Representing 50 states (and the District of Columbia), 51 trees are spread across 30 acres of the United States National Arboretum in Northeast Washington, D.C. Comprising groups of each state’s official tree (or alternate species suited for the Mid-Atlantic climate), the National Grove of State Trees includes California redwoods, Wisconsin sugar maples, Virginia flowering dogwoods, and New Mexico pinyon pines.

Located on Constitution Avenue—700 miles east of the Midwest start of the route—the National Museum of American History houses a piece of the Mother Road in its permanent collection. Located on the first floor in the America on the Move transportation-focused exhibition, the speckled section of pavement hails from Bridgeport, Oklahoma, circa 1932.

The cathedral's 1970s “Scientists and Technicians” stained glass window, inspired by NASA photographs, includes a fingernail-sized, 7.18-gram basalt rock encased in a glass capsule. Brought back to Earth by Apollo 11 astronaut (and St. Albans alum) Michael Collins, the minuscule moon rock is nearly invisible from the ground floor; book a behind-the-scenes or stained glass tour to get a closer look.

Completed in the late 1890s, the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America was built to bring the Holy Land experience from the Middle East to the East Coast. The complex, located in the Northeast Washington, D.C., neighborhood Brookland, comprises several replica shrines and altars, surrounded by beautiful gardens.

The National Gallery of Art is an obvious place to find global art and artifacts. The sprawling museum, which occupies two separate buildings between Constitution Avenue NW and the Mall, isn’t exactly a hidden secret. But it’s still less crowded than museums with comparable world-class collections, including the Met in New York and the Louvre in Paris.