Over nearly 250 years, the National Mall has evolved as the center stage of the nation’s capital. The Founding Fathers saw the District of Columbia as a shining beacon of democracy for a newly independent nation, reflected in the L’Enfant Plan’s vision of the National Mall as its ceremonial core. Progress, however, was slow and laborious. Less than 40 years after the establishment of Washington, Charles Dickens described the underwhelming capital as a “city of magnificent intentions.”

In the first program of a 2-part series, Carolyn Muraskin, founder of DC Design Tours, traces the Mall’s transition from pasture lands to military training grounds and from mud flats to grand monuments, sharing the complex and lesser-known history of some of the most enduring national landmarks including the Capitol, Washington Monument, White House, Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, and the Tidal Basin and its famed cherry blossoms.

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