Alexander Graham Bell

Washington, DC

In the spring of 1880, Alexander Graham Bell and his assistant Charles Sumner Tainter were experimenting in Washington with the "photophone," a device that transmitted sound on a beam of light rather than a wire. On June 3, 1880, they sent an intelligible voice message between two Washington rooftops, a feat Bell himself considered his greatest invention. This marker stands at the building from which that wireless transmission was launched toward 1325 L Street.

Anne Arundel County, MD

This monument marks one hundred years of the United States Navy's submarine service, a force that began at the dawn of the twentieth century when the Navy acquired its first commissioned submarine and grew into one of the most demanding and secretive branches of American sea power. From primitive early boats to the nuclear fleet of the Cold War and after, submariners have carried out their duty largely unseen, enduring cramped quarters, crushing depths, and long silent patrols. Standing in Maryland near the heart of Navy tradition, the memorial deliberately widens its dedication beyond the sailors themselves to the families who wait ashore and the support personnel who keep the boats at sea.

Charles County, MD

On a small island in the Potomac in December 1900, Reginald Fessenden and his assistant Frank Very did something no one had done before: they sent understandable human speech through the air on radio waves, from one tall mast to another. Until that moment wireless meant only the dots and dashes of Morse code; here, the spoken word itself first traveled without wires. It was the quiet beginning of everything from broadcast radio to the mobile phone.

Washington, DC

The Mayflower Hotel opened in 1925 on Connecticut Avenue and immediately became a hub of Washington's political and social life, hosting Calvin Coolidge's inaugural ball as its first major event. Over the decades it entertained every president who followed and served as an in-town residence for vice presidents, cabinet members, Supreme Court justices, and members of Congress. Its Beaux-Arts grandeur earned it a place on the National Register of Historic Places.