Washington

Washington, D.C. is the Capital city of the United States. D.C stands for District of Columbia, named after George Washington, American Revolution military leader and the first President of the United States, where Columbia refers to the former poetic name for the United States named after Christopher Columbus, the explorer of the Americas. Founded in the year 1790, The District, as the city is often referred as is the center for three branches of the U.S. federal government. The city is also has head quarters of many national and international institutions including the World Bank. With the world’s largest museum complex, number of galleries and national landmarks displaying American culture make it one of the most visited tourist attractions.

Jefferson Memorial

Dedicated to the memory of Thomas Jefferson, an American Founding Father and the third president of the United States was completed in the year 1943 as per the designs of John Russell Pope. The building reflects Mr. Jefferson’s fascination for the Roman architecture through its design showing the resemblance with the buildings designed by Jefferson like Monticello. A beautiful bronze statue of Jefferson was added four years after the memorial was built. The statue, sculpture Rudulph Evans, is 19 foot tall and weighs about 5 ton. The interiors are mostly made in marble and granite with passages from Jefferson’s writing engraved on the walls. One of the rooms in the memorial holds a 5 foot tall bio of Jefferson inscribed in granite with his accomplishments adorning the room.

Washington Monument

Designed by one of the well known architects in America the Washingon Monume is among the world’s tallest stonework’s at 555 feet of height. The monument has witnessed many political and civil changes in the United States. With varying interests and designs with time the monument was started in 1848 and completed in the year 1884 which was 30 years after it’s architect’s death. The delay was due to the lack of funds, changing political interests and civil wars. In fact, the monument clearly shows the difference in the shade of marble used which was caused due to interruption in its construction.

Lincoln Memorial

A witness of the famous “I have a dream” speech by Martin Luther King and many other well known speeches, the Lincoln Memorial stands in its elegant Greek Form. With a large and well sculpted statue of Abraham Lincoln the memorial also holds inscriptions of his two famous speeches. The 6 meter tall and 6 meter wide statue was sculpted in white marble by Daniel Chester French who studied many photographs of Abraham Lincoln. The reflecting pool in the memorial aptly reflects the Washington Memorial and the pensive looking Lincoln statue stands looking at the pool.

National Air and Space Museum

With the world’s largest collection of aircraft and spacecrafts, The National Air and Space Museum is an important research centre for science and history of aviation technology, planetary science, geophysics as well as terrestrial geology. It is one of the most popular Smithsonian museums and is one of the most modern structures in Washington, though Smithsonian Institution did not want it to overpower the Capitol building with its design. Formerly named as National Air Museum, the museum was formed in 1946 with some of its collections as old as dated 1876. The world suddenly grew during 1950s and 1960s fascinated to the cosmos led the museum to rename it to “National Air and Space Museum”.

Smithsonian National Zoological Park

The National Zoo or with its more formal name The Smithsonian National Zoological Park was founded in 1889. The Zoo in Washington is spread over on the 163 acres of land within Rock Creek Park and is dedicated mainly to the educational purpose. The Smithsonian National Zoological Park also has conservation center in Virginia and together these two facilities have 2000 animals of 400 different species. The American Conservation leader William T. Horanday got worried about the declining species of Native American species and thought of a facility to breed them. He started a small zoo for breeding purpose and to educate people about wildlife. The zoo grew with contributions of animals from public and institutions as well as circuses. Due to lack of funds and varying political interests, the zoo also got almost shut many times earlier After the World War II William Mann became the director of the zoo and it grew with his collecting expeditions around world for adding the variety of species to the zoo. Today the zoo is known as the most popular tourist attractions in the U.S. with almost 2 million visitors a year.

National Museum of Women in the Arts

NMWA is probably the only place where the women’s achievements in visual, performing and literary arts are celebrated through a solely committed museum. The museum was founded in 1981 and was opened to visit in the year 1987. Since it was opened, the museum has acquired more than 3500 paintings, sculpture and different forms of art. After admiring a 17th Century still life by Painter Clara Peeters, Mr. and Mrs. Holladay were searching for more information on the artist, however, they did not find any reference of her or any women artists in many well known art history. This thought made them decide to make a art collection by women which grew into NMWA later.