Other sites
National Aquarium
Located in the basement level of the Department of Commerce building, the National Aquarium is much smaller than the one in Baltimore. The aquarium was recently renovated, though with its smaller size, there are no dolphin shows. It offers the "America's Aquatic Treasures" exhibit which takes approximately 45 minutes to see. In addition to standard Aquarium fish, there are sharks, eels, alligators, turtles, and other reptiles.
National Geographic Museum
Photography and other exhibits on nature, history, and culture. Films, lectures, and concerts take place at the National Geographic Society's Grosvenor Auditorium. The gift shop has numerous books, DVDs, and other items. Good for kids.
The Nixon tapes
The tapes weren't shocking just for implicating the president in federal crimes, they were devastating for what they revealed about him personally. Memorable quotes include:
The Mexicans are a different cup of tea. They have a heritage. At the present time they steal, they're dishonest, but they do have some concept of family life. They don't live like a bunch of dogs, which the Negroes do live like.
You know what happened to the Romans? The last six Roman emperors were fags. Neither in a public way. You know what happened to the popes? They were layin' the nuns; that's been goin' on for years, centuries. But the Catholic Church went to hell three or four centuries ago. It was homosexual, and it had to be cleaned out.
There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white. Or a rape.
To Kissinger: The only place where you and I disagree ... is with regard to the bombing. You're so goddamned concerned about civilians and I don't give a damn. I don't care.
I'm not for women, frankly, in any job. I don't want any of them around. Thank God we don't have any in the Cabinet.
On Jews: But by God, they're exceptions... you can't trust the bastards. They turn on us.
When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.
Octagon House
Designed by William C. Thornton, and completed in 1800, the Octagon House was owned by Colonel John Tayloe, a Virginia plantation owner. A few years later, the Tayloes offered the house for use as the French Embassy, where the Treaty of Ghent was signed by President James Madison to end the War of 1812 he was working there temporarily following the 1814 burning of the White House. The house was sold in 1855, and since used as a military hospital during the Civil War, an apartment building, a girl's school, and has been owned by the American Institute of Architects AIA since 1902. The AIA still owns the house, though they are now located in a large office building adjacent to the Octagon House. The house is now used as a museum, and a gallery is located in the main AIA building.
Ringgold-Carroll House
The Ringgold-Carroll House was built in 1825 for Tench Ringgold, who was part of a three-member team in charge of restoring public buildings in the District of Columbia, following the War of 1812. From 1832-1833, Chief Justice John Marshall resided with Ringgold in the house. In 1835, the house was sold, and a number of prominent people have since lived in the house, including William Thomas Carroll, a clerk at the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Melville Fuller, Senator Joseph Medill McCormick, and Congressman Robert Low Bacon. The Diplomatic and Consular Officers Retired DACOR now occupy the house, which is not open to the public except for special events.
Watergate Hotel Complex
The Watergate is and will be best known for its role in the ending of Richard "I am not a crook" Nixon's presidency. On 17 June 1972 five men employed by Nixon's Committee to Re-elect the President were arrested for breaking and entering at the Democratic National Committee's rooms at the Watergate. The ensuing scandal led to revelations of enemies lists, "campaign fraud, political espionage and sabotage, illegal break-ins, improper tax audits, illegal wiretapping on a massive scale, and a secret slush fund laundered in Mexico to pay those who conducted these operations." And those infamous tapes. Conversations in the Oval Office were automatically recorded, and those conversations were subpoenaed in the Congressional investigation. The tapes revealed President Nixon's direct knowledge and involvement in criminal acts under investigation, as well as his deep seated moral corruption and personal bigotries.
Corcoran Museum of Art
This is the oldest art gallery in the American capital, housed in a beautiful, large Beaux-Arts building. The special exhibits are the big reason to come pay the admissions fee when you could otherwise walk to some of the world's best free art museums at the Smithsonian, that and the fact that the Corcoran does a better job keeping up with contemporary art. The exhibits here are geared towards a more art-fluent audience, rather than your average curious tourist, and are accordingly a bit edgier and less accessible to a casual visitor.
Diplomatic Reception Rooms
The Department of State offers guided tours of its formal reception rooms, used for official meetings with foreign representatives. The rooms are a trove of antiques and gifts, old and new, given by foreign governments to the US. Tours only by appointment, must show valid ID to be admitted.
lafayette park
Named for French General Lafayette of American Revolutionary fame better known to his friends as Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette, this park is a national historic landmark seemingly dedicated to the purpose of taking pictures of the White House. The large equestrian statue at its center is of President Andrew Jackson, while the statues on the four corners of the park are dedicated to Revolutionary heroes, all of them foreign: Lafayette, French Maj. General Rochambeau, Polish General Kosciuszko, and Prussian Maj. General Friedrich von Steuben.
And if you like bushy-tailed rodents, you're in luckâLafayette Park is home to the densest squirrel population known to science, lured here no doubt by their lust for power. Look especially for those black squirrels, descendants of a group of eighteen Canadians that escaped the National Zoo during Teddy Roosevelt's presidency.
the ellipse
The Ellipse is the park to the south of the White House. During the Civil War, the space was used as a cattle and horse corral, the smell of which combined with the summer humidity to make living in the White House unpleasant to the point where there was discussion of abandoning the White House and relocatingâpossibly to Meridian Hill, in Adams Morgan. President Grant nixed the idea, and had the grounds improved, installing a fountain in 1876, and two gatehouses relocated from the Capitol to the southwest and southeast corners of the Ellipse.
A number of memorials are located on the Ellipse, including the Butt-Millet Fountain, added in 1913 in honor of two prominent Titanic victimsâArmy Major Archibald Butt and painter Francis Millet. The Zero Milestone stands at the north end of the park, and is the marker by which all road distances would be measured this idea was a flop, and only D.C.'s roads use it as a measure. Larger memorials on the Ellipse include a memorial to 5,599 soldiers of the First Division of the American Expeditionary Force killed in World War I, and another memorial in honor of the Second Division in World War I on Constitution Ave. In nice weather today, the park serves mostly for the public to enjoy the good views and play frisbee.
white house
1600 Pennsylvania Ave, â +1 202 456-7041, . Tours: Tu-Th 7:30AM-11AM, F 7:30AM-noon, sa 7:30AM-1PM. Free.
Built starting in 1792, and first residence for the nation's second president, John Adams, the White House has been the residence and office for each presidency since. The building's chief architect, James Hoban, an Irishman, left a nationalistic mark on the U.S., modeling the President's home after Ireland's National Parliament building in Dublin. While Hoban's vision has survived the past 200+ years, including the 1814 fire set by invading British forces, the interior has hardly been static. As it is, after all, the president's house, each president has taken the liberty of various redecoratings, expansions, and additionsâthe entire East Wing, for example, was added only during the Coolidge Administration. The last major renovation occurred under Truman, but much of the antiques, artwork, and decorating styles you'll see today come courtesy of the First Wife of renowned taste, Jackie Kennedy.
President Jefferson opened the White House to the public, and it has remained so during peacetime with varying restrictions ever since. Following the attacks of September 11th, tours have been available only for groups of ten or more, and these must be requested up to six months in advance through your congressman if you're a US citizen, or through your country's embassy in Washington D.C. if you're a foreigner. Note that the standard tours focus on the social/residential part of the White Houseâthe East Wing, rather than the working West Wing. You can see the front door from Lafayette Square on the north side, and the back the more famous curved facade from the Ellipse on the south side. Political demonstrations typically take place at the front, though larger ones have been known to encircle the fence. Reservations must be made at least one month prior to the date you wish to visit. It's worth visiting if only to see the exterior.