Federal Bureau of Investigation

Washington, DC


DC's concrete, brutalist FBI headquarters should be seen, if only to say you have laid eyes on the single ugliest building in the entire District. When it was completed in 1975, architecture critics said it was Orwellian and resembled a dreary factory.

The building is not open to the public, except via a free tour arranged by your Congressional representative one to five months in advance, if you are a US citizen.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Washington, DC attractions

1. Ford’s Theatre

0.1 MILES

On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln here. Free timed-entry tickets provide access to the site, which has four parts: the…

3. Petersen House

0.12 MILES

After being shot at Ford’s Theatre, Lincoln was carried across the street to Petersen House. Its three tiny, unassuming rooms create a moving personal…

4. Navy Memorial & Naval Heritage Center

0.14 MILES

The hunched figure of the Lone Sailor, warding off the wind with his flipped-up pea coat, is an oft-overlooked memorial in the city. The sailor waits…

5. FDR Memorial Stone

0.14 MILES

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt didn’t want a grand monument like the one that's now on the Mall. Rather, he said if there was to be a memorial to him…

8. National Archives

0.2 MILES

It's hard not to feel a little in awe of the big three documents in the Archives: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights…