# Roots Earth in Washington DC: audio stories about 52 places Canonical: https://rootsearth.com/cities/washington-dc Published: 16 September 2026 Roots Earth has audio stories about 52 places in Washington DC, United States, in North America. The Washington DC stories are in all seven Roots Earth languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The app needs no account: open Washington DC, pick a place on the city's map of places and play. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection. The stories are written by local people. The 52 places are listed below in the order the app shows them, and again further down with their coordinates. The lists were taken from the Roots Earth catalogue on 15 September 2026. ## The 52 places in Washington DC with audio stories In the order the app shows them. 1. United States Capitol 2. White House 3. Lincoln Memorial 4. Washington Monument 5. National Mall 6. Jefferson Memorial 7. World War II Memorial 8. National Gallery of Art 9. Smithsonian Institution Building (the Castle) 10. National Air and Space Museum 11. National Museum of Natural History 12. National Museum of American History 13. National Museum of African American History and Culture 14. Library of Congress 15. Supreme Court Building 16. Washington National Cathedral 17. Vietnam Veterans Memorial 18. Korean War Veterans Memorial 19. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial 20. Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial 21. Tidal Basin 22. National Archives Building 23. Ford's Theatre 24. Union Station 25. National Portrait Gallery 26. Smithsonian American Art Museum 27. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden 28. National Museum of the American Indian 29. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 30. National Museum of Asian Art 31. Arlington National Cemetery 32. The Pentagon 33. Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception 34. National Building Museum 35. Lafayette Square 36. Eastern Market 37. Georgetown 38. Dupont Circle 39. Adams Morgan 40. U Street Corridor 41. Rock Creek Park 42. Ben's Chili Bowl 43. Congressional Cemetery 44. United States National Arboretum 45. Meridian Hill Park 46. The Wharf 47. Union Market 48. Old Stone House 49. Chinatown 50. Theodore Roosevelt Island 51. Shaw 52. Dumbarton Oaks ## Is there an audio guide for United States Capitol? Yes. United States Capitol has its audio stories in the Roots Earth app: a short introduction and a deeper story, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. It is place 1 of the 52 Washington DC places in the app, at 38.88972, -77.00889. Every one of the other 51 places in the list above has the same two stories. Roots Earth is not a guided tour: you choose the place on the city's map of places and play its story yourself. ## How to use Roots Earth in Washington DC Open Roots Earth and choose Washington DC. The city has its own map of places with all 52 of them on it. Tap the place you are standing in front of, or any other, and play its short introduction or its deeper story. You decide what to listen to and in which order. You can listen in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian, and there is no account. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection. --- **In full** All 52 places in Washington DC, in the app's order, with their coordinates. ## All 52 places in Washington DC, with coordinates Every place below has a short introduction and a deeper story in the Roots Earth app, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The names, the coordinates (latitude, longitude) and the one line descriptions are the app's own catalogue values of 15 September 2026; a place without a line here has none that this page can print. ### 1. United States Capitol - Coordinates: 38.88972, -77.00889 - In one line: The United States Capitol crowns Capitol Hill as the meeting place of Congress. Begun in 1793 in American Neoclassical style, its great cast-iron dome and the Statue of Freedom stand among the most recognized symbols of American democracy. ### 2. White House - Coordinates: 38.89778, -77.03639 - In one line: The White House has served as the official residence and workplace of every American president since 1800. Designed by James Hoban in a restrained Neoclassical Georgian style, its white facade and curved porticoes embody the executive branch of the United States. ### 3. Lincoln Memorial - Coordinates: 38.88928, -77.05014 - In one line: The Lincoln Memorial honors Abraham Lincoln in the form of a Greek temple. Designed by Henry Bacon and dedicated in 1922, its 36 columns and the great seated marble statue by Daniel Chester French have made it a gathering place for the civil-rights movement. ### 4. Washington Monument - Coordinates: 38.88944, -77.03528 - In one line: The Washington Monument honors the first president as a towering marble obelisk. Designed by Robert Mills and completed in 1884 after a long pause, it was once the tallest structure on earth and still dominates the National Mall with its clean Egyptian-style shaft. ### 5. National Mall - Coordinates: 38.89, -77.02361 - In one line: The National Mall is a long open parkland stretching from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial. Rooted in the 1791 plan of Pierre Charles L'Enfant, this green civic stage links the nation's monuments and museums and hosts its great protests