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115-886: The NMAI Act expands the Smithsonian Institution by authorizing erection of a new museum on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. , to house Native American artifacts from the Heye Foundation's Museum of the American Indian. As part of a legal compromise regarding the Heye Foundation's New York state charter, the George Gustav Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian was also created by

230-644: A ballroom in the north wing, and the expansion of the king's private apartment , which required the demolition of the Ambassadors' Staircase. In 1748, Louis XV began construction of a palace theatre, the Royal Opera of Versailles at the northernmost end of the palace, but completion was delayed until 1770; construction was interrupted in the 1740s by the War of the Austrian Succession and then again in 1756 with

345-560: A committee of the 104th United States Congress provided no funds for NPS crowd-counting activities in Washington, D.C., when it prepared legislation making 1997 appropriations for the U.S. Department of the Interior . As a result, the NPS has not provided any official crowd size estimates for Mall events since 1995. The absence of such an official estimate fueled a political controversy following

460-474: A feature dubbed the enveloppe . This gave the château a new, Italianate façade overlooking the gardens, but preserved the courtyard façade, resulting in a mix of styles and materials that dismayed Louis XIV and that Colbert described as a "patchwork". Attempts to homogenize the two façades failed, and in 1670 Le Vau died, leaving the post of First Architect to the King vacant for the next seven years. Le Vau

575-420: A forecourt to the château. But in 1668–69, as a response to the growth of the gardens, and victory over Spain in the War of Devolution , Louis XIV decided to turn Versailles into a full-scale royal residence. He vacillated between replacing or incorporating his father's château, but settled on the latter by the end of the decade, and from 1668 to 1671, Louis XIII's château was encased on three sides in

690-578: A great influence on architecture and horticulture from the mid-17th century to the end of the 18th century. Examples of works influenced by Versailles include Christopher Wren 's work at Hampton Court Palace , Berlin Palace , the Palace of La Granja , Stockholm Palace , Ludwigsburg Palace , Karlsruhe Palace , Rastatt Palace , Nymphenburg Palace , Schleissheim Palace , and Esterházy Palace . The construction in 1668–1671 of Louis Le Vau 's enveloppe around

805-464: A halt when Louis Philippe was overthrown in 1848, though the paintings of French heroes and great battles still remain in the south wing. Emperor Napoleon III used the palace on occasion as a stage for grand ceremonies. One of the most lavish was the banquet that he hosted for Queen Victoria in the Royal Opera of Versailles on 25 August 1855. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871,

920-505: A new restoration initiative – the "Grand Versailles" project – was started, which began with the replanting of the gardens, which had lost over 10,000 trees during Cyclone Lothar on 26 December 1999. One part of the initiative, the restoration of the Hall of Mirrors , was completed in 2006. Another major project was the further restoration of the backstage areas of the Royal Opera of Versailles in 2007 to 2009. The Palace of Versailles

1035-509: A peak in the 1970s. The NPS has used a number of methods to control this fungal epidemic, including sanitation , pruning , injecting trees with fungicide and replanting with DED-resistant American elm cultivars (see Ulmus americana cultivars ). The NPS cloned one such cultivar ( 'Jefferson' ) from a DED-resistant tree growing near a path on the Mall in front of the Freer Gallery of Art, near

1150-563: A principal axis in the L'Enfant Plan for the city of Washington. However, a 2010 NPS plan for the Mall contains maps that show the Mall's general area to be larger. A document within the plan describes this area as "the grounds of the U.S. Capitol west to the Potomac River, and from the Thomas Jefferson Memorial north to Constitution Avenue". A map within the plan entitled "National Mall Areas" illustrates "The Mall" as being

1265-402: A protégé of Mazarin and enemy of Fouquet, and charged him with managing the corps of artisans in royal employment. Colbert acted as the intermediary between them and Louis XIV, who personally directed and inspected the planning and construction of Versailles. Work at Versailles was at first concentrated on gardens , and through the 1660s, Le Vau only added two detached service wings and

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1380-528: A restored budget and large workforce of former soldiers. Mansart began his tenure with the addition from 1678 to 1681 of the Hall of Mirrors , a renovation of the courtyard façade of Louis XIII's château, and the expansion of d'Orbay's pavilions to create the Ministers' Wings in 1678–79. Adjacent to the palace, Hardouin-Mansart built a pair of stables called the Grande and Petite Écuries from 1679 to 1682 and

1495-620: A week, from six to ten in the evening, with various entertainments. This was originally a chapel. It was rebuilt beginning in 1712 under the supervision of the First Architect to the King , Robert de Cotte , to showcase two paintings by Paolo Veronese , Eleazar and Rebecca and Meal at the House of Simon the Pharisee , which was a gift to Louis XIV from the Republic of Venice in 1664. The painting on

1610-690: Is a landscaped park near the downtown area of Washington, D.C. , the capital city of the United States . It contains and borders a number of museums of the Smithsonian Institution , art galleries, cultural institutions, and various memorials, sculptures, and statues. It is administered by the National Park Service (NPS) of the United States Department of the Interior as part of the National Mall and Memorial Parks unit of

