The National Aquarium, Washington, D.C., was an

aquarium An aquarium (plural: ''aquariums'' or ''aquaria'') is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aq ...

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

It was located in the Herbert C. Hoover Building (owned by the

General Services Administration The General Services Administration (GSA) is an independent agency of the United States government established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. GSA supplies products and communications for U.S. gover ...

), which is bounded by 14th Street NW on the east, 15th Street NW on the west, Pennsylvania Avenue NW on the north, and Constitution Avenue NW on the south.Directions
National Aquarium, Washington, D.C. It was the first free and public aquarium in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The National Aquarium in Washington, D.C. was smaller than its counterpart in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

— an also known as the National Aquarium, although independent until the two aquariums signed an alliance in 2003 — with the experience taking around 45 minutes. It closed on September 30, 2013, after 140 years, the longest continuously operating aquarium in the United States at the time.

History

The National Aquarium was established in 1873 in

Woods Hole, Massachusetts Woods Hole is a census-designated place in the town of Falmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. It lies at the extreme southwest corner of Cape Cod, near Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands. The population was 781 ...

under the auspices of the

United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries The United States Fish Commission, formally known as the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries, was an agency of the United States government created in 1871 to investigate, promote, and preserve the Fishery, fisheries of the United Stat ...

by Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries

Spencer Baird Spencer Fullerton Baird (; February 3, 1823 – August 19, 1887) was an American naturalist, ornithologist, ichthyologist, herpetologist, and museum curator. Baird was the first curator to be named at the Smithsonian Institution. He eventually ...

. It displayed 180 species of fish, reptiles, and other aquatic animals. In 1878, General

Orville E. Babcock Orville Elias Babcock (December 25, 1835 – June 2, 1884) was an American engineer and general in the Union Army during the Civil War. An aide to General Ulysses S. Grant during and after the war, he was President Grant's military private secret ...

, the Superintendent of Public Buildings and Grounds in Washington, D.C. suggested a public aquarium in D.C. As a result, Spencer Baird's Fish Commission was given of land. Because of this, the National Aquarium moved to the

Washington Monument The Washington Monument is an obelisk shaped building within the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate George Washington, once commander-in-chief of the Continental Army (1775–1784) in the American Revolutionary War and the ...

in 1878 and consisted of holding ponds known as "

Babcock Lakes The Babcock Lakes () were a series of water ponds formerly located near the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., before the area became the National Mall. In 1878, they were designated as fisheries by the United States Fish Commission, in an ...

."How and when did the Aquarium get its start?
" National Aquarium in Washington, D.C. During the 1880s, the aquarium moved again into a building called Central Station near the site of today's

National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened its main building on the Nat ...

so that it could better serve its main purpose of being a

hatching Hatching (french: hachure) is an artistic technique used to create tonal or shading effects by drawing (or painting or scribing) closely spaced parallel lines. (It is also used in monochromatic representations of heraldry to indicate what the ...

station for the Fish Commission. The Fish Commission was incorporated into the

Department of Commerce and Labor The United States Department of Commerce and Labor was a short-lived Cabinet department of the United States government, which was concerned with fostering and supervising big business. Origins and establishment Calls in the United States for ...

in 1903 and renamed the United States Bureau of Fisheries, and Secretary of Commerce and Labor George B. Cortelyou called for "...a national aquarium of such size and architectural excellence that it will be a credit to the nation." The Bureau of Fisheries became a part of the Department of Commerce in 1913, and when the Commerce Department building was completed in 1932, the National Aquarium moved to the lower level of the building. The Bureau of Fisheries moved to the Department of the Interior in 1939 and merged with the Interior Department's Bureau of Biological Survey (previously the Department of Agriculture's Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy, among other names) in 1940 to form the

Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...

, an agency of the Department of the Interior. Despite falling under the Department of the Interior, the National Aquarium remained in the Department of Commerce building. In 2003, the National Aquarium Society Board of Directors signed an alliance agreement with the Board of Directors of the National Aquarium in Baltimore, enabling the two aquariums to work together to strengthen the animal collection and educational impact of the aquarium.

Relationship with the National Aquarium in Baltimore

The National Aquarium is a separate aquarium in

. Founded in 1981, it was originally distinct from the Washington aquarium. Both used the title "National Aquarium;" the National Aquarium in Washington, D.C., was older, while the National Aquarium in Baltimore is larger. Like its Washington counterpart, the National Aquarium in Baltimore is not managed or funded by the federal government, despite the official-sounding names. Neither aquarium is or was part of the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

. On September 4, 2003, the National Aquarium Society and the Board of Governors for the National Aquarium in Baltimore announced an alliance, in which the National Aquarium in Baltimore would operate the D.C. aquarium. A signing ceremony hosted by Secretary of Commerce

Donald Evans Donald Louis Evans (born July 27, 1946) is an American businessman. He was the 34th U.S. Secretary of Commerce. He was appointed by his longtime friend George W. Bush and sworn into office on January 20, 2001. On November 9, 2004, the White Hou ...

was held at the Commerce Department building.

Collection

The National Aquarium, Washington, D.C., had a collection of over 1,500

specimen Specimen may refer to: Science and technology * Sample (material), a limited quantity of something which is intended to be similar to and represent a larger amount * Biological specimen or biospecimen, an organic specimen held by a biorepository ...

s and 250

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

.How many animals make up the Aquarium's collection?
" National Aquarium in Washington, D.C.

Animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Kingdom (biology), biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals Heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, are Motilit ...

s in exhibits included longsnout seahorse,

leopard shark The leopard shark (''Triakis semifasciata'') is a species of houndshark, in the family Triakidae. It is found along the Pacific coast of North America, from the U.S. state of Oregon to Mazatlán in Mexico. Typically measuring 1.2–1.5 m (3.9� ...

longnose gar The longnose gar (''Lepisosteus osseus''), also known as longnose garpike or billy gar, is a ray-finned fish in the family Lepisosteidae. The genus may have been present in North America for about 100 million years. References are made to gar ...

bonytail chub The bonytail chub or bonytail (''Gila elegans'') is a cyprinid freshwater fish native to the Colorado River basin of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming in the southwestern United States; it has been extirpated fro ...

giant Pacific octopus The giant Pacific octopus (''Enteroctopus dofleini''), also known as the North Pacific giant octopus, is a large marine cephalopod belonging to the genus ''Enteroctopus''. Its spatial distribution includes the coastal North Pacific, along Mexico ...

, chambered nautilus,

tiger salamander The tiger salamander (''Ambystoma tigrinum'') is a species of mole salamander and one of the largest terrestrial salamanders in North America. Description These salamanders usually grow to a length of with a lifespan of around 12–15 years. ...

eastern hellbender The hellbender (''Cryptobranchus alleganiensis''), also known as the hellbender salamander, is a species of aquatic giant salamander endemic to the eastern and central United States. It is the largest salamander in North America. A member of the ...

American alligator The American alligator (''Alligator mississippiensis''), sometimes referred to colloquially as a gator or common alligator, is a large crocodilian reptile native to the Southeastern United States. It is one of the two extant species in the gen ...

loggerhead sea turtle The loggerhead sea turtle (''Caretta caretta'') is a species of oceanic turtle distributed throughout the world. It is a marine reptile, belonging to the family Cheloniidae. The average loggerhead measures around in carapace length when fully ...

red lionfish The red lionfish (''Pterois volitans'') is a venomous coral reef fish in the family Scorpaenidae, order Scorpaeniformes. It is mainly native to the Indo-Pacific region, but has become an invasive species in the Caribbean Sea, as well as along the ...

, and snakehead,Animals
" National Aquarium in Washington, D.C. as well as

piranha A piranha or piraña (, , or ; or , ) is one of a number of freshwater fish in the family Serrasalmidae, or the subfamily Serrasalminae within the tetra family, Characidae in order Characiformes. These fish inhabit South American rivers, fl ...

eel Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

, and Japanese carp.Hours
" National Aquarium in Washington, D.C.

