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Photo: Rdsmith4, CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons
Thomas Jefferson played an outsized role as one of the republic's founding fathers, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third president. Accordingly, he has an enormous statue in a circular, neoclassical, open-air building, based largely on the design of the Roman Pantheon (and Jefferson's Monticello and University of Virginia), and standing prominently on the bank of the Tidal Basin. Quotes from Jefferson's writings, including the Declaration of Independence, are reproduced on the walls.
The Thomas Jefferson Memorial is a national memorial in Washington, D.C., built in honor of Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the nation's third president. Built between 1939 and 1943, the memorial features multiple quotes from Jefferson intended to capture his ideology and philosophy, known as Jeffersonian democracy. Jefferson was widely considered among the most influential political minds of his era and one of the most consequential intellectual forces behind both the American Revolution and the American Enlightenment.
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Possibly the hardest memorial to find on the Mall—perhaps fitting for the least known founding father memorialized here. George Mason is best known in the D.C. area for the nearby university named in his honor. Ideally, though, he would be better known as the drafter of the 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights, which served as the basis and inspiration for the American Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, as well as the French Declaration of the Rights of Man, and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It's a beautiful memorial, and can be empty even in the height of tourist season.
Paddling around the Tidal Basin, admiring the monuments and the surrounding parks has got to be one of the best ways to laze about on the Mall. It's also one of the best ways to get sunburnt on the Mall, so bring lotion!
Not a museum; this is where the Treasury prints money. Free 1-hour tours run every 15 minutes on weekdays, but no, they do not give out free samples. It's plenty worth it to come, if only to drool at the millions of dollars created literally in the space of your tour.
Both a museum and a memorial, this space is dedicated to the exposition of just what exactly occurred during the Holocaust, its pointless inhumanity and unbelievable suffering. Exhibits include video and audio testimonies as well as more traditional museum exhibits. This is without a doubt the most somber, and even disturbing place for visitors on the Mall, and a good portion of the visitors leave sobbing—make sure your kids are old enough for this material. Entrance is by free timed ticket on a first come, first served basis during the busy months of March-August.
Filled with sculptures, wartime and depression era quotes, and numerous waterfalls (beautifully lit up at night), the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial is one of the city's most peaceful and contemplative places for a walk. It is divided into four sections, each dedicated to one of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's four terms in his twelve year presidency.
Two lamps were sculpted in 1651 and placed in Tōshō-gū temple, in Ueno Park, Tokyo. In 1954 the governor of that city gave one of those lamps as a gift to the people of the United States.