The Washington region has many well-known parks and recreational areas. The Mall is Washington’s most prominent park, and it hosts many special demonstrations and events. Nearby East and West Potomac parks, formed from reclaimed land along the Potomac River, provide space for a range of recreational activities, including rugby, softball, volleyball, and polo. The Ellipse, between the White House and the Washington Monument, is a large public park that contains the Zero Milestone, from which distances are measured on all national highways that pass through Washington. Within the city, Rock Creek Park, which stretches from downtown to the Maryland border, is home to the National Zoological Park. The National Arboretum is in northeast Washington. Also, the intersection of Washington’s broad diagonal avenues with other streets laid out on a straight grid provides a number of small parks.

Professional sports are important in Washington. For many years Griffith Stadium in LeDroit Park hosted the national Negro League’s Homestead Grays and the American League’s Washington Senators. Integration of the major leagues doomed the Grays, and poor fan support resulted in a franchise move for the Senators. Another team that left the city was the Washington Redskins professional football team, which moved to Prince George’s County, Maryland, in 1997. As that team moved from city to suburb, however, the region’s professional hockey team, the Washington Capitals, and basketball team, the Washington Wizards, returned downtown after spending nearly a generation in the Maryland suburbs. The Capitals and the Wizards play in a new sports and entertainment complex, the MCI Center, which opened in December 1997. The Center has helped to revitalize the downtown area. The D.C. United soccer team, a recent arrival to Washington, achieved success quickly and became national champions in 1996.

Museums

The most famous museum in Washington is the Smithsonian Institution. With help from a gift from Englishman James Smithson, Congress chartered the Smithsonian in 1846. The Smithsonian is a collection of many different institutions that are world-famous for their art, historical, and scientific collections. The National Museum of African Art was the first museum in the United States devoted exclusively to African art. The National Museum of Natural History houses many of the world’s most famous gems, and the National Museum of American History traces the development of the United States through scientific, technological, and cultural exhibitions. The National Air and Space Museum has aeronautical exhibits that include the original craft used by the Wright Brothers and the Mercury capsule in which astronaut John Glenn orbited the Earth.

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden contains notable paintings and sculptures by 19th- and 20th-century European and American artists. The Arts and Industries Building and the Freer Gallery of Art house fine collections of American and Asian art. Another major art collection, the National Portrait Gallery, is in a building with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which houses American paintings, sculptures, graphics, folk art, and photographs from the 18th century to the present. Over time, the Smithsonian has evolved from being the so-called nation’s attic into a far-ranging and diverse set of research and educational facilities.

Other important collections in Washington include the National Gallery of Art, one the nation’s chief art galleries, with major collections of European and American paintings; the Dumbarton Oaks Museum, with a collection of pre-Columbian and Byzantine art; the National Building Museum, dedicated to American achievements in architecture, construction, engineering, and design; and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, which provides information about the persecution and murder of Jews in Europe during World War II. There are also several venerable private institutions, such as the Corcoran Gallery of Art, launched in the 1880s through the bequest of banker William W. Corcoran, and the Phillips Collection, opened in 1921 near DuPont Circle as the city’s first modern-art museum. The Historical Society of Washington, D.C., located in a 19th-century mansion built by beer magnate Christian Heurich, is the only institution dedicated solely to the preservation and interpretation of Washington’s rich local history.