National Aquarium in Washington, D.C.
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Entry sign for the National Aquarium in Washington, DC, which was located on the lower level of the Department of Commerce Building
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| Date opened | 1873 |
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| Date closed | 2013 |
| Location |
Herbert C. Hoover Building Washington D.C., United States |
| Coordinates | 38°53′37″N 77°01′58″W / 38.8936°N 77.0328°WCoordinates: 38°53′37″N 77°01′58″W / 38.8936°N 77.0328°W |
| No. of species | 250 |
| Memberships | AZA |
| Website | www |
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 Closing America's Oldest Public Aquarium, National Geographic
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The National Aquarium, Washington, D.C., was an aquarium in Washington D.C. It was located in the Herbert C. Hoover Building (owned by the General Services Administration), 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.
Although the National Aquarium in Washington, D.C. was smaller than its Baltimore counterpart, with the experience taking around 45 minutes, it was the nation's first free and public aquarium. It closed on September 30, 2013, after 140 years.
The National Aquarium was established in 1873 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts under the auspices of the Federal Fish Commission by Commissioner Spencer Baird. It displayed 180 species of fish, reptiles, and other aquatic animals. In 1878, General Orville E. Babcock, 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 20 acres of land. Because of this, the National Aquarium moved to the Washington Monument in 1878 and consisted of holding ponds known as "Babcock Lakes." During the 1880s, the aquarium moved again into a building called Central Station near the site of today's National Air and Space Museum so that it could better serve its main purpose of being an hatching station for the Fish Commission.
The Fish Commission was incorporated into the Department of Commerce in 1903 and renamed the Bureau of Fisheries. When the Commerce Department building was completed in 1932, the National Aquarium moved to the lower level of the building after 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 merged with the Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy (later the Bureau of Biological Survey) in 1940 to form the Fish and Wildlife Service, an agency of the Department of the Interior. The National Aquarium remained based in the Department of Commerce building, where it remains today. It was the longest continuously operating aquarium in the United States.
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