#1 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
Fort Ward
Alexandria VA
~0.74 miles from Alexandria city center
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Fort Ward is a former Union Army installation now located in the city of Alexandria in the U.S. state of Virginia. It was the fifth largest fort built to defend Washington, D.C. in the American Civil War. It is currently well-preserved with 90-95% of its earthen walls intact.
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#2 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
Fort Ward Museum
4301 W Braddock Rd Alexandria VA - 703-838-4848
~0.78 miles from Alexandria city center
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Fort Ward is a former Union Army installation now located in the city of Alexandria in the U.S. state of Virginia. It was the fifth largest fort built to defend Washington, D.C. in the American Civil War. It is currently well-preserved with 90-95% of its earthen walls intact.
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#3 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
Alexandria Presbyterian Church
Alexandria VA
~1.18 miles from Alexandria city center
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#4 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
Cameron Run Regional Park
Alexandria VA
~1.72 miles from Alexandria city center
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Cameron Run Regional Park offers a variety of recreation facilities in an urban area, including Great Waves Water Park. Catch a wave in the wave pool, twist and turn down four-story water slides, take a plunge down speed slides, play with friends in the shallow waters of the play pool. The park also features a deluxe miniature golf course, a nine-station batting cage, picnic shelters, and a special events pavilion.
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#5 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
Ben Brenman Park
4800 Brenman Park Dr Alexandria VA
~1.86 miles from Alexandria city center
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#6 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
George Washington Masonic National Memorial (Masonic Temple)
Alexandria VA
~1.93 miles from Alexandria city center
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George Washington Masonic National Memorial is a Masonic building and memorial located in Alexandria, Virginia. It is dedicated to the memory of George Washington, the first president of the United States, and a Mason.
The tower is fashioned after the Lighthouse of Alexandria in Egypt, in part because of the common names of both cities (Alexandria, Virginia was named for John and Philip Alexander, the city's founders), and the Masonic interest in great buildings of the ancient world. It sits atop Shuter's Hill (named after a Union fort on the same location), near King Street and the Old Town district.
It is the only Masonic building supported and maintained by the 52 grand lodges of the United States. This is counter to common Masonic practice, where a building is only supported by the Grand Lodge of the state in which it resides. The building also houses the collection of Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22, which contains most of the fraternal artifacts of George Washington, including the Watson-Cassoul apron, sash, past master portrait, working tools and trowel used to lay the cornerstone at the United States Capitol.
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#7 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
Arlington Historical Museum
Arlington VA
~2.40 miles from Alexandria city center
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#8 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
Black History Resource Center
638 N Alfred St Alexandria VA - 703-838-4356
~2.41 miles from Alexandria city center
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#9 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
Landmark Mall
5801 Duke Street Alexandria VA
~2.48 miles from Alexandria city center
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The Landmark Mall, or Landmark Regional Shopping Center, is located in a triangle formed by Duke Street (Virginia State Route 236), Shirley Highway (I-395), and Van Dorn Street (Virginia State Route 401) in Alexandria, Virginia.
The mall opened in 1965, and was the first mall in the Washington D.C. area to feature three anchor department stores; the Hecht Company (163,000 sq ft), Sears and Roebuck (236,000 sq ft), and Woodward & Lothrop (151,000 sq ft). The mall opening occurred on August 4, 1965, when then Lt. Gov. Mills E. Godwin, Jr. cut the ceremonial ribbon. The mall opened with 32 stores in the 675,000-square-foot (62,700 m2) center including Bond Clothes, Casual Corner, People's Drug Store, Raleigh Haberdasher, Thom McAn, and Waldenbooks. The center also included the second location of S&W Cafeteria in the Washington D.C. suburbs.
Originally an outdoor mall, it was enclosed about 1990. It is currently owned by General Growth Properties.
Plans were announced in 2008 to revitalize the mall by converting it to an open-air "town center" shopping center. Those plans have been put on hold with General Growth's bankruptcy filing in April 2009; the mall itself filed for bankruptcy at the same time.
