Theodore Roosevelt Island
Theodore Roosevelt Island National Memorial, Administered By The National Park Service As Part Of The George Washington Memorial Parkway · Washington, District of Columbia
Eighty-eight acres of woodland in the middle of the Potomac, a footbridge from the Virginia bank and a mile from the Lincoln Memorial, and the only national memorial in the country that is a forest. The island was farmed, then landscaped as the Mason family estate, then left to grow back; in 1932 the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Association bought it and gave it to the nation, and the Olmsted Brothers were told to make it look like the wild Virginia woods Roosevelt loved rather than a park. It took decades and it worked. At the centre a formal plaza opens out of the trees with Paul Manship's seventeen-foot bronze Roosevelt, arm raised mid-sentence, between two fountains and four granite tablets carved with his words on Nature, Manhood, Youth and the State. Two and a half miles of trail ring the island, including a boardwalk over the tidal swamp on the eastern side where herons fish within a few feet of the rail. Aircraft into Reagan National pass low overhead, the city is audible through the trees, and none of it quite reaches the ground.
George Washington Memorial Parkway northbound (parking lot in Arlington, Virginia), Washington, District of Columbia, 20037, United States
Island and trails open daily, 6 AM to 10 PM in practice but cleared at dusk; no entrance fee. The car park is accessible ONLY from the northbound George Washington Memorial Parkway and fills early on fine weekends. Restrooms are seasonal and basic. No drinking water on the island.
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