The National Mall

The National Mall is a national park in downtown Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. The National Park Service (NPS) of the U.S. Department of the Interior administers the National Mall, which is part of its National Mall and Memorial Parks unit.The term National Mall commonly includes areas that are also officially part of neighboring West Potomac Park and Constitution Gardens to the southwest, and often is taken to refer to the entire area between the Lincoln Memorial on the west and east to the United States Capitol grounds, with the Washington Monument dividing the area slightly west of its midpoint. A smaller designation, sometimes referred to as the Mall proper, excludes both the Capitol grounds and the Washington Monument grounds, applying only to an area between them. The National Mall contains and borders a number of museums of the Smithsonian Institution, art galleries, cultural institutions and various memorials, sculptures and statues and receives approximately 24 million visitors each year.