National Mall

The term National Mall commonly includes areas that are also officially part of neighboring West Potomac Park to the south and west and Constitution Gardens to the west. The term is often taken to refer to the entire area between the Lincoln Memorial on the west and east to the United States Capitol grounds, with the Washington Monument dividing the area slightly west of its midpoint. A smaller designation sometimes referred to as the National Mall excludes both the Capitol grounds and the Washington Monument grounds, applying only to an area between them. The National Mall contains and borders a number of museums of the Smithsonian Institution, art galleries, cultural institutions, and various memorials, sculptures, and statues. The park receives approximately 24 million visitors each year.

History

In his 1791 plan for the future city of Washington, D.C., Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant envisioned a garden-lined "grand avenue" approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) in length and 400 feet (120 m) wide, in an area that would lie between the Congress House (now the United States Capitol) and an equestrian statue of George Washington. The statue would be placed directly south of the President's House (now the White House) and directly west of the Congress House (see L'Enfant Plan). The National Mall (proper) occupies the site of this planned "grand avenue", which was never constructed.

Mathew Carey's 1802 map is reported to be the first to name the area west of the United States Capitol as the "Mall". The name is derived from that of The Mall in London, which during the 1700s was a fashionable promenade near Buckingham Palace upon which the city's elite strolled.

The Washington City Canal, completed in 1815 in accordance with the L'Enfant Plan, travelled along the former course of Tiber Creek to the Potomac River along B Street, NW (now Constitution Avenue, NW) and south along the base of a hill containing the Congress House, thus defining the northern and eastern boundaries of the Mall.[13][14][15] Being shallow and often obstructed by silt, the canal served only a limited role and became an open sewer that poured sediment and waste into the Potomac River's flats and shipping channel.[13][16] The portion of the canal that traveled near the Mall was covered over in 1871 for sanitary reasons.

Some consider a lockkeeper's house constructed in 1837 near the western end of the Washington City Canal for an eastward extension of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal to be the oldest building still standing on the National Mall.[17] The structure, which is located near the southwestern corner of 17th Street, NW and Constitution Avenue, NW, is west of the National Mall (proper).

The Smithsonian Institution Building ("The Castle"), constructed from 1847 to 1855, is the oldest building now present on the National Mall (proper). The Washington Monument, whose construction began in 1848 and reached completion in 1888, stands near the planned site of its namesake's equestrian statue. The Jefferson Pier marks the planned site of the statue itself.

Address: Washington, DC, United States
Departments: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery · Pedicab Stand -- National Gallery of Art · The fountain at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden · World War II Memorial Information
Area: 59 ha
Hours: Open 24 hours
Management: National Park Service
Architect: Pierre Charles L'Enfant