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

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

Light bulbs, scrap wood, and tinfoil comprise this homemade throne of the gods.

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

The bank that helped fund the Mexican-American War and the purchase of Alaska met its downfall after helping Augusto Pinochet launder money.

The first purpose-built art gallery in the United States is once again open as a center of craft arts.

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

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

An overlooked memorial honoring the local Washington residents who died in World War I.

There's a 12-foot-tall replica of the Washington Monument hidden under a manhole nearby.

Look closely and you’ll notice that the color changes a third of the way up the tower.

Perhaps the most scandalous statue of America's first president.

This stunning blue and gold room changed cities twice before becoming part of the Smithsonian.

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

A much-maligned monument to teetotalism.

It was once the base for a series of domestic terror attacks.

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

A traveling postal dog covered 48 states and more than 140,000 miles, and he lives on as taxidermy, patched up with a rabbit's foot and a pig's ear.

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

A little marble compass above George Washington's (empty) tomb in the Capitol marks where D.C.'s four quadrants intersect.

Corn-inthian columns with a uniquely American take on neoclassical architecture.

A hidden gem on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.

Members of Congress have traveled between the buildings on Capitol Hill for a century hidden from tourists, press, and storm clouds.

Home to a vast and influential collection of Shakespeareana.