1725-399: Is a visual history of French architecture from the 1630s to the 1780s. Its earliest portion, the corps de logis , was built for Louis XIII in the style of his reign with brick, marble, and slate , which Le Vau surrounded in the 1660s with Enveloppe , an edifice that was inspired by Renaissance-era Italian villas. When Jules Hardouin-Mansart made further expansions to the palace in

1840-590: Is currently owned by the French state. Its formal title is the Public Establishment of the Palace, Museum and National Estate of Versailles . Since 1995, it has been run as a Public Establishment, with an independent administration and management supervised by the French Ministry of Culture . The grounds of the palace hosted the equestrian competition during the 2024 Summer Olympics . The Palace of Versailles

1955-464: Is owned by the government of France and since 1995 has been managed, under the direction of the French Ministry of Culture , by the Public Establishment of the Palace, Museum and National Estate of Versailles . About 15,000,000 people visit the palace, park, or gardens of Versailles every year, making it one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world. Louis XIII built a hunting lodge at Versailles in 1623. His successor, Louis XIV expanded

2070-456: Is the oldest building now present on the National Mall (proper). The Washington Monument, whose construction began in 1848 and reached completion in 1888, stands near the planned site of its namesake's equestrian statue. The Jefferson Pier marks the planned site of the statue itself. During the early 1850s, architect and horticulturist Andrew Jackson Downing designed a landscape plan for

2185-692: The Architect of the Capitol the NPS "property which is bounded on the north by Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, on the east by First Street Northwest and First Street Southwest, on the south by Maryland Avenue Southwest, and on the west by Third Street Southwest and Third Street Northwest". This act removed Union Square (the area containing the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial and the Capitol Reflecting Pool ) from NPS jurisdiction. The National Park Service states that

2300-596: The Bourbon Restoration , when the king was returned to the throne, he resided in Paris and it was not until the 1830s that meaningful repairs were made to the palace. A museum of French history was installed within it, replacing the courtiers apartments of the southern wing. The palace and park were designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979 for its importance as the centre of power, art, and science in France during

2415-679: The Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye . The site, near a village named Versailles, was a wooded wetland that Louis XIII's court scorned as being generally unworthy of a king; one of his courtiers, François de Bassompierre , wrote that the lodge "would not inspire vanity in even the simplest gentleman". From 1631 to 1634, architect Philibert Le Roy replaced the lodge with a château for Louis XIII, who forbade his queen, Anne of Austria , from staying there overnight, even when an outbreak of smallpox at Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1641 forced Louis XIII to relocate to Versailles with his three-year-old heir,

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2530-564: The Commemorative Works Clarification and Revision Act . This Act prohibits the siting of new commemorative works and visitor centers in a designated reserve area within the cross-axis of the Mall. In October 2013, a two-week federal government shutdown closed the National Mall and its museums and monuments. However, when a group of elderly veterans tried to enter the National World War II Memorial during

2645-505: The Grand Commun  [ fr ] , which housed the palace's servants and general kitchens, from 1682 to 1684. Hardouin-Mansart also added two entirely new wings in Le Vau's Italianate style to house the court, first at the south end of the palace from 1679 to 1681 and then at its north end from 1685 to 1689. War and the resulting diminished funding slowed construction at Versailles for

2760-454: The Grand Trianon restored and refurnished as a springtime residence for himself and his family, in the style of furnishing that it is seen today. In 1815, with the final downfall of Napoleon, Louis XVIII , the younger brother of Louis XVI, became king, and considered returning the royal residence to Versailles, where he had been born. He ordered the restoration of the royal apartments, but

2875-555: The National Park System . The park receives approximately 24 million visitors each year. Designed by Pierre L'Enfant , the "Grand Avenue" or Mall was to be a democratic and egalitarian space—unlike palace gardens, such as those at Versailles in France, that were paid for by the people but reserved for the use of a privileged few. The core area of the National Mall extends between the United States Capitol grounds to

2990-776: The President 's House (now the White House ) and directly west of the Congress House (see L'Enfant Plan ) on the site of the Washington Monument. The grand avenue was to be flanked by gardens and spacious accommodations for foreign ministers. Mathew Carey 's 1802 map is reported to be the first to name the area west of the United States Capitol as the "Mall". The name is derived from that of The Mall in London , which during

3105-761: The Treaty of Paris at the Hôtel d'York (now 56 Rue Jacob) in Paris, granting the United States independence. On 4 September, Spain and France signed separate treaties with Britain at the Palace of Versailles, formally ending the war. The King and Queen learned of the Storming of the Bastille in Paris on 14 July 1789, while they were at the palace, and remained isolated there as the Revolution in Paris spread. The growing anger in Paris led to

3220-521: The United States Department of Agriculture in 1862 during the Civil War. Designed by Adolf Cluss and Joseph von Kammerhueber, the United States Department of Agriculture Building (No. 25 on the map), was constructed in 1867–1868 north of B Street SW within a 35-acre site on the Mall. After the Civil War ended, the Department of Agriculture started growing experimental crops and demonstration gardens on

3335-530: The Women's March on Versailles on 5 October 1789. A crowd of several thousand men and women, protesting the high price and scarcity of bread, marched from the markets of Paris to Versailles. They took weapons from the city armoury, besieged the palace, and compelled the King and royal family and the members of the National Constituent Assembly to return with them to Paris the following day. As soon as

