The Lincoln Memorial after dark
The night visit is the free one
The National Park Service says the National Mall sites may be visited 24 hours a day, and the Lincoln Memorial is one of them. There is no gate, no closing time and no admission charge. You can climb the steps at three in the morning and stand in front of the statue, and nobody will sell you anything on the way in. Among American monuments of this size that is unusual enough to be worth saying twice.
What changes after dark is the staffing rather than the access. Rangers are on duty from 9:30 a.m. until 10 p.m. daily, answering questions and running programmes. After ten the memorial is still open and still yours, but the person who would have explained the Second Inaugural to you has gone home. The operators who sell an evening tour of the Mall are, in effect, selling a guide for the hours when the Park Service no longer supplies one. Half of those booking pages lead on the same image: the memorials under floodlight.
The two inscribed side walls are easier to read at night than on a bright afternoon, because the light in the chamber is even rather than blazing in behind you off the Reflecting Pool. If you have come to read the speeches rather than photograph the statue, come late.
What is open, and what has already shut
Two different clocks run at this address, and mixing them up is the source of most of the confusion. Here they are together.
| Opens | Closes | Ticket | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The memorial: steps, chamber, statue, inscriptions | — | Never, open 24 hours | None, ever |
| Rangers on duty | 9:30 a.m. | 10:00 p.m. | Not applicable |
| Undercroft museum, March to October | 9:00 a.m. | 9:00 p.m. | Timed entry required |
| Undercroft museum, November to February | 9:00 a.m. | 8:00 p.m. | Timed entry required |
Last entry to the undercroft is one hour before closing, and visitors may stay a maximum of two hours before closing time. So a genuinely late visit is the memorial, the steps and the inscriptions, and not the museum. If the undercroft is the reason you are coming, it is a daytime or early-evening plan: the undercroft page has the mechanics, and opening hours has the full timetable.
The best-reviewed tours run after dark
This is the strongest genuine argument for booking anything here at all, and it is a statistical argument rather than a romantic one. The most-reviewed product in the catalogue runs only after dark. The second most-reviewed offers a night departure. Between them they hold more reviews than the whole of the rest of the catalogue, and none of the night products includes the undercroft, because the undercroft is shut by then.
| Tour | Undercroft | Rating | Length | From | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monuments by Moonlight Nighttime Trolley Tour Trolley, night | No | 4.6 · 1,599 reviews | 2.5 hrs | $60 | Check → |
| DC Monuments & History Electric Cart Tour, Day or Night Electric cart, day or night | No | 4.7 · 1,339 reviews | 2 hrs | $54 | Check → |
| Day & Night Guided Monuments Tour by E-Cart Electric cart, day or night | No | 4.8 · 137 reviews | 2 hrs | $48 | Check → |
| Monuments & Memorials National Mall Sunset Walking Tour On foot, sunset | No | 4.9 · 69 reviews | 2 hrs | $44 | Check → |
| Night Tour of Monuments and Memorials Minibus, night | No | 4.6 · 5 reviews | 3 hrs | $62 | Check → |
| Monuments & Memorials Night Walking Tour On foot, night | No | 5.0 · 5 reviews | 2 hrs | $40 | Check → |
| Washington DC Monuments: Walking Tour at Sunset On foot, sunset | No | 5.0 · 1 review | 2.5 hrs | $75 | Check → |
| Twilight Memorials Tour Private van, twilight | No | No reviews yet | 3 hrs | $201 | Check → |
The reviewers say much the same thing in different words. Dawn, on the trolley tour: “the monuments are beautiful lit up at night.” Jonathan, on the electric cart tour: “I recommend the night tour because it’s amazing to see them all lit up.” Sade, on the sunset walk: “It was a unique way to see the national mall at dusk / night.” All three of those products carry review counts in the dozens or the thousands, so none of them is a lone voice.
