WASHINGTON — Any idiot can visit the Lincoln Memorial, and on a recent evening there, it seemed like every idiot was. Someone had apparently put out word that every youth group and high school class visiting the nation's capital should descend simultaneously on Lincoln's marble monument and chatter loudly and take each other's picture.

I was on the verge of getting into crotchety-old-man mode ("Darn kids not showing any respect grumble, grumble") when I realized that at least they were hanging out at this grand, impressive place that resonates with history as opposed to staying home and blowing off their homework to watch "American Idol."

Courtesy of the Washington Convention & Visitor's Bureau (ENLARGE)
The U.S. Capitol dominates this nighttime view. Many of the monuments in Washington are dramatically lit at night.
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IF YOU GO Getting there • Delta Air Lines, AirTran Airways, Northwest Airlines and USAirways fly to Washington; round-trip fares are about $200. • Monuments by Moonlight The 2 1/2-hour tour of Washington departs at 7:30 nightly from Union Station, 50 Massachusetts Ave. NE. $25.20 per adult, $12.60 per child (4-11). Reservations: 202-832-9800; Web site Information • Washington, D.C., Convention and Tourism Corp.: www.washington.org

So our little group of about 30 left Mr. Lincoln to continue his stone vigil and piled back into our green trolley for more of the "Monuments by Moonlight Tour."

By day, Washington can be a swelter of too many tourists and too much humidity, particularly in the summer; the "Moonlight" tour allows plenty of sitting on open-air trolleys (ahh, cool breeze) to see many of the spectacularly illuminated monuments at their most impressive. It passes, and/or stops at, memorials to Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, FDR, the Vietnam war, World War II and Iwo Jima, and has plentiful views of the Capitol, the Kennedy Center, the Tidal Basin and more.

Our guide was Brian Syfert, nicknamed "The Brain," which he pointed out at the beginning was not due to his amazing IQ but because when he joined the company, his first nametag was misspelled — "Brain" instead of "Brian." ("A testament to quality control," he joked.)

We took off from Union Station (which is worth considering for dinner) at dusk for the 2 1/2-hour tour, and Syfert started in right away, pointing out the large Roman statues on the facade facing Columbus Circle. When the train station was built in 1907, the statues were both nude and anatomically correct, and the public was not pleased. Strategically placed shields were soon added.

It's that kind of off-beat detail that a good tour guide can deliver, and Syfert keeps it up throughout, whether whimsical (J. Edgar Hoover wanting to classify "It's a Wonderful Life" as a subversive film as we passed the FBI Building) to deeply moving (the story of Marine Desmond Doss, a Medal of Honor winner, when we visited the Iwo Jima Memorial).

Many of the monuments are like beacons, dramatically lit. Others are tucked away and not as prevalent in the postcard racks, like the FDR Memorial, which is a series of statues, waterfalls and tributes laid out on beautiful grounds next to the Tidal Basin. (The tour stops for 30 minutes of exploration.)

There's no guarantee you'll get Syfert; during peak season in the summer, Old Town Trolley Tours (which also does daylight tours) runs six to eight trolleys for the Moonlight outing. But the visuals, and the history, will be there no matter who is telling their story.