Lord & Taylor announced on May 29, 2009, that it would be closing its store at the mall. http://www.landmarkmall.com/html/index18.asp
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#10 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
Lee Fendall House
Washington VA
~2.62 miles from Alexandria city center
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In November 1784, Maj. Gen. Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee (1756-1818) purchased 3 one-half acre lots in Alexandria from Baldwin Dade (1716-1783), a merchant. On December 4, 1784, he sold one of these tracts to Philip Richard Fendall I, Esq. (1734-1805), for three hundred pounds, and Philip began building the Lee-Fendall House, for his second wife, Elizabeth (Steptoe) Lee (1743-1789), spring or early summer of 1785. The lot was located on the southeast corner of Washington and Oronoko Street, then the edge of the city. At the time, very few structures were near, and the Fendall's enjoyed a spectacular view of Oronoko Bay and the ships which docked there. To the north and west lay verdant fields of grass and clover. Alexandria was an up and coming thriving social and political center in Northern Virginia. The architect is unknown, but the style is similar to that found at "Hard Bargain", an estate built by the Digges family, and located in Charles County from which Philip hailed. It consisted of a "telescopic" design, which was synonymous with Maryland, and had three sections.
The house was completed by November 1785, when George Washington wrote in his diary dated November 10 1785: "Went to Alexandria to meet the Directors of the Potomack Company and dined at Mr. Fendall's (who was from home) and returned in the evening with Mrs. Washington." The Fendalls are mentioned in Washington's 1785-1786 diaries more than anyone outside his own family, and Washington dined here at least seven times in those years. Elizabeth was a favorite of George and Martha Washington, a frequent visitor to Mount Vernon, and frequent hostess to the Washingtons. Philip was one of the few men who were close friends with Washington and participated in his social coterie.
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#11 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
Alexandria's Christ Church
Alexandria VA
~2.66 miles from Alexandria city center
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#12 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
Lyceum
Washington VA
~2.72 miles from Alexandria city center
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The Lyceum is a historic structure in Alexandria, Virginia. It was built in 1839, and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since May 27, 1969. It was built primarily as a lecture hall, and served as a hospital during the American Civil War; post-war, it became a house, and later served as an office building. Today it is the official city history museum of Alexandria.
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#13 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
Gadsby's Tavern Museum
134 N Royal St Alexandria VA - 703-838-4242
~2.84 miles from Alexandria city center
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Gadsby's Tavern is a building in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, and is a U.S. National Historic Landmark. Currently, the facility is home to Gadsby's Tavern Restaurant, American Legion Post 24, and Gadsby's Tavern Museum, a cultural history museum. The original tavern was a central part of the social, economic, political, and educational life of the city of Alexandria, and the United States. Today the Tavern houses exhibits of early American life in Virginia and a restaurant in the original dining room, serving a mixture of period and modern foods.
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#14 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
Market Square
Alexandria VA
~2.87 miles from Alexandria city center
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Oldest continuously operated marketplace in the United States. Now location of farmers' market on Saturdays.
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#15 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
Alexandria City Hall
Alexandria VA
~2.87 miles from Alexandria city center
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#16 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
John Carlyle House
Alexandria VA
~2.88 miles from Alexandria city center
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Carlyle House is a historic mansion in Alexandria, Virginia, United States, built by Scottish merchant John Carlyle in 1751-53. It is situated in the city’s Old Town on North Fairfax Street between Cameron and King Streets.
When the lots for the new town of Alexandria were auctioned in July 1749, Carlyle purchased lots 41 and 42, situated between the Potomac River and the town's market square, ideal for his merchant business. He began construction of a house in 1751, using indentured and slave labor. The home was built in mid-Georgian Palladian style with space for entertaining and private family and servant use. He also built a number of outbuildings for both household and business needs. Carlyle and his wife, Sarah née Fairfax, moved into the house on 1 August 1753, the day Sarah gave birth to Carlyle's first son, William. Carlyle is supposed to have sealed a cat within the house's walls, an old Scottish tradition to bring luck.
In 1755, the house was the initial headquarters for Major-General Edward Braddock in the Colony of Virginia during the French and Indian War. The Congress of Alexandria convened in the dining room of the house and here Braddock decided to make an expedition to Fort Duquesne which would result in his death. He was urged not to undertake the expedition by native Virginian George Washington who was then a volunteer aide-de-camp to Braddock. Braddock first suggested the idea of levying additional new taxes on the colonists to help with the cost of the war at the house.
Gardens of the Carlyle House
Carlyle was a slaveholder. Carlyle’s slaves lived and worked in his Alexandria home, on three plantations and in a foundry located on the same lot as the house. When he died, there were nine slaves living at Carlyle House: Moses, Nanny, Jerry, Joe, Cate, Sibreia, Cook, Charles, and Penny.
Following Carlyle's death in 1780, his son George William Carlyle inherited the house. However, he died one year after his father at the Battle of Eutaw Springs in South Carolina. The son of John Carlyle's eldest daughter Sarah Carlyle Herbert, John Carlyle Herbert, inherited the Carlyle House in 1781. The house passed from the family's possession by 1827 when Sarah Carlyle Herbert died and John Carlyle Herbert sold it to pay off an uncle's gambling debt. He himself had moved to Maryland in the first decade of the nineteenth century.