Most reviewedMonuments by Moonlight Nighttime Trolley Tour
Small groupDC Monuments & History Electric Cart Tour, Day or Night
After darkMonuments & Memorials Night Walking Tour
How the night tours differ
Wheels or feet, and how far from the memorial you are willing to start. The walking tours meet on or beside the Mall; the trolley and the carts meet downtown and drive you in.
| Monuments & Memorials Night Walking Tour | Most reviewedMonuments by Moonlight Nighttime Trolley Tour | Day & Night Guided Monuments Tour by E-Cart | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $40 | $60 | $48 |
| What it is | On foot, night | Trolley, night | Electric cart, day or night |
| Length | 2 hrs | 2.5 hrs | 2 hrs |
| Rating | 5.0 · 5 reviews | 4.6 · 1,599 reviews | 4.8 · 137 reviews |
| Undercroft | No | No | No |
| Meets at | Henry Bacon Dr NW, beside the memorial | Varies by option | 444 E St NW, downtown |
| Group | Max 10 guests, on foot | Trolley, three stops | Open-air cart, guide on board |
| View → | Book this → | View → |
If you want the museum as well as the night
One product does both, in the only order the clock allows. It is a guided evening walk of the Mall taking in the World War II, Korean War Veterans, Martin Luther King Jr. and Lincoln memorials, and it ends by handing you timed undercroft tickets for a self-guided visit. The operator asks you to keep an extra 30 minutes to an hour free afterwards, describes the route as flat and fully accessible, and caps the group at ten to twelve guests per guide. It has no reviews yet, which is what you would expect of a product built around a museum that opened in June.
Because the undercroft closes at 9 p.m. in summer and 8 p.m. in winter, this is an early evening rather than a late one. Read that as a feature: you get the memorials at dusk and the museum before it shuts, instead of choosing between them.
Guide + undercroftNational Mall Evening Tour with Lincoln Undercroft Tickets
On footMonuments & Memorials National Mall Sunset Walking Tour
PrivateTwilight Memorials Tour
Getting there and back at night
No Metro station is close. The Park Service puts Foggy Bottom–GWU at about 0.8 miles from the memorial and Smithsonian at about 1.2 miles, so a self-guided evening means that walk in both directions. Street parking is metered on Ohio Drive SW between the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials with a two-hour maximum, enforced by ticketing and towing, and there are seven accessible spaces on Daniel Chester French Drive just south of the memorial, also two-hour. Bikes and scooters can be parked nearby but may not be ridden inside the memorial. Getting there has the detail, and step-free access covers the elevator, which reaches the same chamber as the steps.
What works
- Free, with no ticket and no closing time
- Rangers on duty until 10 p.m., so early evening still has staff
- The best-reviewed tours in the catalogue run after dark
- The inscriptions read more easily in even light
Worth knowing
- The undercroft museum is shut by 9 p.m. in summer and 8 p.m. in winter
- After 10 p.m. there is nobody to ask
- The nearest Metro is roughly a mile away, each way
- Parking near the memorial is capped at two hours and enforced
Can’t make these dates?
Browse more available Lincoln Memorial tour and find one that fits your schedule — all with instant confirmation and free cancellation.
Related: every tour compared, what a guided tour costs, the best time of day to go, and what to look at once you are inside.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Lincoln Memorial open at night?
Yes. The National Park Service lists the National Mall sites, the Lincoln Memorial among them, as open 24 hours a day. There is no ticket and no admission charge at any hour. Rangers are on duty from 9:30 a.m. until 10 p.m.
Can I visit the undercroft museum at night?
Not late at night. The undercroft is open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. from March to October and 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. from November to February, with last entry one hour before closing. An after-dark visit gives you the memorial itself rather than the museum.
Is a night tour of the DC monuments worth booking?
The evidence behind it is unusually good. The most-reviewed product in this catalogue runs only at night and the second most-reviewed offers a night departure, and between them they hold thousands of reviews. What you are buying is a guide for the hours after the rangers finish, plus not having to cross the Mall on foot in the dark.
Do any night tours include the Lincoln Memorial undercroft?
One does, and it is an evening rather than a late-night tour: a guided walk of the Mall that ends by handing you timed undercroft tickets for a self-guided visit. The operator asks you to allow an extra 30 minutes to an hour. Every other night product in the catalogue visits the memorial only.
How do I get to the Lincoln Memorial in the evening?
No Metro station is close to it. Foggy Bottom-GWU is about 0.8 miles away and Smithsonian about 1.2 miles, according to the Park Service. Metered street parking on Ohio Drive SW is capped at two hours and enforced by ticketing and towing.