The Mall

The Capital Mall is a former open-area national park in Fallout 3. It is based on the real-life National Mall in downtown Washington D.C., except the one in Fallout 3 is much smaller and has different museums.

Background
In his 1791 plan for the future city of Washington, D.C., Pierre "Peter" Charles L'Enfant envisioned a garden-lined "grand avenue" approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) in length and 400 feet (120 m) wide, in an area that would lie between the Capitol building and an equestrian statue of George Washington to be placed directly south of the White House. The National Mall occupies the site of this planned "grand avenue", which was never constructed. The Washington Monument stands near the planned site of its namesake's equestrian statue. Mathew Carey's 1802 map is reported to be the first to name the area as "The Mall".

During the early 1850s, architect and horticulturist Andrew Jackson Downing designed a landscape plan for the Mall. Over the next half century, federal agencies developed several naturalistic parks within the Mall in accordance with Downing's plan. Two such areas were Henry Park and Seaton Park. In addition, railroad tracks crossed the Mall on 6th Street, west of the Capitol. Near the tracks, a large market (Central Market) and a railroad station rose on the north side of the Mall. Greenhouses belonging to the U.S. Botanic Garden appeared near the east end of the Mall.

In 1901 the McMillan Commission's plan, which was partially inspired by the City Beautiful Movement and which purportedly extended L'Enfant's plan, called for a radical redesign of the Mall that would replace its greenhouses, gardens, trees, and commercial/industrial facilities with an open space. The plan differed from L'Enfant's by replacing the 400 feet (120 m) wide "grand avenue" with a 300 feet (91 m) wide vista containing a long and broad expanse of grass. Four rows of American elm (Ulmus americana) trees planted fifty feet apart between two paths or streets would line each side of the vista. Buildings housing cultural and educational institutions constructed in the Beaux-Arts style would line each outer path or street, on the opposite side of the path or street from the elms. In subsequent years, the vision of the McMillan plan was generally followed with the planting of American elms and the layout of four boulevards down the Mall, two on either side of a wide lawn.

Two centuries after the war, the Mall is a bombed-out war zone occupied by super mutants. The park itself has been replaced by a series of trenches, fences and bunkers in fortified positions where the super mutants are entrenched. Crossing this part of the Mall will involve heavy combat, but the various Metro stations on each side of this zone offer a relatively safe passage.

Layout
The Brotherhood of Steel holds a defensive position around the Washington Monument in the center of the Mall, and Talon Company is taking the offense against super mutants to the west toward The Capitol Building.

The Reflecting Pool, found between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, is full of wrecked cars and shopping carts and its radiation is strong enough to reach a few feet away from the water.

The Mall is a key location in Fallout 3 that connects several important buildings and areas together. However, because of this, it has the second largest concentration of super mutants in the Capital Wasteland, first being Vault 87.

Points of interest

 * Museum of American History- Fawkes goes here when dismissed. Also a ghoulified Moira Brown goes here if you blow up Megaton
 * Museum of Technology
 * Lincoln Memorial
 * Washington Monument
 * National Archives
 * The Capitol Building
 * Mirelurk nesting hole
 * Super mutant bunker
 * Museum Authority Building - added with the Broken Steel add-on.

Notable loot

 * Duck and Cover! in the super mutant bunker.
 * Chinese Army: Special Ops Training Manual and Nuka-Cola Quantum in the mirelurk nesting hole.

Appearances
The Mall only appears in Fallout 3. It is also mentioned in the Fallout 4 PIP-Boy 3000 Mark IV video game Atomic Command.

Gallery
Concept art by Adam Adamowicz