Library of Congress
Founded by the third U.S. president, Thomas Jefferson, this grand building, also called the Jefferson Library, has the largest collection of books in the world. The most popular points of interest are the massive main reading room and Great Hall. On the Winter and Summer solstices, the Great Hall is filled with an odd silver glow that gives the impression you are surrounded by floating clouds, and this makes those days the most crowded. The main reading room is known as the Sacred Room, and is absolutely stunning. You must be 16 or older to use the reading rooms and have a reader identification card, which can be obtained by presenting a driver's license/passport and completing a self registration form. Guided tours will not bring you into the reading room, but will take you up in the dome, where you can see the room in its full glory. There are also a number of rotating exhibitions from the Library's vast collection on display at any one time, as is a Gutenberg Bible.
- Wheelchair accessible
- Address
- 10 1st St SE
- Hours
- Mon-Sat 8:30AM-4:30PM
- Price
- Free
- Website
- loc.gov (opens in a new tab)
Listing from Wikivoyage: Washington, D.C./Capitol Hill, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Location and details from OpenStreetMap, © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL.
Also listed in Overture Maps open data.
Updated 28 Sept 2026. Something wrong? Tell us.