Audio Tours

Let the voices and music of artists, clergy, choirs and instruments offer you a personal, guided self–paced tour of this national house of prayer for all people. This tour offers a unique experience for the Cathedral, introducing visitors not only to architectural and artistic highlights, but also to Cathedral personalities.

The full presentation lasts approximately one hour and fifteen minutes, but visitors may proceed at their own pace, and stations can be repeated—or skipped—at will.

Audio tour rentals are generally available Monday–Friday 10 am–4 pm, Saturday 10 am–3 pm, and Sunday 12:30 pm–3 pm. Please understand that tours will not be available when there are special services and events taking place in the nave. The cost is $5, and proceeds support Cathedral programs and ministry.

Audio tour devices are available from staff aides at the docent station at the west end of the nave, just inside the main doors. At the conclusion of the tour, the audio unit should be returned to the Museum Store on the lower level. After 5 pm, and in cases of visitors with limited mobility, the unit may be returned to the west end docent station until 5:30 pm on weekdays.

On the tour you can hear:

• The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as he gave the last Sunday sermon of his life
• Vincent Palumbo, former Cathedral Master Stone Carver
• Rowan LeCompte, creator of the renowned west rose window
• Former Cathedral organist Douglas Major describing the great organ and the sounds of its 10,650 pipes
• The Cathedral Choirs

The audio tour was produced by Antenna Audio.

For additional information, e-mail tours@cathedral.org or call (202) 537–5628.

“We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be.”
— The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking from the Canterbury Pulpit at Washington National Cathedral, Palm Sunday, 1968, as heard on the audio tour.