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George Washington Masonic National Memorial

Rarely do you find a location that has enough notoriety to make it into a Dan Brown book yet doubles as a popular sledding spot for children. The Memorial, rising 333 feet high in a neoclassical tiered pyramid atop Shooter’s Hill, was built in 1922 to commemorate George Washington’s membership to the Masonic Lodge in Fredericksburg. The memorial is designed to appear as a lighthouse watching over D.C. and is currently a favorite venue of the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra and the Virginia Bronze Handbell Ensemble; both offer free concerts there throughout the year. –LW / gwmemorial.org

(August 2015)