and ceremonies. ### 6. Jefferson Memorial - Coordinates: 38.88139, -77.03653 - In one line: The Jefferson Memorial honors Thomas Jefferson beneath a domed marble rotunda on the Tidal Basin. Designed by John Russell Pope in the Roman Neoclassical style Jefferson loved, its circular colonnade and bronze statue glow among the capital's famous cherry blossoms. ### 7. World War II Memorial - Coordinates: 38.88944, -77.04056 - In one line: The World War II Memorial honors the 16 million Americans who served in the war. Designed by Friedrich Saint Florian and dedicated in 2004, its 56 granite pillars, twin Atlantic and Pacific arches and fountain-filled plaza sit at the heart of the National Mall. ### 8. National Gallery of Art - Coordinates: 38.8914, -77.02 - In one line: The National Gallery of Art holds one of America's finest collections, from Leonardo da Vinci to Vermeer. Established in 1937 through Andrew Mellon's gift, it pairs a neoclassical marble West Building with a bold modernist East Building. ### 9. Smithsonian Institution Building (the Castle) - Coordinates: 38.88875, -77.026 - In one line: Built of red sandstone and finished in 1855, the Smithsonian Institution Building, known as the Castle, was the original home of the Smithsonian. Designed by James Renwick Junior in a Norman Revival style, its towers anchor the National Mall. ### 10. National Air and Space Museum - Coordinates: 38.88833, -77.02 - In one line: Opened in 1976, the National Air and Space Museum displays the Wright Flyer, the Spirit of Saint Louis, and the Apollo 11 command module. Designed by Gyo Obata in marble and glass, it ranks among the world's most visited aerospace museums. ### 11. National Museum of Natural History - Coordinates: 38.8913, -77.0259 - In one line: Opened in 1910, the National Museum of Natural History holds over 145 million specimens, among the largest collections on Earth. Its Beaux-Arts rotunda frames a towering African elephant, while the Hope Diamond and dinosaur halls draw millions each year. ### 12. National Museum of American History - Coordinates: 38.89111, -77.03 - In one line: Opened in 1964, the National Museum of American History preserves the nation's story in objects, from the original Star-Spangled Banner to the ruby slippers. Designed by McKim, Mead and White, it gathers icons of American political, social, and cultural life. ### 13. National Museum of African American History and Culture - Coordinates: 38.89111, -77.03278 - In one line: Opened in 2016, the National Museum of African American History and Culture is the first national museum devoted to the Black American experience. David Adjaye's bronze corona facade crowns galleries that descend deep underground from slavery to the present. ### 14. Library of Congress - Coordinates: 38.88861, -77.00472 - In one line: Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the largest library on Earth, holding over 170 million items. Its Beaux-Arts Thomas Jefferson Building, completed in 1897, dazzles with a soaring Great Hall, mosaics, and a domed Main Reading Room. ### 15. Supreme Court Building - Coordinates: 38.89056, -77.00444 - In one line: A gleaming neoclassical temple of white marble across from the Capitol, completed in 1935. Home of the nation's highest court, its west pediment carries the famous promise: Equal Justice Under Law. ### 16. Washington National Cathedral - Coordinates: 38.93056, -77.07083 - In one line: A vast Gothic Revival cathedral begun in 1907 and finished in 1990, crowning a hill in the city. The sixth-largest cathedral in the world, it holds state funerals, a moon-rock window, and a Darth Vader gargoyle. ### 17. Vietnam Veterans Memorial - Coordinates: 38.89111, -77.04778 - In one line: A V-shaped wall of black granite, dedicated in 1982 and designed by student Maya Lin. Its polished panels list more than 58,000 names of Americans killed or missing in the Vietnam War, mirroring the faces of those who read them. ### 18. Korean War Veterans Memorial - Coordinates: 38.88778, -77.04722 - In one line: Dedicated in 1995, this memorial honors the often-forgotten Korean War. ### 19. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial - Coordinates: 38.88611, -77.04417 - In one line: Dedicated in 2011 beside the Tidal Basin, this memorial honors civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. A 30-foot figure emerges from a Stone of Hope, drawn from his most famous speech, ringed by a wall of his words. ### 20. Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial - Coordinates: 38.88389, -77.04444 - In one line: Dedicated in 1997 along the Tidal Basin, this sprawling memorial unfolds as four open-air rooms, one for each of Franklin Roosevelt's terms. Waterfalls, bronze sculptures, and carved quotations trace the Depression and World War. ### 21. Tidal Basin - Coordinates: 38.88417, -77.03917 - In one line: An artificial inlet completed in the 1890s to flush the Washington Channel, this 107-acre basin is now ringed by famous memorials and Japanese cherry trees, drawing huge crowds each spring for the National Cherry Blossom Festival. ### 22. National Archives Building - Coordinates: 38.89278, -77.02306 - In one line: A monumental Neoclassical temple completed in 1937 by architect John Russell Pope, this building safeguards the nation's founding documents and stands behind a colonnade of towering Corinthian columns on Constitution Avenue. ### 23. Ford's Theatre - Coordinates: 38.89667, -77.02583 - In one line: The site where John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, this restored nineteenth-century playhouse now serves as both a working theatre and a museum tracing Lincoln's life and assassination. ### 24. Union Station - Coordinates: 38.89731, -77.00626 - In one line: Opened in 1907 to a Beaux-Arts design by Daniel Burnham, this grand railway terminal still serves travelers beneath a barrel-vaulted Main Hall, its ceiling soaring ninety-six feet above marble floors and allegorical statuary. ### 25. National Portrait Gallery - Coordinates: 38.8978, -77.0231 - In one line: Housed in the Greek Revival Old Patent Office Building begun in 1836, this Smithsonian gallery tells American history through faces, holding the most complete set of presidential portraits outside the White House. ### 26. Smithsonian American Art Museum - Coordinates: 38.8978, -77.0233 - In one line: Sharing the Greek Revival Old Patent Office Building, this Smithsonian museum holds one of the world's largest collections of American art, spanning the colonial era to today across more than seven thousand artists. ### 27. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden - Coordinates: 38.8882, -77.023 - In one line: A bold cylindrical drum raised on four piers, this Smithsonian museum of modern and contemporary art opened in 1974, designed by Gordon Bunshaft around the collection of financier Joseph H. Hirshhorn. ### 28. National Museum of the American Indian - Coordinates: 38.8883, -77.0166 - In one line: A flowing limestone building shaped like wind-carved rock, this Smithsonian museum opened in 2004 to present the histories and living cultures of Native peoples through their own voices and perspectives. ### 29. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - Coordinates: 38.88667, -77.0325 - In one line: Near the Washington Monument, this national memorial and museum documents the Nazi genocide of European Jews. Dedicated in 1993 and designed by James Ingo Freed, it pairs a chronological permanent exhibition with the hexagonal Hall of Remembrance. ### 30. National Museum of Asian Art - Coordinates: 38.888, -77.0268 - In one line: The Smithsonian's national museum of Asian art on the Mall unites the Freer Gallery, opened in 1923, and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, opened in 1987. Together they hold roughly 45,000 works spanning ancient to contemporary Asia. ### 31. Arlington National Cemetery - Coordinates: 38.87917, -77.07222 - In one line: Established in 1864 on Robert E. Lee's confiscated estate, this 639-acre military cemetery in Virginia holds approximately 400,000 graves. It is home to the guarded Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and President Kennedy's eternal flame. ### 32. The Pentagon - Coordinates: 38.87083, -77.055 - In one line: Headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, this vast five-sided building in Virginia was built in just 16 months and completed in 1943. Each outer wall runs 921 feet, enclosing 17. 5 miles of corridors and a five-acre courtyard. ### 33. Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception - Coordinates: 38.93333, -77.00056 - In one line: The largest Catholic church in North America, this Neo-Byzantine and Romanesque basilica was begun in 1920 and largely completed by 1959. Its mosaic-covered domes, more than 80 chapels, and towering form crown the campus near Catholic University. ### 34. National Building Museum - Coordinates: 38.8975, -77.0181 - In one line: Housed in the Renaissance Revival former Pension Building, completed in 1887, this museum of architecture and design is famed for its Great Hall and eight colossal Corinthian columns. It was founded as a museum in 1980. ### 35. Lafayette Square - Coordinates: 38.89953, -77.03656 - In one line: A seven-acre public park directly north of the White House, named in 1824 for the Marquis de Lafayette. At its center stands Clark Mills' 1853 equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson, the first bronze statue cast in the United States. ### 36. Eastern Market - Coordinates: 38.88639, -76.99667 - In one line: Eastern Market is the last survivor of Washington's original public markets, a brick Italianate hall on Capitol Hill where vendors have sold fresh meat, produce, and crafts since 1873. It remains the neighborhood's lively weekend heart. ### 37. Georgetown - Coordinates: 38.90944, -77.065 - In one line: Georgetown is Washington's oldest neighborhood, founded in 1751 as a Potomac tobacco port four decades before the capital itself. Its cobbled streets, Federal rowhouses, canal towpath, and busy M Street shopping district make it a beloved riverside enclave. ### 38. Dupont Circle - Coordinates: 38.90944, -77.04333 - In one line: Dupont Circle is a landmark traffic circle and park where three grand avenues meet, centered on a 1921 marble fountain. Ringed by Gilded Age mansions and embassies, the surrounding neighborhood is one of Washington's liveliest cultural quarters. ### 39. Adams Morgan - Coordinates: 38.92261, -77.04266 - In one line: Adams Morgan is Washington's bohemian, multicultural quarter, named for two once-segregated schools that merged in the 1950s. Centered on 18th Street and Columbia Road, it pulses with immigrant restaurants, murals, music venues, and the city's most spirited nightlife. ### 40. U Street Corridor - Coordinates: 38.917, -77.0288 - In one line: The U Street Corridor was once Washington's "Black Broadway," a thriving hub of jazz, theaters, and Black-owned businesses that nurtured Duke Ellington. Devastated in 1968 and reborn after 1991, it is now a vibrant nightlife and cultural district. ### 41. Rock Creek Park - Coordinates: 38.9575, -77.045 - In one line: Rock Creek Park is a vast wooded valley running through northwest Washington, established by Congress in 1890 as one of America's oldest urban national parks. ### 42. Ben's Chili Bowl - Coordinates: 38.9172, -77.0288 - In one line: Ben's Chili Bowl is a beloved U Street institution serving its famous half-smokes since 1958. Founded by Ben and Virginia Ali, it survived the 1968 riots, fed presidents and stars, and remains an enduring symbol of Black Washington. ### 43. Congressional Cemetery - Coordinates: 38.88139, -76.97778 - In one line: Founded in 1807, this 35-acre burial ground holds over 65,000 graves, from John Philip Sousa to J. Edgar Hoover. Its sandstone cenotaphs honor lost members of Congress, and dog walkers now keep it alive. ### 44. United States National Arboretum - Coordinates: 38.91028, -76.96722 - In one line: Established in 1927, this 451-acre living museum in northeast Washington gathers azaleas, ancient bonsai, and Asian gardens. Its hilltop row of 22 Corinthian columns, salvaged from the old Capitol, draws visitors across an open meadow. ### 45. Meridian Hill Park - Coordinates: 38.921, -77.0357 - In one line: Opened in 1936, this Italianate park crowns a hill north of the White House with a 13-basin cascade, North America's longest. Known locally as Malcolm X Park, it hosts a beloved Sunday drum circle dating to the 1960s. ### 46. The Wharf - Coordinates: 38.87939, -77.0247 - In one line: Opened in 2017 along the Washington Channel, this waterfront district blends piers, restaurants, and music halls with the Municipal Fish Market, which has sold seafood here since 1805, the nation's oldest open-air fish market. ### 47. Union Market - Coordinates: 38.9086, -76.9974 - In one line: Rooted in a 1931 wholesale terminal market, this northeast Washington food hall reopened in 2012 with dozens of vendors selling oysters, gelato, and local fare, anchoring a fast-changing district near Gallaudet University. ### 48. Old Stone House - Coordinates: 38.90556, -77.06056 - In one line: Built in 1765 in Georgetown, this fieldstone dwelling is the oldest unchanged building in Washington. A false legend that George Washington worked here once saved it from demolition; the National Park Service now preserves it. ### 49. Chinatown - Coordinates: 38.8998, -77.0217 - In one line: Centered on H Street since the 1930s, this small district is crowned by the Friendship Archway, painted with 272 dragons. Gentrified and shrinking, it still keeps Chinese signage and a handful of restaurants. ### 50. Theodore Roosevelt Island - Coordinates: 38.89722, -77.06417 - In one line: An 88-acre wooded island in the Potomac, reachable only on foot, honoring the 26th president. Forest trails and tidal marsh surround a formal memorial plaza with a towering bronze statue and granite tablets carved with his words. ### 51. Shaw - Coordinates: 38.91114, -77.02192 - In one line: A historic Northwest neighborhood that grew from freed-slave settlements into the heart of Black Washington. Home to Howard University, the U Street corridor, and figures like Duke Ellington, it has weathered riot, decline, and reinvention. ### 52. Dumbarton Oaks - Coordinates: 38.9142, -77.0633 - In one line: A Georgetown estate and research institute renowned for its Byzantine and Pre-Columbian art, its terraced gardens by Beatrix Farrand, and the 1944 conference that helped shape the United Nations. Now part of Harvard University. ## Roots Earth in short Roots Earth has audio stories about 5,665 places in 130 cities, 25 countries and 6 regions, written by local people. - No account - Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection - Audio stories in English and German in every city, and in Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian in 126 of the 130 cities Roots Earth for Android is available on Google Play: [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rootsearth.app](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rootsearth.app). ## More from Roots Earth - [North America in the Roots Earth catalogue](https://rootsearth.com/cities#north-america): every city in North America with its number of places and its languages. - [What Roots Earth is](https://rootsearth.com/app): the app in one page, how it works and what is in it. - [Questions travellers ask](https://rootsearth.com/faq): the cities, the languages, the account, listening without a connection. - [The 7 languages](https://rootsearth.com/languages): the seven languages with their codes and how many cities each one covers. - [Boston](https://rootsearth.com/cities/boston): 48 places in United States with audio stories. - [Charleston](https://rootsearth.com/cities/charleston): 40 places in United States with audio stories. - [New Orleans](https://rootsearth.com/cities/new-orleans): 45 places in United States with audio stories. - [New York City](https://rootsearth.com/cities/new-york-city): 57 places in United States with audio stories. 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