West Potomac Park, at 23rd Street between Constitution and Independence avenues; closest Metro Foggy Bottom-GWU. Daily 24hr, staffed 8am–midnight. Admission free.

At the far west end of the Mall, the Lincoln Memorial is modelled upon a Doric temple, enclosed by a colonnade and fronted by a long reflecting pool. During the Civil Rights march on Washington in 1963, Dr Martin Luther King Jr delivered his epic "I Have a Dream" speech, not from the steps of the White House or the US Capitol, but here. Ironically, when this monument to the Great Emancipator was dedicated in 1922, the crowds were segregated by color – even black leader Dr Robert Moton, who gave an address, was forced to watch from a roped-off area to the side.

The Lincoln Memorial is a fitting tribute to the man who held the country together during the Civil War and thereby put an end to slavery in the US. A craggy likeness of Abraham Lincoln sits firmly grasping the arms of his throne-like chair, apparently deep in thought, while inscriptions of Lincoln's two most celebrated speeches – the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural Address – are carved on north and south walls.