of the most popular exhibitions. In this gallery, you'll see the only complete collection of presidential portraits outside the White House. Highlights include Gilbert Stuart's 1796 "Landsdowne" portrait of George Washington, Alexander Gardner's "cracked-plate" image of Abraham Lincoln from Lincoln's last formal portrait session before his assassination in 1865, a sculpture of Andrew Jackson on a horse, and political cartoonist Pat Oliphant's sculpture of George H.W. Bush playing horseshoes.

From portraits of World War II generals Eisenhower and Patton to Andy Warhol's Time magazine cover of Michael Jackson, the third-floor gallery, Twentieth-Century Americans, offers a vibrant tour of the people who shaped the country and culture of today. If seeing former first lady Michelle Obama is on your list, get to the gallery early, as this is a sought-after portrait. 

There are free docent-led tours Saturdays and Sundays at noon and 2:30 pm. Check the website to confirm the times. At the Lunder Conservation Center on the third and fourth floors, you can watch conservators at work.

Located on a 2.4-acre tract adjacent to the National Mall and within full view of the U.S. Capitol, this memorial illustrates the journey of veterans with disabilities, from injury and healing to rediscovery of purpose. The plaza, with a star-shaped fountain and low triangular reflecting pool, features bronze sculptures, glass panels, and granite walls engraved with quotations from 18 veterans describing their experiences. With its single ceremonial flame, the fountain is the focal point, a powerful icon expressing water's healing, cleansing properties and the enlightenment, power, and eternal nature of fire. The needs of those with disabilities are front and center in the memorial's design. The low fountain can easily be surveyed by someone in a wheelchair, numerous benches in front of text panels, and hidden metal bars placed strategically to help visitors who need assistance to sit or stand. Designed by Michael Vergason Landscape Architects, of Alexandria, Virginia, the memorial is a fitting reminder of the cost of human conflict.

One of the country's top-grossing sports and entertainment venues, the 20,000-seat Capital One Arena averages more than 200 events each year and has helped to turn the surrounding area into the most vibrant part of Downtown, where you'll find several of the city's best restaurants. Many restaurants nearby offer pre-theater menus and happy hour offerings before a big event. Sporting events include hockey featuring the Stanley Cup champion, Washington Capitals; basketball with the Washington Wizards, Washington Mystics, and Georgetown Hoyas; and figure-skating events. Artists like Bruce Springsteen, Jennifer Lopez, Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, Paul McCartney, U2, and Lady Gaga have performed there. Outside, street musicians of all kinds and styles add to the experience. The Metro station is directly below the arena.

Architecture, design, landscaping, and urban planning are the themes of this museum, the nation's premier cultural organization devoted to the built environment. The open interior of the mammoth redbrick building is one of the city's great spaces and has been the site of many presidential inaugural balls. The eight central Corinthian columns are among the largest in the world, rising to a height of 75 feet. Although they resemble Siena marble, each comprises 70,000 bricks covered with plaster and painted. The long-term exhibition House and Home features a kaleidoscopic array of photographs, objects, models, and films that takes visitors on a tour of houses both surprising and familiar, through past and present, exploring American domestic life and residential architecture. The museum also offers a series of temporary hands-on exhibitions focusing on construction. Although geared towards children, people of all ages enjoy the experience.

These 3-foot-high walls bear the names of more than 21,000 American police officers killed in the line of duty since 1791. On the third line of Panel 13W are the names of six officers killed by William Bonney, better known as Billy the Kid. J.D. Tippit, the Dallas policeman killed by Lee Harvey Oswald, is honored on the ninth line of Panel 63E. Other names include the 72 officers who died due to the events of 9/11. Directories here allow you to look up officers by name, date of death, state, and department. Call to arrange for a free tour. A National Law Enforcement Museum is in the works; until then, a small visitor center ( 400 7th St.) has a computer for looking up names, a display on the history of law enforcement, and a small gift shop.

From Childe Hassam's The South Ledges, Appledore to Nelson Shanks's The Four Justices, the Smithsonian American Art Museum features one of the world's largest collections of American art that spans more than four centuries. Over the past few decades, the museum has broadened its collection to include modern and contemporary art, too. Among the artists represented are Benny Andrews, José Campechi, Robert Indiana, Roy Lichtenstein, Isamu Noguchi, Robert Rauschenberg, Mickalene Thomas, and Charlie Willeto. The museum shares a National Historic Landmark building with the National Portrait Gallery.

On the first floor, you'll discover an enormous tinfoil altarpiece by James Hampton and more than 60 sculptures and paintings by Emery Blagdon that represent his thought-provoking and constantly changing Healing Machine. You can also experience American works from the 1930s, many created as part of New Deal programs. Highlights here include Marvin Beerbohm's Automotive Industry, Lily Furedi's Subway, and Edward Hopper's Ryder's House. Also on the first floor is the Direct Carving exhibit, which showcases artists who work directly on a piece of stone or wood.

Art from the Colonial period to the dawn of modernism is displayed throughout the galleries on the second floor. Discover masterpieces by Mary Cassatt, Frederick Carl Frieseke, Thomas Moran, Harriett Whitney Frishmuth, George Catlin, Albert Bierstadt, Winslow Homer, and John Singer Sargent, to name just a few.

The museum's third floor features modern and contemporary paintings and sculpture and the Watch This! gallery, where you can see a selection of works from the museum's media art and film collection. Highlights include Nam June Paik's billboard-size piece with 215 monitors showing video images from the Seoul Olympics, Korean folk rituals, and modern dance.

At any given time, many of the museum's holdings are in storage, but you can view more than 3,000 artworks in its Luce Foundation Center, a visible storage space on the third and fourth floors, where visitors can also watch the museum's conservators at work. Free docent-led tours of the museum are available every day at 12:30 and 2.

Although Pierre L'Enfant included a Navy Memorial in his plans for Washington, D.C., the memorial did not come to life until 1987. The main attraction here is a 100-foot-diameter granite map of the world, known as the Granite Sea. Fountains, benches, and six ship masts surround the map. The Lone Sailor, a 7-foot-tall statue, stands on the map in the Pacific Ocean between the United States and Japan. The Naval Heritage Center, next to the memorial in the Market Square East Building, displays videos and exhibits of uniforms, medals, and other aspects of navy life. If you've served in the navy, you can enter your service record into the log. Bronze relief panels on the Pennsylvania Avenue side of the memorial depict 26 scenes commemorating events in the nation's naval history and honoring naval communities.

In late 2014, Congress re-designated this quiet, sunken garden to honor General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing, the first—a century ago—to hold the title General of the Armies. An official unit of the National Park System, the memorial currently includes engravings on the stone walls recounting pivotal campaigns from World War I, when Pershing commanded the American Expeditionary Force and conducted other military exploits. Steps and small tables surround a fountain and duck pond, making for a pleasant midday respite. The park had a $46-million renovation of the memorial in 2021.