Zohery Tours

Washington DC Sightseeing Tours

400 block New Jersey Avenue, NW
Washington DC 20001

The White House

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In 1792, a man by the name James Hoban won a competition launched by then President George Washington and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson for the construction of the White House. He was an Irish-trained architect. It should be noted that even though George Washington was instrumental in the overall construction of the White House, he did not live in the White House. It was the second President John Adams who first lived there when he was elected in 1796.

The White House has undergone several innovations especially under the leadership of Thomas Jefferson who came to live there as president in 1801. He added several compartments and changed some of the structural designs. He employed architect Benjamin Latrobe to make some of the additions to the building in the way he saw it fit. Hoban later came back to add some structures to the house after the 1812 war when the British damaged some parts of it. This was during the leadership of James Madison who was President from 1809-1817.

Further expansion of the building was made by subsequent Presidents including Theodore Roosevelt who remodeled the building. The White House is the only house in the Country that has its own zip code. The zip code is 20500.

The Arlington Cemetery

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American heroes are buried in the Arlington National Cemetery. These are heroes who have fought for the dignity of the American flag during the world wars, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and many other combat zones that have recorded American casualties. The cemetery is the largest in the Country with burial every week days. There are close to 300.000 deaths buried in the Arlington Cemetery. The cemetery is partly run by the US Military as well as the Park Services.

Whenever a burial is to be performed in the cemetery, the flag of the nation in the Cemetery is flown at half-staff. There have been record numbers of visitors visiting the Tombs Of The Unknown in the Arlington Cemetery. These are mostly servicemen who died in duty or after but were not identified by any family.

The Tidal Basin

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The Basin is situated around the Jefferson Memorial and next to the Potomac River. The basin was conceived in 1880 to help flush the Washington Channel that is separated by the Potomac River. Interesting about the Tidal Basin is the fact that it releases tons and tons of water sometime measuring up to 250 million gallons. Also of interest about the Basin is the line of Japanese trees that surround it.

The Washington Monument

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The Washington Monument is a giant structure that is symbolic of Washington DC. The idea of building such a structure to represent George Washington, the first president of the United States came from Major Pierre Charles L’Enfant. He wrote to Congress requesting that it be done when George Washington died in 1799.

Work took off for the construction of this monument between 1848 and 1884. The lack of funds to continue the project halted the construction for a while. The resumption of the project took place in 1876 under the supervision of Lt. Col. Thomas L. Casey. He changed the design of the monument to reflect the Egyptian obelisk. Today, there is an elevator that transports tourists and visitors to the topmost part of the monument. There is also a trail and a park that is around the monument.

The Washington Monument is 555 feet and 5 inches high. The Monument has been opened to the public since 1885. There is an elevator inside that takes the public high up to have a panoramic view of the city of Washington DC and its surroundings. Along the way up and the down the monument, visitors can see the gifts that were donated to the monument from around the world. The monument is similar in shape to the Egyptian obelisk. The Monument is also surrounded by flags representing the 50 states.

Crime & Punishment Museum

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crime and punishment museum

The Museum of Crime and Punishment is located on 575 7th Street, NW, Washington DC, 20004. As in all museums, this museum specializes in documenting important facts and statistics about special crime cases. The emergence of new technologies has made it possible for documenting crimes and punishments that occurred years ago. Like Newseum, there are also studios located in this museum where visitors and tourists can watch live broadcast crime shows or watch one of John Walsh’s investigative pieces. There are also tools used by law enforcement officers that children can explore in this museum; these include night vision goggles, lie detector test machines, simulating police chase etc.