The Lincoln Memorial anchors the west end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., a Greek Doric temple built to honor Abraham Lincoln, free to visit at any hour of the day. Its 36 exterior columns each represent one of the 36 states in the Union at the time of Lincoln’s death in 1865.
The memorial is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, though park rangers are on duty to answer questions from 9:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Early morning offers the calmest visit, with sunrise light spilling across the Reflecting Pool, while after dark the memorial is lit and reflected in the pool for a strikingly different view.
Most visitors spend about 1 to 1.5 hours here. It sits within easy walking distance of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, and the World War II Memorial, and is reachable from the Foggy Bottom-GWU or Smithsonian Metro stations via a 15- to 25-minute walk through the Mall.