3450-446: The château neuf , with three rooms in each apartment facing the garden to the west and four facing the garden parterres to the north and south, respectively. The private apartments of the king (the appartement du roi and the petit appartement du roi ) and those of the queen (the petit appartement de la reine ) remained in the château vieux (old château). Le Vau's design for the state apartments closely followed Italian models of

3565-735: The grand appartement du roi . After the addition of the Hall of Mirrors (1678–1684) the king's apartment was reduced to five rooms (until the reign of Louis XV , when two more rooms were added) and the queen's to four. The queen's apartments served as the residence of three queens of France – Maria Theresa of Spain , wife of Louis XIV , Maria Leszczyńska , wife of Louis XV, and Marie Antoinette , wife of Louis XVI . Additionally, Louis XIV's granddaughter-in-law, Princess Marie-Adélaïde of Savoy , duchess of Burgundy, wife of Louis, Duke of Burgundy , occupied these rooms from 1697 (the year of her marriage) to her death in 1712. The Ambassadors' Staircase  [ fr ] ( Escalier des Ambassadeurs )

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3680-499: The princes of the blood , Louis XIV's extended family, for influence over him. In the aftermath of the Fronde, Louis XIV became determined to rule alone. Following Mazarin's death in 1661, Louis XIV reformed his government to exclude his mother and the princes of the blood, moved the court back to Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and ordered the expansion of his father's château at Versailles into a palace. Louis XIV had hunted at Versailles in

3795-527: The 1650s, but did not take any special interest in Versailles until 1661. On 17 August 1661, Louis XIV was a guest at a sumptuous festival hosted by Nicolas Fouquet , the Superintendent of Finances , at his palatial residence, the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte . Louis XIV was impressed by the château and its gardens, which were the work of Louis Le Vau , the court architect since 1654, André Le Nôtre ,

3910-490: The 1680s, he used the Enveloppe as the model for his work. Neoclassical additions were made to the palace with the remodelling of the Ministers' Wings in the 1770s, by Ange-Jacques Gabriel , and after the Bourbon Restoration . The palace was largely completed by the death of Louis XIV in 1715. The eastern facing palace has a U-shaped layout, with the corps de logis and symmetrical advancing secondary wings terminating with

4025-462: The 1700s was a fashionable promenade near Buckingham Palace upon which the city's elite strolled. The Washington City Canal , completed in 1815 in accordance with the L'Enfant Plan, travelled along the former course of Tiber Creek to the Potomac River along B Street Northwest (NW) (now Constitution Avenue NW) and south along the base of a hill containing the Congress House, thus defining

4140-401: The 17th and 18th centuries. The French Ministry of Culture has placed the palace, its gardens, and some of its subsidiary structures on its list of culturally significant monuments . In 1623, Louis XIII , king of France , built a hunting lodge on a hill in a favourite hunting ground, 19 kilometres (12 mi) west of Paris , and 16 kilometres (10 mi) from his primary residence,

4255-696: The 1893 map of the Mall) was built at the intersection of B Street SW and 6th Street SW on the Armory Grounds. In 1862, during the American Civil War , the building was converted to a military hospital known as Armory Square Hospital to house Union Army casualties. After the war ended, the Armory building became the home of the United States Fish Commission . The United States Congress established

4370-460: The 400 feet (120 m) wide "grand avenue" with a 300 feet (91 m) wide vista containing a long and broad expanse of grass. Four rows of American elm trees ( Ulmus americana ) planted fifty feet apart between two paths or streets would line each side of the vista. Buildings housing cultural and educational institutions constructed in the Beaux-Arts style would line each outer path or street, on

4485-602: The Capitol. Near the tracks, several structures were built over the years. The Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station (B on the map) rose in 1873 on the north side of the Mall at the southwest corner of 6th Street and B Street NW (now the site of the west building of the National Gallery of Art ). In 1881, the Arts and Industries Building (No. 34 on the map), known originally as the National Museum Building, opened on

4600-567: The Commune at the end of May was directed from Versailles, and the prisoners of the Commune were marched there and put on trial in military courts. In 1875 a second parliamentary body, the French Senate , was created and held its meetings for the election of a President of the Republic in a new hall created in 1876 in the south wing of the palace. The French Senate and National Assembly continue to meet in

4715-622: The Dufour Pavilion on the south and the Gabriel Pavilion to the north, creating an expansive cour d'honneur known as the Royal Court (Cour Royale). Flanking the Royal Court are two enormous asymmetrical wings that result in a façade of 402 metres (1,319 ft) in length. Covered by around 10 hectares (1.1 million square feet) of roof, the palace has 2,143 windows, 1,252 chimneys, and 67 staircases. The palace and its grounds have had

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4830-630: The King. The 7-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart played several works during his stay and later dedicated his first two harpsichord sonatas, published in 1764 in Paris, to Madame Victoria , daughter of Louis XV. In 1783, the palace was the site of the signing of the last two of the three treaties of the Peace of Paris (1783) , which ended the American Revolutionary War . On 3 September, British and American delegates, led by Benjamin Franklin , signed

