Washington: 10 Things to Do in 24 Hours

At the west end of the Mall is a dark low wall that may be the most powerful memorial to loss in the world. Veterans and relatives come to make pencil rubbings from the 58,000 names engraved in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. For everyone else, to walk down the long, long chronological list of the casualties is to grasp the consequences of war, without fanfare or hubris. (From the Smithsonian stop on the orange or blue line of the Metro, head west.)

• 1. Vietnam Veterans Memorial
  enry Bacon Drive NW, Washington, DC 20037; 202-426-6841 38.890667-77.048993 nps.gov/vive