page_title: Washington D.C. Temple
section_title: Location
hierarchical_section_title: Washington D.C. Temple / Location
caption_attribution_description: English: The Washington D.C. Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, photographed from Interstate 495.
context_page_description: The Washington D.C. Temple is the 18th constructed and 16th operating temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is located in Kensington, Maryland, United States, just north of Washington, D.C., near the Capital Beltway. The temple was dedicated in 1974 after an open house that attracted over 750,000 people, including several international dignitaries. The temple was the first temple built by the church east of the Mississippi River since 1846, when the original Nauvoo Temple was dedicated.
  Built at a cost of about $15 million in 1968, the temple is the church's tallest; its easternmost spire is 288 feet tall. Its floor area of 160,000 square feet is the third-largest among church temples. Its design emulates the Salt Lake Temple with six spires, three on each end, and the building is encased in white Alabama marble. It also has a visitors' center. The architecture and highly visible location of the temple along the Capital Beltway has made the temple a local landmark in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area.
context_section_description: The temple is located in suburban Kensington, Maryland, north of Washington, D.C. It is accessible mainly from the Capital Beltway (Interstate 495) exit 33, but also via the Red Line of the Washington Metro through a limited free shuttle service to and from the Forest Glen station. The look and white color of the Washington D.C. Temple, coupled with its location near the Capital Beltway has made it a local landmark. D.C.-area traffic reports often refer to the "Mormon temple" or "the temple".
  Sometime after the temple was constructed, an unknown person painted "Surrender Dorothy" on the girders of a railroad bridge that crosses the Beltway; to drivers approaching the temple from the east, the words appeared like a caption under the building. The Maryland State Police removed the message, which has been repainted from time to time. Church newsletters have cited the graffiti as an example of misconceptions about their religion, although local members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints generally find the re-appearing inscription amusing rather than offensive.
caption: Temple as seen from the Outer Loop of the Capital Beltway
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