4945-709: The Liberty Loan Building, remained standing in 2019 while housing the Treasury Department's Bureau of the Fiscal Service . In 1918, contractors for the United States Navy 's Bureau of Yards and Docks constructed the Main Navy and Munitions Buildings along nearly a third of a mile of the south side of Constitution Avenue (then known as B Street), from 17th Street NW to 21st Street NW. Although

5060-441: The Mall along the east side of the former railroad route on 6th Street. The smokestacks of the buildings' centrally-located power plant were set apart to preserve the view of the Washington Monument from the Capitol building. Soon afterwards, the government constructed Buildings D, E and F to the east and west of the row. Around 1921 (when the United States and Germany signed the U.S.–German Peace Treaty , thus formally ending

5175-417: The Mall. Over the next half century, federal agencies developed several naturalistic parks within the Mall in accordance with Downing's plan. Two such areas were Henry Park and Seaton Park. During that period, the Mall was subdivided into several areas between B Street Northwest (NW) (now Constitution Avenue NW) and B Street Southwest (SW) (now Independence Avenue SW): In 1856, the Armory (No. 27 on

5290-488: The Mall. These gardens extended from the department's building near the south side of the Mall to B Street NW (the northern boundary of the Mall). The building was razed in 1930. In addition, greenhouses belonging to the U.S. Botanical Garden (No. 16 on the map) appeared near the east end of the Mall between the Washington City Canal and the Capitol (later between 1st and 3rd Streets NW and SW). Originating during

5405-815: The NMAI Act in the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in New York City . The purpose of the NMAI is threefold: Prior to enactment of the NMAI Act, representatives of the Native American Rights Fund and the Association for Native American Affairs told Congressional staffers that they would oppose the bill if repatriation provisions were not included. At an August 1989, meeting in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Secretary of

5520-421: The NPS prepared a National Register nomination form that documented the Mall's boundaries, features and historical significance. From the 1970s to 1994, a fiberglass model of a triceratops named Uncle Beazley stood on the Mall in front of the National Museum of Natural History . The life-size statue, which is now located at the National Zoological Park (the National Zoo) in Northwest Washington, D.C. ,

5635-466: The National Mall Historic District 's boundary to encompass an area bounded by 3rd Street, NW/SW, Independence Avenue, SW, Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW, the CSX Railroad , the Potomac River , Constitution Avenue, NW, 17th Street, NW, the White House Grounds, and 15th Street, NW. The listing's registration form, which contained 232 pages, described and illustrated the history and features of the historic district's proposed expanded area. In combination with

5750-561: The National Museum of Natural History, National Museum of the American Indian, and National Museum of American History. The Smithsonian had amassed a huge collection of Native American items including: The 1989 NMAI Act applied only to the return of Indian and Native Hawaiian human remains and funerary objects. The NMAI Act was amended in 1996 to include additional categories derived from the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act enacted in 1990, with similar definitions: The 1996 amendment also established specific deadlines for

5865-449: The National Museum of the American Indian had identified the remains of 524 individuals in its collection, of which 227 (41%) had already been repatriated. In 2011, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) completed a study of the extent to which the Smithsonian had fulfilled the repatriation requirements of the NMAI Act. The GAO found that while the Smithsonian had inventoried, identified, and returned thousands of Indian human remains, at

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5980-408: The Navy intended the buildings to provide temporary quarters for the United States military during World War I, the reinforced concrete structures remained in place until 1970. After their demolition, much of their former sites became Constitution Gardens , which was dedicated in 1976. During World War II, the government constructed a larger set of temporary buildings on the Mall in the area of

6095-474: The Smithsonian Robert McCormick Adams, Jr. , agreed that the Smithsonian would abide by new repatriation provisions. As a result of the law, the Secretary of the Smithsonian is required to inventory Indian and Native Hawaiian human remains and funerary objects in the possession or control of the Smithsonian Institution and return them upon request by a descendant or culturally affiliated Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization. These items are housed primarily in

6210-447: The Smithsonian Institution Building ("The Castle"). The NPS has combated the disease's local insect vector , the smaller European elm bark beetle ( Scolytus multistriatus ), by trapping and by spraying with insecticides . Soil compaction and root damage by crowds and construction projects also adversely affect the elms. On October 15, 1966, the NPS listed the National Mall on the National Register of Historic Places . In 1981,

6325-430: The Smithsonian to complete its summary and inventory tasks. The National Museum of Natural History posted summaries of its cultural affiliation case reports on its website. By 2007, the remains of 18,568 individuals had been identified. Of these, remains representing 5,435 individuals (29%) had been offered for repatriation to lineal descendants or culturally affiliated Indian tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations. By 1996,

6440-417: The above map: In its 1981 National Register of Historic Places nomination form, the NPS defined the boundaries of the National Mall (proper) as Constitution and Pennsylvania Avenues on the north, 1st Street NW on the east, Independence and Maryland Avenues on the south, and 14th Street NW on the west, with the exception of the section of land bordered by Jefferson Drive on the north, Independence Avenue on

6555-440: The armistice in March 1871. In that month, the government of the new Third French Republic , which had departed Paris during the war for Tours and then Bordeaux , moved into the palace. The National Assembly held its meetings in the Opera House. The uprising of the Paris Commune in March 1871, prevented the French government, under Adolphe Thiers , from returning immediately to Paris. The military operation which suppressed

6670-441: The ceiling illustrate mythological themes. The Salon of Mercury was the original State Bedchamber when Louis XIV officially moved the court and government to the palace in 1682. The bed is a replica of the original commissioned by King Louis-Philippe in the 19th century when he turned the palace into a museum. The ceiling paintings by the Flemish artist Jean Baptiste de Champaigne depict the god Mercury in his chariot, drawn by

6785-409: The ceiling over the door opposite the windows. This salon was used for serving light meals during evening receptions. The principal feature in this room is Jean Warin 's life-size statue of Louis XIV in the costume of a Roman emperor. On the ceiling in a gilded oval frame is another painting by Houasse, Venus subjugating the Gods and Powers (1672–1681). Trompe-l'œil paintings and sculpture around

6900-420: The ceiling, The Apotheosis of Hercules , by François Lemoyne , was completed in 1736, and gave the room its name. The Salon of Abundance was the antechamber to the Cabinet of Curios (now the Games Room), which displayed Louis XIV's collection of precious jewels and rare objects. Some of the objects in the collection are depicted in René-Antoine Houasse 's painting Abundance and Liberality (1683), located on

7015-432: The centralization of royal power. Louis XIV first used Versailles to promote himself with a series of nighttime festivals in its gardens in 1664, 1668, and 1674, the events of which were disseminated throughout Europe by print and engravings. As early as 1669, but especially from 1678, Louis XIV sought to make Versailles his seat of government, and he expanded the palace so as to fit the court within it. The moving of

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7130-411: The château into a palace that went through several expansions in phases from 1661 to 1715. It was a favourite residence for both kings, and in 1682, Louis XIV moved the seat of his court and government to Versailles, making the palace the de facto capital of France. This state of affairs was continued by Kings Louis XV and Louis XVI , who primarily made interior alterations to the palace, but in 1789

7245-570: The construction of townhouses that resembled the palace began in 1671. The next year, the Franco-Dutch War began and funding for Versailles was cut until 1674, when Louis XIV had work begun on the Ambassadors' Staircase  [ fr ] , a grand staircase for the reception of guests, and demolished the last of the village of Versailles. Following the end of the Franco-Dutch War with French victory in 1678, Louis XIV appointed as First Architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart , an experienced architect in Louis XIV's confidence, who would benefit from

7360-449: The court to Versailles did not come until 1682, however, and not officially, as opinion on Versailles was mixed among the nobility of France . By 1687, however, it was evident to all that Versailles was the de facto capital of France, and Louis XIV succeeded in attracting the nobility to Versailles to pursue prestige and royal patronage within a strict court etiquette, thus eroding their traditional provincial power bases. It

7475-400: The creation of the Museum of the History of France , dedicated to "all the glories of France", which had been used to house some members of the royal family. The museum was begun in 1833 and inaugurated on 30 June 1837. Its most famous room is the Galerie des Batailles (Hall of Battles), which lies on most of the length of the second floor of the south wing. The museum project largely came to

7590-459: The current pace it may take decades more for it to complete the process. The GAO suggested that Congress consider ways to expedite the process including, but not limited to, directing the Smithsonian to make cultural affiliation determinations as efficiently and effectively as possible. The GAO also recommended certain administrative changes to enhance oversight of the process. Notes Further reading National Mall The National Mall

7705-421: The day, including the placement of the apartments on the main floor (the piano nobile , the next floor up from the ground level), a convention the architect borrowed from Italian palace design. The king's State Apartment consisted of an enfilade of seven rooms, each dedicated to one of the known planets and their associated titular Roman deity . The queen's apartment formed a parallel enfilade with that of

7820-416: The early 1800s as a collection of market stalls immediately north of the Washington City Canal and the Mall, the Center Market (No. 19 on the map), which Adolf Cluss also designed, opened in 1872 soon after the canal closed. Located on the north side of Constitution Avenue NW, the National Archives now occupies the Market's site. During that period, railroad tracks crossed the Mall on 6th Street, west of

7935-436: The east and the Washington Monument to the west and is lined to the north and south by several museums and federal office buildings. The term National Mall may also include areas that are also officially part of neighboring West Potomac Park to the south and west and Constitution Gardens to the north, extending to the Lincoln Memorial on the west and Jefferson Memorial to the south. The National Mall proper contains

8050-479: The federal government constructed a number of temporary buildings (tempos) on the Mall, disrupting the area's planned layout. Most of these buildings were in two clusters: one near the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and the other on the National Mall (proper) in the vicinity of 4th through 7th Streets NW and SW. The United States entered World War I in April 1917. By 1918, a row of tempos designated from north to south as Buildings A, B, and C had stretched across

8165-432: The first landing of the staircase. The construction of the Hall of Mirrors between 1678 and 1686 coincided with a major alteration to the State Apartments. They were originally intended as his residence, but the King transformed them into galleries for his finest paintings, and venues for his many receptions for courtiers. During the season from All-Saints Day in November until Easter , these were usually held three times

8280-437: The following landmarks , museums and other features (including opening year): Not marked on the above image: With the exception of the National Gallery of Art , all of the museums on the National Mall proper are part of the Smithsonian Institution. The Smithsonian Gardens maintains a number of gardens and landscapes near its museums. These include: Features east of the National Mall proper include: Not included in

8395-714: The former World War I tempos, along the south side of Constitution Avenue between 12th and 14th Streets NW, on the west side of the Washington Monument grounds, along the entire length of the south side of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and between the Reflecting Pool and the Main Navy and Munition buildings on the Pool's north side. Numbers identified new buildings built on the Monument grounds, while letters identified

8510-429: The future Louis XIV . When Louis XIII died in 1643, Anne became Louis XIV's regent , and Louis XIII's château was abandoned for the next decade. She moved the court back to Paris, where Anne and her chief minister , Cardinal Mazarin , continued Louis XIII's unpopular monetary practices. This led to the Fronde , a series of revolts against royal authority from 1648 to 1653 that masked a struggle between Mazarin and

8625-553: The green space bounded on the east by 3rd Street, on the west by 14th Street, on the north by Jefferson Drive, NW, and on the south by Madison Drive, SW. A Central Intelligence Agency map shows the Mall as occupying the space between the Lincoln Memorial and the United States Capitol. In 2011, the 112th United States Congress enacted the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2012, which transferred to

8740-505: The more costly endeavours for the museum and the French Fifth Republic has been to repurchase as much of the original furnishings as possible. Consequently, because furniture with a royal provenance – and especially furniture that was made for Versailles – is a highly sought-after commodity on the international market, the museum has spent considerable funds on retrieving much of the palace's original furnishings. In 2003,

8855-603: The new land, which became West Potomac Park , expanded the Mall southward and westward (see 1893 map above). In 1902, the McMillan Commission 's plan, which was partially inspired by the City Beautiful Movement and which purportedly extended Pierre L'Enfant 's plan, called for a radical redesign of the Mall that would replace its greenhouses, gardens, trees, and commercial/industrial facilities with an open space. The plan differed from L'Enfant's by replacing

8970-475: The north side of B Street SW to the east of "The Castle". Designed in 1876 by Adolf Cluss and his associates, the building is the second oldest still standing on the National Mall (proper). In 1887, the Army Medical Museum and Library , which Adolf Cluss designed in 1885, opened on the Mall at northwest corner of B Street SW and 7th Street SW. The Smithsonian Institution's Hirshhorn Museum now occupies

9085-410: The northern and eastern boundaries of the Mall. Being shallow and often obstructed by silt , the canal served only a limited role and became an open sewer that poured sediment and waste into the Potomac River's flats and shipping channel. The portion of the canal that traveled near the Mall was covered over in 1871 for sanitary reasons. Some consider a lockkeeper's house constructed in 1837 near

9200-518: The objective was to restore the palace to its state – or as close to it as possible – in 1789 when the royal family left the palace. Among the early projects was the repair of the roof over the Hall of Mirrors; the publicity campaign brought international attention to the plight of post-war Versailles and garnered much foreign money including a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation . One of

9315-633: The opposite side of the path or street from the elms. In subsequent years, the vision of the McMillan plan was generally followed with the planting of American elms and the layout of four boulevards down the Mall, two on either side of a wide lawn . In accordance with a plan that it completed in 1976, the NPS converted the two innermost boulevards (Washington Drive NW and Adams Drive SW) into gravel walking paths. The two outermost boulevards (Madison Drive NW and Jefferson Drive SW)) remain paved and open to vehicular traffic. During World Wars I and II ,

9430-484: The other attractions in the Washington Metropolitan Area , the National Mall makes the nation's capital city one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country. It has several other uses in addition to serving as a tourist focal point. The National Mall's status as a vast, open expanse at the heart of the capital makes it an attractive site for protests and rallies of all types. One notable example

9545-463: The outside of Louis XIII 's red brick and white stone château added state apartments for the king and the queen. The addition was known at the time as the château neuf (new château). The grands appartements (Grand Apartments, also referred to as the State Apartments ) include the grand appartement du roi and the grand appartement de la reine . They occupied the main or principal floor of

9660-464: The palace in joint session on special occasions, such as the amendment of the Constitution of France . The end of the 19th and the early 20th century saw the beginning of restoration efforts at the palace, first led by Pierre de Nolhac , poet and scholar and the first conservator, who began his work in 1892. The conservation and restoration were interrupted by two world wars but have continued until

9775-458: The palace was occupied by the general staff of the victorious German Army. Parts of the château, including the Hall of Mirrors, were turned into a military hospital. The creation of the German Empire , combining Prussia and the surrounding German states under William I , was formally proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors on 18 January 1871. The Germans remained in the palace until the signing of

9890-437: The palace, including the furniture, mirrors, baths, and kitchen equipment, were sold in seventeen thousand lots. All fleurs-de-lys and royal emblems on the buildings were chambered or chiselled off. The empty buildings were turned into a storehouse for furnishings, art and libraries confiscated from the nobility. The empty grand apartments were opened for tours beginning in 1793, and a small museum of French paintings and art school

10005-473: The palace. More work took place after World War II, with the restoration of the Royal Opera of Versailles . The theatre was reopened in 1957, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. In 1978, parts of the palace were heavily damaged in a bombing committed by Breton terrorists . Starting in the 1950s, when the museum of Versailles was under the directorship of Gérald van der Kemp,