National Marine Sanctuaries and National Parks Gallery

The

National Marine Sanctuaries A U.S. National Marine Sanctuary is a zone within United States waters where the marine environment enjoys special protection. The program began in 1972 in response to public concern about the plight of marine ecosystems. A U.S. National Marine ...

and

National Parks A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individua ...

Gallery featured the animals and habitats preserved and protected by America's National Marine Sanctuaries Program. This gallery included exhibits for the

Florida Everglades The Everglades is a natural region of tropical wetlands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large drainage basin within the Neotropical realm. The system begins near Orlando with the Kissimm ...

Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary The Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary is a sanctuary off the Pacific coast of Southern California. The National Marine Sanctuary program is under the administration of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Established ...

Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary is a marine sanctuary located off the coast of California. It protects an area of of marine wildlife. The administrative center of the sanctuary is on an offshore granite outcrop by , located on the con ...

, Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuary,

Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary is a U.S. National Marine Sanctuary in the Florida Keys. It includes the Florida Reef, the only barrier coral reef in North America and the third-largest coral barrier reef in the world. It also has ...

Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary The Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS) is a United States National Marine Sanctuary located offshore of Galveston, Texas, in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. It contains the northernmost coral reefs in the United States. Und ...

, and

Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary is one of the largest near shore live-bottom reefs in the southeastern United States. The sanctuary, designated in January 1981, is located off Sapelo Island, Georgia, and is one of 14 marine sanctuaries and m ...

. Featured animals included: *

* Anemones *

Chain catshark The chain catshark or chain dogfish (''Scyliorhinus retifer'') is a small, reticulated catshark that is biofluorescent. The species is common in the Northwest Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. It is harmless and rarely encountered by human ...

* Chambered nautilus *

Giant Pacific octopus The giant Pacific octopus (''Enteroctopus dofleini''), also known as the North Pacific giant octopus, is a large marine cephalopod belonging to the genus ''Enteroctopus''. Its spatial distribution includes the coastal North Pacific, along Mexico ...

* Guineafowl puffer *

Horn shark The horn shark (''Heterodontus francisci'') is a species of bullhead shark, in the family Heterodontidae. It is endemic to the coastal waters off the western coast of North America, from California to the Gulf of California. Young sharks are seg ...

Leopard shark The leopard shark (''Triakis semifasciata'') is a species of houndshark, in the family Triakidae. It is found along the Pacific coast of North America, from the U.S. state of Oregon to Mazatlán in Mexico. Typically measuring 1.2–1.5 m (3.9� ...

Swell shark The swell shark (''Cephaloscyllium ventriosum'') is a catshark in the family Scyliorhinidae. It is found in the tropical and subtropical eastern Pacific Ocean from between central California to southern Mexico, with an additional population off ...

* Longsnout seahorse *

Red lionfish The red lionfish (''Pterois volitans'') is a venomous coral reef fish in the family Scorpaenidae, order Scorpaeniformes. It is mainly native to the Indo-Pacific region, but has become an invasive species in the Caribbean Sea, as well as along the ...

Scarlet kingsnake The scarlet kingsnake or scarlet milk snake (''Lampropeltis elapsoides'') is a species of kingsnake found in the southeastern and eastern portions of the United States. Like all kingsnakes, they are nonvenomous. They are found in pine flatwoods, ...

America's Freshwater Ecosystems Gallery

The gallery highlighted American rivers including the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio G ...

, the

Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augus ...

, the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...

, and the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

. Featured animals included: * Common snapping turtle *

Longnose gar The longnose gar (''Lepisosteus osseus''), also known as longnose garpike or billy gar, is a ray-finned fish in the family Lepisosteidae. The genus may have been present in North America for about 100 million years. References are made to gar ...

Northern snakehead The northern snakehead (''Channa argus'') is a species of snakehead fish native to China, Russia, North Korea, and South Korea, ranging from the Amur River to Hainan. It has been introduced to other regions, where it is considered invasive. In ...

