Going up the Washington Monument in DC

The obelisk in brief

The Washington Monument rises 555 feet over the middle of the National Mall, with the Capitol to the east and the Lincoln Memorial to the west. Building stalled for years around the Civil War, and the change in the color of the stone about a third of the way up marks that pause. Work wrapped up in 1884, and the public was first let inside in 1888.

Inside, an elevator carries you to the observation level at about 500 feet (152 m). Small windows on all four sides frame the views. East lies the Capitol, and west you look down the Reflecting Pool to the Lincoln Memorial, with the White House to the north and the Jefferson Memorial to the south. On the way down you stop at a lower level with exhibits. Because the windows are small, the view comes in framed slices rather than one wide panorama, and the visit inside fits comfortably into half an hour.

How the free tickets work

Entry costs nothing, but you need a timed ticket from the National Park Service, and you can get one in two ways.

• Online in advance. The NPS releases timed tickets on recreation.gov ahead of time, then a smaller batch the day before. Each ticket carries a $1 booking fee, and advance tickets for spring weekends and holidays go quickly;
• Same day at the lodge. A limited number of same-day tickets are handed out each morning at the lodge on 15th Street, first come, first served. Expect a line on busy days, so arrive early.

Everyone passes through security screening before the elevator, so travel light. The Monument also closes from time to time for weather or maintenance, and its daytime hours can change, so check the NPS before you go rather than trusting a schedule you read elsewhere.

None of the main tours goes up

All six tours on our home page treat the Monument as a backdrop. Intrepid's eCruiser and Capital Segway make short stops at its base, while See DC Today keeps it in view all evening without stopping there. Two tours do better and use the base as a stop or a finish line, which makes them easy to pair with a ticket (more on that below). If you want the elevator itself, you need your own timed ticket or one of the two walks that include it.

Two walks that end inside

DC by Foot's small-group walk, from ~$75, is the most polished way to combine a guide with the view. Six people at most meet outside Lincoln Memorial Gifts & Cafe on Henry Bacon Drive for about 2 hours on foot. You stop at the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam wall before the WWII Memorial and a view of the White House's south side. The walk ends at the Monument with your timed ticket included. It is wheelchair and stroller accessible but sold on Viator only. The catch is what the money buys. The ticket is the free NPS one, so you are paying for the walk, and when a government shutdown closed the Monument, one group never got to ride up.

Babylon Tours DC's National Mall walk, from ~$55, starts at 9:30 am at the Albert Einstein Memorial with up to 12 guests and spends 2.5 hours on five memorials, from the Lincoln to the MLK, before 30 minutes inside the Monument. The catch is that the Monument part is unguided, so you go up on your own without the guide. It also needs at least two guests to run, and wheelchair users must book the private version.

Paying someone to book the ticket

No Line Waiters' direct entry service, from ~$25, is a booking service rather than a tour. The company reserves the official recreation.gov timed ticket in your name and pays the NPS fee, with a digital guidebook added. The ticket may reach you only the evening before, and at the door only that official ticket gets you in; a voucher or receipt will not. Its catch is the terms. It cannot be refunded or changed, even if the NPS closes the Monument on your day, and you pay many times the $1 fee for a ticket you could book yourself. Try recreation.gov first, including the batch released the day before, and keep the reseller for a fixed date you cannot get any other way.

Fitting the view around a tour

Two of our main tours make the Monument an easy add-on. Unlimited Biking's day tour, from ~$65, stops at its base among the ring of flags, and you can walk back for a timed slot later the same day once the bikes are returned to 701 D St NW. Empire Tours' sunset walk, from ~$39, ends at the base at dusk, so take a morning ticket and treat the walk as the evening finale at the same spot.

The order matters more than it seems. Going up first, in daylight, lets you read the Mall like a map, about 2 miles (3.2 km) of it from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial with the Tidal Basin just south. That makes an evening tour easier to follow, because you already know where the van or the guide is taking you. Which night tour to book compares the evening options, and the memorials, one by one explains what you are looking down on.

Planning the visit

Expect a short wait on the plaza before your time slot and a security check before the elevator. Bags are screened, so leave large ones at the hotel; what to wear and bring covers the rest. Clear days give the longest views, so a hazy summer afternoon is a weaker bet than a crisp spring or fall morning. The best time to see the monuments helps you find a quieter day, and our page on getting there has the nearest stations.

If you would rather skip paid tours altogether, our page on seeing the Mall for free pairs the free ticket with a walking loop of the Mall. To weigh the walks above against the bikes and vans, what a DC monument tour costs sets them side by side.