10120-566: The present day. The palace returned to the world stage in June 1919, when, after six months of negotiations, the Treaty of Versailles , formally ending the First World War, was signed in the Hall of Mirrors . Between 1925 and 1928, the American philanthropist and multi-millionaire John D. Rockefeller, Jr. gave $ 2,166,000, the equivalent of about thirty million dollars today, to restore and refurbish

10235-522: The presidential inauguration of Donald Trump in 2017 (see: Inauguration of Donald Trump crowd size ). Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( / v ɛər ˈ s aɪ , v ɜːr ˈ s aɪ / vair- SY , vur- SY ; French : château de Versailles [ʃɑto d(ə) vɛʁsɑj] ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles , about 18 kilometres (11 mi) west of Paris , France . The palace

10350-494: The purposes of the National Mall are to: In his 1791 plan for the future city of Washington, D.C. , Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant envisioned a garden-lined "grand avenue" approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) in length and 400 feet (120 m) wide, in an area that would lie between the Congress House (now the United States Capitol ) and an equestrian statue of George Washington . The statue would be placed directly south of

10465-524: The remainder. The government also built dormitories, residence halls and facilities for dining and recreation south of the eastern half of the Mall and within the part of West Potomac Park that lay south of the Mall's western half. The government progressively demolished all of the World War II tempos beginning in 1964. After the government removed the Main Navy and Munitions buildings in 1970, much of their former sites became Constitution Gardens , which

10580-520: The remodelling of the courtyard façade in the Italianate style. Louis XIV and Hardouin-Mansart focused on a permanent palace chapel , the construction of which lasted from 1699 to 1710. Louis XIV's successors, Louis XV and Louis XVI , largely left Versailles as they inherited it and focused on the palace's interiors. Louis XV's modifications began in the 1730s, with the completion of the Salon d'Hercule ,

10695-465: The rest of the 17th century. The Nine Years' War , which began in 1688, stopped work altogether until 1698. Three years later, however, the even more expensive War of the Spanish Succession began and, combined with poor harvests in 1693–94 and 1709–10, plunged France into crisis. Louis XIV thus slashed funding and cancelled some of the work Hardouin-Mansart had planned in the 1680s, such as

10810-464: The royal family and French court returned to Paris. For the rest of the French Revolution , the Palace of Versailles was largely abandoned and emptied of its contents, and the population of the surrounding city plummeted. Napoleon , following his coronation as Emperor , used the subsidiary palace, Grand Trianon , as a summer residence from 1810 to 1814, but did not use the main palace. Following

10925-603: The royal family departed, the palace was closed. In 1792, the National Convention , the new revolutionary government, ordered the transfer of all the paintings and sculptures from the palace to the Louvre . In 1793, the Convention declared the abolition of the monarchy and ordered all of the royal property in the palace to be sold at auction. The auction took place between 25 August 1793 and 11 August 1794. The furnishings and art of

11040-427: The royal family to the Château de Saint-Cloud ahead of more renovations to the Palace of Versailles, but construction could not begin because of financial difficulty and political crisis . In 1789, the French Revolution swept the royal family and government out of Versailles forever. The Palace of Versailles was key to Louis XIV's politics, as an expression and concentration of French art and culture , and for

11155-400: The royal gardener since 1657, and Charles Le Brun , a painter in royal service since 1647. Vaux-le-Vicomte's scale and opulence led him to imprison Fouquet that September, as he had also built an island fortress and a private army. But Louis XIV was also inspired by Vaux-le-Vicomte, and he recruited its authors for his own projects. Louis XIV replaced Fouquet with Jean-Baptiste Colbert ,

11270-466: The shutdown's first day, the memorial's barricades were removed. The NPS subsequently announced that the veterans had a legal right to be in the memorial and would not be barred in the future. During the shutdown's second week, the NPS permitted an immigration rally and concert to take place on the Mall. On December 8, 2016, the NPS listed on the National Register of Historic Places an increase in

11385-591: The site of the building, which was demolished in 1968. Meanwhile, in order to clean up the Potomac Flats and to make the Potomac River more navigable, in 1882 Congress authorized the Army Corps of Engineers to dredge the river. The Corps used the sediment removed from the shipping channel to fill in the flats. The work started in 1882 and continued until 1911, creating the Tidal Basin and 628 new acres of land. Part of

11500-453: The south, and by 12th and 14th Streets respectively on the east and west, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture administers and which contains the Jamie L. Whitten Building (U.S. Department of Agriculture Administration Building) . The 2012–2016 National Park Service index describes the National Mall as being a landscaped park that extends from the Capitol to the Washington Monument, defined as

11615-559: The staircase were trompe-l'œil paintings of people from the Four Parts of the World looking into the staircase over a balustrade, a motif repeated on the ceiling fresco. There they were joined by allegorical figures for the twelve months of the year and various Classical Greek figures such as the Muses . A marble bust of Louis XIV, sculpted by Jean Warin in 1665–66, was placed in a niche above

