Ford's Theatre
The room where Booth fired a 5.87-inch derringer on April 14, 1865 — same stage, same theater that has been performing again since 1968.
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This is both a working theater and the room where Lincoln was shot in front of about 1,700 people. The building has outlasted a warehouse phase, a government office phase, and a 1893 floor collapse that killed 22 — it reopened as a theater in 1968 and keeps performing.
What to look for
- The presidential box above the stage — the exact spot Booth entered and shot Lincoln in the back of the head
- Petersen House directly across the street, where Lincoln was carried unconscious and died the next day
- The Center for Education and Leadership, opened 2012, next to Petersen House — a separate building worth the extra stop
Managed by the National Park Service alongside the Ford's Theatre Society; Petersen House and the theater are part of the same National Historic Site, so visit both in one go.
Ford's Theatre is one of 37 sights worth the detour in Washington, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Washington pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Washington
- White HouseBritish forces torched it in 1814. It has been the U.S. president's home and office ever since.
- The PentagonDesigned and built in 16 months during World War II — 17.5 miles of corridors, a five-acre central courtyard, and a 9/11 memorial at the exact point of impact.
- United States CapitolEvery street address in Washington DC radiates outward from this building — it is literally the zero point of the city.
- Washington MonumentThe faint color seam partway up the shaft marks where construction stopped for 23 years.
- Smithsonian InstitutionBritish scientist James Smithson left a bequest that became 157 million objects, 21 museums, and a zoo — almost all free to walk into.
- Arlington National CemeteryThe ground holding 400,000 graves was seized from Robert E. Lee's own family over an unpaid tax bill in 1864.