Go take a picture with the inventor of the daguerreotype photographic process.

One of the most influential presidents in U.S. history wanted only this plain, elegant monument as his lasting memorial.

The unique traffic pattern named for an influential urban planner is also known as the Pedestrian Scramble.

Washington's iconic carousel has a nice piece of Civil Rights history.

A tiny monument to the unsuccessful attempt by Thomas Jefferson to place the prime meridian in Washington.

A historic estate packed with George Washington's heirlooms, and its own nuclear bunker.

The iconic D.C. restaurant where the Cuban Missile Crisis was negotiated, now a Walgreens.

Legend has it that President Grant’s frequent drinking in the lobby gave rise to the term “lobbyist.”

This poor little statue is the most vandalized memorial in Washington.

A historic arena where the Beatles played their first concert in the U.S.

A bas relief commemorates the "Nuns of the Battlefield" who cared for soldiers on both sides of the conflict.

You could be standing at the site of one of D.C.'s most fatal tragedies and not even know it.

Fittingly, America's museum of architecture is itself a magnificently designed old building.

An unassuming, powerful monument north of the U.S. Capitol bears witness to the resilience of Japanese Americans during a time of grave injustice.

The famous abolitionist’s preserved estate is one of Washington's finest monuments to its great Black citizens.

A lovely aquatic park built by a one-armed Civil War veteran who made a fortune from lotuses.

This imposing Masonic temple a mile from the White House was the first public library in Washington, D.C.

During the Industrial Revolution this “Temple of Invention” was full of intricate miniature machines and gadgets.

One critic described it as "middle Mussolini, early Ramses, and late Neiman-Marcus." Another called it an architectural "natural disaster."

An obscure federal monument honors the French diplomat who served as Ambassador to the U.S. during WWI.

This seemingly out-of-place gas station by the Watergate hotel was once described as the most expensive gas station in the world.

D.C.'s first central library was born out of a chance encounter with the philanthropist whose name it bears.

The most accurate timepiece in the world.

Decades before the scandal, this staircase on the river was a literal "water gate."