Welcome to America's Front Yard!

The new state-of-the-art home for the horses replaces an outdated facility built in the 1970s and, for the first time, includes an Education Center that welcomes the public to learn about the horses and their history on the National Mall.

“The building of such a peace is a bold and solemn purpose. To proclaim it is easy. To serve it will be hard. And to attain it, we must be aware of its full meaning -- and ready to pay its full price.”

“The emphasis of this tribute is centered on their emotions — their compassion, their anxiety, their fatigue, and above all, their dedication.” - Glenna Goodacre, sculptor of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial

This complex, iconic public landscape’s architecture and open space captures individuals and events that have defined our nation and celebrates cherished American values. The iconic National Mall cherry trees that encircle the basin also bring 1.5 million visitors to the Tidal Basin annually for the National Cherry Blossom Festival in just a three-week period.

Over the past 184 years, the Lockkeeper’s House has been a humble witness to our nation’s history.

"True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice."

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

“Freedom is not free.”

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men.” 

"Standing here, one faces a magnificent vista, opening up on the city's special beauty and history. At the end of this open mall are those shrines to the giants on whose shoulders we stand." -Ronald Reagan

“The Monument is to be finished, some day, and at that time our Washington will have risen still higher in the nation's veneration, and will be known as the Great-Great-Grandfather of his Country.” - Mark Twain

"They fought together as brothers-in-arms. They died together and now they sleep side by side. To them we have a solemn obligation." – Admiral Chester A. Nimitz 

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.”

"I deliberately did not read anything about the Vietnam War because I felt the politics of the war eclipsed what happened to the veterans. The politics were irrelevant to what this memorial was. " – Maya Lin

"In this temple, as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the Union, the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever."