I remember this so vividly. I walked the length of the Mall, stood on the west front steps of the Capitol (which you can no longer do) and stared out onto a virtual sea of candles flickering on the Mall. This photo is a good representation of what I saw that night on September 12th, […]

Okay, it’s been a really long time since we posted anything. Life gets busy when you have Ghost Toddler and a new Ghost Baby. But, a few extra hours after an evening when they both went to bed at a reasonable hour and we were able to dig up a few great old maps that […]

What do you think? Is Washington the most beautiful city in the world? I have to believe that I’m biased, but I do think it is certainly one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Okay, there’s Paris, Vienna, Rome, Prague, London, Florence, and no less than several dozen more. But, Washington’s top sites and […]

Check out the drawing of a proposed National Mall, as viewed from the Capitol Building. This was in the early 1900s. Source: Library of Congress

What a beautiful view of the Mall from the Smithsonian. This was taken in the early 20th century. Source: Library of Congress

This is a fascinating article about a prepared additional National Mall east of the Capitol. It was never built.

Here’s a cool aerial shot of the National Mall from the Capitol and Library of Congress to the Potomac. Source: Cornell University Library

What a great photo from 1936. This shows the National Mall as viewed from the Capitol. Source: Cornell University Library

Here’s a really cool, not often seen, view of the National Mall. This was taken by the IKONOS satellite on March 30th, 2001. Source: Archive.org

Early in the 19th century, there was a proposal to build a national university at the west end of the Mall, where the Lincoln Memorial now sits.

This is a shot of some ladies playing baseball on the Mall. Yes, baseball … not softball. The photo is dated October 10th, 1919. Source: Library of Congress

Here’s a cool shot of the National Mall, as viewed from the Washington Monument in 1936. Source: Cornell University

This is a long-overdue, and greatly anticipated, guest post by Aaron, who wrote one of our most popular pieces yet on the (almost) red Metro trains. As crowds celebrate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, D.C. prepares for an influx of visitors — and a series of traffic, transit, […]

The description on this image from Flickr says it’s a proposed plan for public buildings on the Mall near the Capitol. Source: Flickr user medicalmuseum

Look how different things were well over a hundred years ago. We dug this photo up on Flickr thanks to the DC Public Library. Source: DC Public Library

These are the “temporary” buildings on the Mall, erected in 1918 along Constitution Avenue (though still known as B St. then). The view is looking west from the Washington Monument in 1942, so it provides and excellent vantage point to see how massive they actually were.

Yesterday Tom shared a somewhat jarring photo of the Capitol dome — colored red.  It wasn’t something we had seen before, dating roughly to the late 1950s.  Unfortunately, we just didn’t have much information. After a bit of digging, we now know that the Capitol’s re-painting (and temporary red coloring) happened in April 1960.  The […]

Who doesn’t like the Beach Boys? This was a pretty big concert on the National Mall for the first July 4th celebration in the 80s. Did any of you attend this show?

This is a guest post by Aaron. Art fans will focus Thursday night on the outer walls of the Hirshhorn Museum.  Eleven video projectors will paint the Smithsonian’s modern and contemporary ring with 360 degrees of a looping film called, “SONG 1.”  The Hirshhorn’s exterior will become exhibition space as artist Doug Aitken transforms the circumference […]