In the mid 1800s, the Mansion House Hotel, which became called one of the best hotels on the East Coast, was built along Fairfax Street making Carlyle House no longer visible from the street. The hotel and the house were seized by occupying Union forces during the American Civil War.
Significant restoration work to the house was undertaken in the early and mid 1970s and the hotel (also known as the Braddock Hotel) was torn down once again exposing Carlyle House to North Fairfax Street.
Since 1970, the Carlyle House Historic Park is owned and administered by the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority and includes the 18th century mansion and its gardens. On the National Register of Historic Places, it is architecturally unique as the only stone, 18th-century Palladian-style house in Alexandria. The "Grandest Congress" is a reenacted celebrating Gen. Braddock's time at the house that takes place every year at the Carlyle House.
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#17 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
Fashion Center at Pentagon City (Pentago City Mall)
Arlington VA
~2.91 miles from Alexandria city center
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#18 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
Us Army National Guard
111 S George Mason Dr Arlington VA - 703-607-7010
~2.96 miles from Alexandria city center
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The United States Army is the branch of the United States armed forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven uniformed services. The modern Army has its roots in the Continental Army which was formed on 14 June 1775, before the establishment of the United States, to meet the demands of the American Revolutionary War. Congress officially created the United States Army on 3 June 1784 after the end of the war to replace the disbanded Continental Army. The Army considers itself to be descended from the Continental Army and thus dates its inception from the origins of that force.
The primary mission of the Army is to "provide necessary forces and capabilities ... in support of the National Security and Defense Strategies." Control and operation is administered by the Department of the Army, one of the three military departments of the Department of Defense. The civilian head is the Secretary of the Army and the highest ranking military officer in the department is the Chief of Staff, unless the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff or Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are Army officers. In fiscal year 2009, the Regular Army reported a strength of 549,015 soldiers; the Army National Guard (ARNG) reported 358,391 and the United States Army Reserve (USAR) reported 205,297 putting the combined component strength total at 1,112,703 soldiers.
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#19 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
Old Presbyterian Meeting House
Washington VA
~2.98 miles from Alexandria city center
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The Old Presbyterian Meeting House is a Presbyterian house of worship in the city of Alexandria, Virginia. The congregation of the church was organized in 1772; the current building was completed in the 1780s. The cupola, with bell, was added in 1790. The meetinghouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 16, 2001.
One of the Meetinghouse's chaplains, Joseph J. Bullock, also served as the Chaplain of the United States Senate for part of his tenure. In addition, the church has connections with a number of important figures in Alexandria history. Among these were merchant John Carlyle and physician James Craik, who attended George Washington in his final illness. Both men are buried in the churchyard next to the meetinghouse. Also buried there is an unknown soldier of the American Revolutionary War, whose corpse was discovered during restoration work nearby, and who was interred in the cemetery in 1929.
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#20 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
Athenaeum
Washington VA
~2.98 miles from Alexandria city center
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#21 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
Torpedo Factory Art Center
Alexandria VA
~3.01 miles from Alexandria city center
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The Torpedo Factory Art Center is an art center located on the waterfront of the Potomac River at 105 North Union Street in the Old Town of Alexandria, Virginia, United States. Historically it was literally a former torpedo factory and munitions storage site.
It houses more 82 artists' studios, 6 galleries and two workshops, with some 165 professional visual artists who produce a diversity of artwork, ranging from painting, ceramics, photography, jewelry, stained glass, fiber, printmaking, and sculpture. The six galleries located at the Torpedo Factory include the Target Gallery, The Art League Gallery, Enamelists Gallery, the Multiple Exposures Gallery which specializes in photography, the Potomac Fiber Arts Gallery and the Scope Gallery which specializes in ceramics.
The centre attracts around 500,000 visitors annually.
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#22 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
DEA Museum
Arlington VA
~3.07 miles from Alexandria city center
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The mission of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Museum and Visitors Center is to educate the American public on the history of drugs, drug addiction and drug law enforcement in the United States through engaging and state-of-the-art exhibits, displays, interactive stations and educational outreach programs.
The DEA Museum will provide a unique learning environment for the public to discover the role and impact of federal drug law enforcement on the changing trends of licit and illicit drug use in American history.
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#23 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
Pentagon
Washington VA
~3.59 miles from Alexandria city center
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The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.
