austinacasey's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
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Washington, D.C.

District of Columbia Center Point

A little marble compass above George Washington's (empty) tomb in the Capitol marks where D.C.'s four quadrants intersect.
Washington, D.C.

NIST Newton Apple Tree

A clone of a cloned tree that was so important it allegedly had its own guards.
Washington, D.C.

Bare-Chested George Washington

Perhaps the most scandalous statue of America's first president.
Washington, D.C.

Uncle Beazley the Triceratops

A celebrity from the late Cretaceous period.
Washington, D.C.

The Portrait Monument

Rumor has it the uncarved lump behind the three famous suffragists is reserved for the first woman president.
Washington, D.C.

Abandoned Drawbridge Control Room

The hidden offices underneath Memorial Bridge have been locked up since 1976.
Washington, D.C.

Reading Room at the Folger Shakespeare Library

Home to a vast and influential collection of Shakespeareana.
Washington, D.C.

Holt House

There's a crumbling old mansion inside the Smithsonian National Zoo.
Washington, D.C.

House of the Temple

This imposing Masonic temple a mile from the White House was the first public library in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.

The Mutilated Currency Division

An obscure public service from the U.S. government that redeems burnt, moldy, and soiled old greenbacks.
Washington, D.C.

Frederick Douglass's House, Cedar Hill

The famous abolitionist’s preserved estate is one of Washington's finest monuments to its great Black citizens.
Washington, D.C.

St. Elizabeths Hospital

Government testing at the asylum briefly explored using marijuana as a "truth serum" on Nazi prisoners of war.
Washington, D.C.

Barbie Pond on Q Street

A rotating cast of guys and dolls in front of a Washington, D.C. building.
Washington, D.C.

Inside the Capitol Dome

The walls of the iconic dome are hollow and have a secret stairway.
Washington, D.C.

Mount Zion Cemetery's Underground Railroad Shelter

People escaping slavery may have hidden inside a corpse vault.
Washington, D.C.

Titanic Memorial

This lonely waterfront memorial to the men of the Titanic was erected by the "Women of America."
Washington, D.C.

Tudor Place

A historic estate packed with George Washington's heirlooms, and its own nuclear bunker.
Washington, D.C.

Lincoln Book Tower

A three-story tower of books about Abraham Lincoln is one of the more unusual monuments to the president.
Washington, D.C.

Summerhouse

A hidden gem on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.
Washington, D.C.

Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens

A lovely aquatic park built by a one-armed Civil War veteran who made a fortune from lotuses.
Washington, D.C.

Zero Milestone

A monument in Washington D.C. marks the spot from which all other roads were supposed to stem.
Washington, D.C.

FBI Spy House

A painfully obvious spy house sits right across the street from the Russian Embassy.
Washington, D.C.

The Capitol Stones

Enormous piles of historically significant stones, dumped by Congress in a forest, and abandoned for 60 years.
Centreville, Virginia

Foamhenge

Exact replica of the ancient monument, but much, much lighter.