White House
British forces torched it in 1814. It has been the U.S. president's home and office ever since.
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Every president since John Adams in 1800 has lived and worked here. The white exterior is Aquia Creek sandstone — the same walls that were charred in the War of 1812, rebuilt, then gutted entirely under Truman when the original load-bearing structure was found near collapse. What looks continuous from the street contains a steel skeleton installed in the late 1940s.
What to look for
- The South Portico (1824) and North Portico (1829) — both added after the post-fire reconstruction, giving the facade its familiar columned silhouette
- The low wing colonnades Jefferson and architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe added in 1801, built to screen what were then stables and storage
- The Truman Balcony, added on the exterior during the same renovation that stripped the interior down to bare walls and replaced the structure with steel
Address: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. The North Portico faces Pennsylvania Avenue; the South Portico is on the opposite side.
White House 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
- 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.
- Lincoln MemorialThe exact steps where King delivered "I Have a Dream" on August 28, 1963 — stand there and the date stops being abstract.