Washington DC Facts

Washington, D.C. has one lawyer for every 19 residents!

The pink cherry blossoms in Washington D.C. were a gift from Japan in 1912. Tokyo sent more than 3,000 cherry trees to be planted around the Tidal Basin as a symbol of friendship between the two nations.

The Lincoln Memorial has a secret: a 43,800 sq ft cave beneath it - nearly twice the floor space of the memorial above. Rainwater seeping through the marble has grown real stalactites, and 1914 construction workers left cartoon graffiti on the columns, now preserved behind plexiglass. It opens as a public museum for the first time on June 25.

The Lincoln Memorial hid a secret room for over 100 years. It just opened to the public for the first time. The new $69 million museum has floor-to-ceiling glass walls. Visitors can walk past the columns holding up the memorial above. Lincoln's own signed Emancipation Proclamation and 13th Amendment are inside.

The Washington Monument is two different shades of marble. Construction started in 1848 but funding collapsed in 1854, halting work for over 20 years. When the Army Corps of Engineers resumed building in 1879, the original Maryland quarry could no longer supply matching marble. Builders used stone from a new source - and it aged to a slightly darker shade. The color line sits about one-third of the way up the 555-foot tower.

The White House interior is a 1950s building. Engineers found it near collapse in 1948. Margaret Truman's piano leg had just crashed through the floor. Workers gutted every floor down to the bare exterior walls. A new steel frame went up inside the hollow shell, foundations dug 20 feet deep. To protect the 1817 walls, they disassembled a bulldozer and rebuilt it inside.

The U.S. Capitol has run its own private underground subway since March 1909. The original cars were lemon-yellow Studebakers that held eight senators and took just 45 seconds to cover a 760-foot tunnel. It still runs today - and the public cannot get on without a congressional escort.