Best Tours - DC Presents

The Mall - A Walk Through Time

When: Call for dates for groups

Price: $20 per person

Come with your friends at Best Tours as we do a walk through history to explore the National Mall, America's front lawn and home to our country's best loves monuments and memorials. We'll do a leisurely walk starting with the White House grounds, the Washington Monument, on to the the World War II memorial and ending at the Vietnam, Lincoln and Korean War Veterans Memorials.

Ever wonder what the Mall looked like 50 years ago? 100 years ago? 200? What used to be here? This tour will show, with pictures, how the Mall developed from farm land, to a forested park (with a train station) in the mid-19th century through to its reimagining into an open, grassy park we know today.

Pierre L'Enfant, a French officer in the American Revolution was hired by George Washington to design the new Federal City in 1790. Instead of creating a small town with the buildings for Congress and the President next to each other, L'Enfant designed a grand city in the wildnerness that was as large as London was in his day.

Detail of L'Enfant Plan Showing the Mall

View of the Mall from the Capitol, 1850

By the mid-19th century, tastes had changed from the grand and rational plans of the French Enlightenment to the gothic and romantic English style, and so Andrew Jackson Downing created a new vision for the Mall, a fantastic vision that was only partially built.

Meet: Corner of 15th and Constitution Ave, NW

If you have any questions, please contact Best Tours-DC by e-mail at outnaway@hotmail.com, or call 703-597-6283.

This tour can be done as a private tour for family groups and other groups. Call 703-597-6283 for more details.