Watergate Steps — Attraction in Washington

Of all the forgotten memorials, monuments, and cultural landmarks in Washington D.C, the Watergate Steps sit among those seldom few that perfectly balance architectural beauty and intriguing history.

Connected to the Arlington Memorial Bridge area, sitting between the Arts of War and the Arts of Peace Sculptures, the steps were originally designed to serve as part of a dock, allowing dignitaries arriving via the Potomac River to ascend into the capital in sight of the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.

However, the intended use of the steps was never realized and the National Symphony Orchestra utilized the space from July 14th 1935 to host as many as 12,000 audience members for their barge-based performances.

Unfortunately, increased air traffic drew an end to the performing arts space in 1965, where it has since been an impressive, but defunct, staircase used primarily by runners and tourists keen to capture an awe-inspiring view of the river along the steps.

Tourists to the area will find that the forty steps that make up the Watergate Steps may quickly become congested, despite being 230ft wide at the top and 206ft wide at the base. Considering the appeal of the area, serving as a starting (or ending) point for those walking the National Mall, I would recommend visiting the steps during the early part of the day to ensure that the full-experience of the granite steps can be savored with as few other visitors as possible.

One of the only downsides to the Watergate Steps is that the history of the location far exceeds the excitement felt in viewing them. For those uninformed or uninterested in the specific history of the site, the impressive landmarks along the National Mall will outshine the steps and may cause tourists to de-prioritize them, misunderstand their importance, or miss...

Damp these forces! It appears my rowboat was blown back down the Potomac by the blousy pantaloons that I left to dry whilst washing the oars in a pot. So where hast fate blown me?

This land is rough and untameable, undiscovered like the virginity of a social construct. It bears marks of the primitive cultures that senselessly hewed blocks in the stone over, one must assume, hundreds of millions of generations. How majestically this natural wonder climbs to the heavens, the pitiful extrication of a culture long doomed by the consequences of its young actions and its eagerness to be led by men who thought owning people would never backfire!

I am but a humble foreign agent working surreptitiously to advocate for a government that will be amenable to my daddy's many large global businesses, by which of course I mean that I am humble, but even I have learned from Papa that humananity only exists to conquer sites like this. I will do so, in the name of empire and her greatness, no hetero!

I shall name this natural wonder for the force that brought me here, the Proto-Germanic word for "hole," and the mesmerizing visual hold it has over me, only surpassed by the reflection of Constable I vaguely read in its form: the Watergate Stairs.

Tears cloud my shiny vision as my mind harkens back to the fourth-to-last letter I ever intercepted from Constable's mail pile -

My love, happy letters spell your visage To life, cultivating your eyes one and A thousand shy rivulets melted from Their source. My love, these split standards command Me e'en thus, they crest me e'er so, somehow When there feed a thousand tresses, your hair Crowned beyond flame and ember, your honeyed Breaths flown of ice and sea, then I will stare Beyond how bright they gleam and find even Your glance, your taste, your sin...

Secreted away behind the Lincoln Memorial are these steps that seem to go nowhere. Historically, these steps were part of the Lincoln Memorial and designed to be the entrance for folks entering the Capitol by boat. This never really panned out, but steps were the site of the “Sunset Symphonies”, which ran from 1935 to 1965, when they were finally canceled due to the jet noise drowning out the music. Now it’s a haven for joggers doing their stairs in the morning and is a nice place of an evening to take in river views and the lights...