11730-516: The staircase – famously lit naturally with a skylight – so as to overawe visitors. The staircase and walls of the room that contained it were clad in polychrome marble and gilded bronze, with decor in the Ionic order. Charles Le Brun painted the walls and ceiling of the room according to a festive theme to celebrate Louis XIV's victory in the Franco-Dutch War . On the wall immediately above

11845-595: The start of the Seven Years' War . These wars emptied the royal treasury and thereafter construction was mostly funded by Madame du Barry , Louis XV's favourite mistress. In 1771, Louis XV had the northern Ministers' Wing rebuilt in Neoclassical style by Ange-Jacques Gabriel , his court architect, as it was in the process of falling down. That work was also stopped by financial constraints, and it remained incomplete when Louis XV died in 1774. In 1784, Louis XVI briefly moved

11960-573: The task and cost was too great. Louis XVIII had the far end of the south wing of the Cour Royale demolished and rebuilt (1814–1824) to match the Gabriel wing of 1780 opposite, which gave greater uniformity of appearance to the front entrance. Neither he nor his successor Charles X lived at Versailles. The French Revolution of 1830 brought a new monarch, Louis-Philippe to power, and a new ambition for Versailles. He did not reside at Versailles but began

12075-487: The war between the two nations), the government demolished Buildings A and B. The remaining tempos held offices of several agencies belonging to the Agriculture, Commerce , Treasury and War Departments for a number of years after the war ended. The government then slowly dismantled most of the tempos that had remained within the Mall (proper), removing the power plant and nearby buildings by 1936. Among those removed

12190-459: The western end of the Washington City Canal for an eastward extension of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal to be the oldest building still standing on the National Mall. The structure, which is located near the southwestern corner of 17th Street NW and Constitution Avenue NW, is west of the National Mall (proper). The Smithsonian Institution Building ("The Castle"), constructed from 1847 to 1855,

12305-509: Was Building C, which the government demolished between 1933 and 1936. By 1937, the government had removed all of the World War I tempos that had been within the National Mall (proper) except for Building E, thus largely restoring the Mall's central vista. However, another World War I tempo, which the government constructed south of the Mall in 1919 between 14th Street SW and the Tidal Basin as

12420-399: Was an imperial staircase built from 1674 to 1680 by François d'Orbay . Until Louis XV had it demolished in 1752 to create a courtyard for his private apartments, the staircase was the primary entrance into the Palace of Versailles and the royal apartments especially. It was entered from the courtyard via a vestibule that, cramped and dark, contrasted greatly with the tall, open space of

12535-601: Was at the Palace of Versailles that Louis XIV received the Doge of Genoa , Francesco Maria Imperiale Lercari in 1685, an embassy from the Ayutthaya Kingdom in 1686, and an embassy from Safavid Iran in 1715. Louis XIV died at Versailles on 1 September 1715 and was succeeded by his five-year-old great-grandson, Louis XV , then the duke of Anjou , who was moved to the Château de Vincennes and then to Paris by Louis XV's regent, Philippe II, Duke of Orléans . Versailles

12650-463: Was dedicated in 1976. The planting of American elm trees ( Ulmus americana ) on the National Mall following the McMillan Plan started in the 1930s between 3rd and 14th Streets at the same time that Dutch Elm Disease (DED) began to appear in the United States. Concern was expressed about the impact that DED could have on these trees. DED first appeared on the Mall during the 1950s and reached

12765-542: Was donated to the Smithsonian Institution by the Sinclair Oil Corporation . The statue, which Louis Paul Jonas created for Sinclair's DinoLand pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair , was named after a dinosaur in Oliver Butterworth 's 1956 children's book, The Enormous Egg , and the 1968 televised movie adaptation in which the statue appeared. In 2003, the 108th United States Congress enacted

12880-401: Was neglected until 1722, when Philippe II removed the court to Versailles to escape the unpopularity of his regency, and when Louis XV began his majority. The 1715 move, however, broke the cultural power of Versailles, and during the reign of Louis XVI , courtiers spent their leisure in Paris, not Versailles. During Christmas 1763, Mozart and his family visited Versailles and dined with

12995-659: Was opened in some of the empty rooms. By virtue of an order issued by the Versailles district directorate in August 1794, the Royal Gate was destroyed, the Cour Royale was cleared and the Cour de Marbre lost its precious floor. When Napoleon became Emperor of the French in 1804, he considered making Versailles his residence but abandoned the idea because of the cost of the renovation. Prior to his marriage with Marie-Louise in 1810, he had

13110-535: Was succeeded at Versailles by his assistant, architect François d'Orbay . Work at the palace during the 1670s focused on its interiors, as the palace was then nearing completion, though d'Orbay expanded Le Vau's service wings and connected them to the château, and built a pair of pavilions for government employees in the forecourt. In 1670, d'Orbay was tasked by Louis XIV with designing a city, also called Versailles , to house and service Louis XIV's growing government and court. The granting of land to courtiers for

13225-724: Was the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom , a political rally during the Civil Rights Movement , at which Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his speech " I Have a Dream ". The largest officially recorded rally was the Vietnam War Moratorium Rally on October 15, 1969. However, in 1995, the NPS issued a crowd estimate for the Million Man March with which an organizer of the event, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan , disagreed. The next year,

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