Vietnam Veterans Memorial
The path drops below ground as the walls rise around you — you walk into a wound and climb back out.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk Washington offline.
Maya Lin's 1982 design was initially controversial for its total absence of heroic ornamentation. Two black granite walls — each 246 feet long, quarried in Bangalore, India, and polished to a mirror finish — bear the names of those who died or remain missing. The walls taper from 8 inches at their ends to over 10 feet where they meet, pulling visitors below ground level and back up again. Around three million people visit each year.
What to look for
- The descent itself: the path dips below the surrounding earth as the walls climb to 10.1 feet at the apex, then rises back to ground level — designed to evoke a wound that closes and heals
- The two walls meet at an angle of 125° 12', with one wall aligned toward the Washington Monument and the other toward the Lincoln Memorial
- The mirror polish on the granite — quarried in Bangalore, India — reflects your own face back among the inscribed names
Free entry; maintained by the National Park Service in Constitution Gardens, just northeast of the Lincoln Memorial.
Vietnam Veterans Memorial 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.