Designed by the American architect George Bergstrom (1876–1955), and built by Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, general contractor John McShain, the building was dedicated on January 15, 1943, after ground was broken for construction on September 11, 1941. General Brehon Somervell provided the major motive power behind the project;[1] Colonel Leslie Groves was responsible for overseeing the project for the Army.
The Pentagon is the world's largest office building by floor area, with about 6,500,000 sq ft (604,000 m2), of which 3,700,000 sq ft (344,000 m2) are used as offices. Approximately 23,000 military and civilian employees and about 3,000 non-defense support personnel work in the Pentagon. It has five sides, five floors above ground (plus two basement levels), and five ring corridors per floor with a total of 17.5 miles (28.2 km)[3] of corridors. The Pentagon includes a five-acre (20,000 m²) central plaza, which is shaped like a pentagon and informally known as "ground zero", a nickname originating during the Cold War and based on the presumption that the Soviet Union would target one or more nuclear missiles at this central location in the outbreak of a nuclear war.
On September 11, 2001, hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 was crashed into the western side of the Pentagon, killing 189 people, including 64 people aboard the plane and 125 working in the building.
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#24 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
Gravelly Point Park
Arlington VA
~3.66 miles from Alexandria city center
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Gravelly Point is a park in Arlington, Virginia, United States. It is located north of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, along the George Washington Parkway, and across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.
Today, the park is a primary intersection on weekends of boaters, cyclists, and airplane-spotters. Its unique location just a few hundred feet from the north end of Reagan's runway 1/19 makes it one of the best spots in the United States for airplane-spotting.
Originally, the area known as Gravelly Point was where Captain John Alexander built a home called Abingdon in 1746. Abingdon was purchased in 1778 by John Parke Custis, the adopted stepson of President George Washington. It was the birthplace of Washington’s beloved granddaughter, Eleanor Parke Custis. Abington was destroyed by fire in 1930 and the ruins stabilized. In 1998, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority preserved the site and created an exhibit of artifacts found there in the Exhibit Hall, located in Terminal A of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
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#25 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
Ballston Common Mall
Arlington VA
~3.74 miles from Alexandria city center
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#26 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
Green Spring Gardens Park
Alexandria VA
~3.76 miles from Alexandria city center
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Green Spring Gardens Park (26 acres) is a public park located at 4603 Green Spring Road, Alexandria, Virginia. It is operated by the Fairfax County Park Authority, and open daily without charge.
The park contains a manor house (1760) with gardens designed by noted American landscape artist Beatrix Farrand. The house and grounds were donated to Fairfax County in 1970 by publisher Michael Whitney Straight.
Estate gardens feature boxwood hedging, roses, and perennial borders. The park also contains a tropical greenhouse, a wooded stream valley with ponds and gazebo, a naturalistic native plant garden, and over 20 demonstration gardens. It is a provisional member of the North American Plant Collections Consortium for its Hamamelis collection (13 taxa, including all 4 species).
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#27 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
George Mason University
3401 Fairfax Dr # 201 Arlington VA - 703-993-8000
~4.01 miles from Alexandria city center
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George Mason University (often referred to as GMU or Mason) is a public university based in unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, south of and adjacent to the city of Fairfax. Additional campuses are located nearby in Arlington County, Prince William County, and Loudoun County.
Named after American revolutionary, patriot, and founding father George Mason, the university was founded as a branch of the University of Virginia in 1957 and became an independent institution in 1972. Recognized for its strong programs in law, economics, and creative writing, the university enrolls over 32,500 students, making it the largest university (by head count) in the Commonwealth of Virginia http://www.gmu.edu/arlington/
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#28 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington VA
~4.10 miles from Alexandria city center
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#29 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
Arlington City Hall
Arlington VA
~4.38 miles from Alexandria city center
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#30 of 30 Things To Do in Alexandria
Iwo Jima Memorial
Arlington VA
~4.46 miles from Alexandria city center
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The Marine Corps War Memorial (also called the Iwo Jima Memorial) is a military memorial statue outside the walls of the Arlington National Cemetery and next to the Netherlands Carillon, in Arlington, Virginia, in the United States. The memorial is dedicated to all personnel of the United States Marine Corps who have died in the defense of their country since 1775. The design of the massive sculpture by Felix de Weldon was based on the iconic photo Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, taken during the Battle of Iwo Jima by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal.
The memorial features the Marines and Sailor who raised the second flag over Iwo Jima: Sgt Michael Strank, Cpl Harlon Block, PFC Franklin Sousley, PFC Rene Gagnon, PFC Ira Hayes, PM2 John Bradley.
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