* American eel *

Razorback sucker The razorback sucker (''Xyrauchen texanus'') is a suckerfish found in rivers and lakes in the southwestern United States. It can grow to in length and is recognisable by the keel between its head and dorsal fin. It used to inhabit much of the C ...

Amphibians Gallery

This gallery showcased

salamander Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All ten ...

newt A newt is a salamander in the subfamily Pleurodelinae. The terrestrial juvenile phase is called an eft. Unlike other members of the family Salamandridae, newts are semiaquatic, alternating between aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Not all aqua ...

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...

s, and

toad Toad is a common name for certain frogs, especially of the family Bufonidae, that are characterized by dry, leathery skin, short legs, and large bumps covering the parotoid glands. A distinction between frogs and toads is not made in scientif ...

s to display their adaptations and

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

. Featured animals included: *

Eastern newt The eastern newt (''Notophthalmus viridescens'') is a common newt of eastern North America. It frequents small lakes, ponds, and streams or nearby wet forests. The eastern newt produces tetrodotoxin, which makes the species unpalatable to predat ...

* Barking tree frog (''

Hyla gratiosa ''Dryophytes gratiosus'', commonly known as the barking tree frog, is a species of tree frog endemic to the south-eastern United States. Geographic range It is found from Delaware to southern Florida and eastern Louisiana, usually in coastal a ...

'') * Yellow-banded poison dart frog * Blue-bellied poison frog *

Spotted salamander The spotted salamander or yellow-spotted salamander (''Ambystoma maculatum'') is a mole salamander common in eastern United States and Canada. The spotted salamander is the state amphibian of Ohio and South Carolina. This salamander ranges from N ...

American toad The American toad (''Anaxyrus americanus'') is a common species of toad found throughout Canada and the eastern United States. It is divided into three subspecies: the eastern American toad (''A. a. americanus''), the dwarf American toad (''A. a ...

Amazon River Basin Gallery

The

Amazon River The Amazon River (, ; es, Río Amazonas, pt, Rio Amazonas) in South America is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, and the disputed longest river system in the world in comparison to the Nile. The headwaters of t ...

and

Amazon basin The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivi ...

support some of the most diverse life on the planet. Featured animals included: *

Red-bellied piranha The red-bellied piranha, also known as the red piranha (''Pygocentrus nattereri''), is a type of piranha native to South America, found in the Amazon, Paraguay, Paraná and Essequibo basins, as well as coastal rivers of northeastern Brazil.

Silver arowana The silver arowana (''Osteoglossum bicirrhosum'') is a South American freshwater bony fish of the family Osteoglossidae. Silver arowanas are sometimes kept in aquariums, but they are predatory and require a very large tank. The generic name ' ...

Blue poison dart frog The blue poison dart frog or blue poison arrow frog (''Dendrobates tinctorius "azureus"'') is a poison dart frog found in the forests surrounded by the Sipaliwini Savanna, which is located in southern Suriname (known in Surinamese Dutch and adja ...

Electric eel The electric eels are a genus, ''Electrophorus'', of neotropical freshwater fish from South America in the family Gymnotidae. They are known for their ability to stun their prey by generating electricity, delivering shocks at up to 860 volt ...

Emerald tree boa The emerald tree boa (''Corallus caninus'')Mehrtens JM. 1987. ''Living Snakes of the World in Color''. New York: Sterling Publishers. 480 pp. . is a boa species found in the rainforests of South America. Since 2009 the species ''Corallus batesii ...

Closure

The aquarium closed on September 30, 2013, having permanently lost its location due to a renovation of the Herbert C. Hoover Building. When it closed, it was the longest continuously operating aquarium in the United States. Approximately 1,700 fish and other specimens from its collection were moved to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Officials of the aquarium considered ways of re-opening it at another location in Washington, D.C., but they eventually abandoned such plans.

References

External links

* * {{authority control Aquaria in Washington, D.C. Museums established in 1873 1873 establishments in Massachusetts United States Department of Commerce Defunct aquaria Museums disestablished in 2013 2013 disestablishments in Washington, D.C.