It also opens on the wide grass yards of the National Academy of Sciences. N.W. The nearest Metro rail subway stop is Foggy Bottom-George Washington University, about five blocks away. Spaces at the streetside parking meters are hard to come by during the day. Back to top Theodore Roosevelt Island One way to get off the regular tourist track for a few hours is to visit Theodore Roosevelt Island, a nature preserve off the Virginia shore of the Potomac. It is crisscrossed with paths and walkways.
Useful signs describe the flora, fauna and history of the place.
Wooden walkways traverse the marshy flats here on the east side of the island, which has a fine view of the D.C. shore, bounded by the Francis Scott Key Bridge into Georgetown and the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge onto Constitution Avenue. Between the bridges is the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The roomy memorial to Roosevelt in the center of the island is a fine, protected spot for a picnic. The footbridge to Theodore Roosevelt Island is accessible by car from the northbound lanes of the George Washington Memorial Parkway, on the Viginia shore of the Potomac. A parking lot convenient to the island is several hundred yards north of the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge.