Mount Vernon Trail

Constructed by the National Park Service in 1973 along the Potomac River and paralleling the George Washington Memorial Parkway, the Mount Vernon Trail is an 18-mile multi-use route from the Mount Vernon Estate to Theodore Roosevelt Island. Along it are sites including the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial, based on the second flag-raising at Iwo Jima and honoring Marines who died in defense of the United States; the Netherlands Carillon, a Dutch gift of 50 bronze bells in thanks for aid during and after World War II; the Women in Military Service for America Memorial; Arlington House, home to the Custis and Lee families, 63 slaves, a military headquarters, and a national cemetery; Lady Bird Johnson Park and LBJ Memorial Grove; Theodore Roosevelt Island, landscaped by Frederick Law Olmstead, Jr.; the Navy and Marine Memorial; Old Town Alexandria; Jones Point Park, where a river lighthouse stands over a stone marking the original boundary of the District of Columbia; Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve, a 485 acre freshwater tidal wetland; and Fort Hunt Park, which defended Washington, D.C. during the Spanish American War and later held a P.O.W. interrogation camp during World War II.

Arlington, Virginia · United States