The National Mall

Website

www.nps.gov/nama/index.htm

Coordinates

Telephone

The National Mall is a long stretch of green space that runs approximately 2 miles from the Potomac River on the West, to the Library of Congress on the East. The mall currently consists of over 100 monuments and memorials and 10 museums on its 309 acres. The mall is maintained and managed by the National Park Service.

National Mall looking East (38.888155, -77.044902)

National Mall looking East from Washington Monument (38.889495, -77.034832)

Initially commissioned by President George Washington and designed by Pierre L’Enfant in 1761, the space was meant as a garden to connect the U.S. Capitol to the “President’s House”. However, the grand garden plan never came to fulfillment.

In 1850, President Millard Fillmore requested landscape designer Andrew Jackson Downing to come up with a new plan for the property. 2 years later Downing passed away before much of his plan could be completed.

National Mall looking North to the White House (38.890412, -77.036393)

National Mall looking West from Washington Monument (38.889466, -77.035666)

After decades of over-growth, Senator James McMillon of Michigan create the Senate Park Commission in 1902, to come up with a new idea. The park commission revised L’Enfant’s original plans and extended the park one mile west thanks to newly claimed land adjacent to the Potomac River. Throughout the 1900’s, trees were removed to make it the grand, open space we see today.