America turned 250 this year, and the party isn’t over. From Boston to St. Louis, cities across the country are marking the semiquincentennial with new exhibits, reopened landmarks and a whole lot of flag bunting. The good news for Columbus: you don’t need a connection to get to most of it.
Here are six places worth the trip if you want to see where American history actually happened, all reachable nonstop from CMH.
Boston: where the revolution started
Fly nonstop: 5-6x daily with American Airlines and Delta Air Lines
Boston doesn’t do subtlety when it comes to history. The Freedom Trail is a literal red line painted through downtown connecting 16 historic sites, so getting lost is not an option. Walk it to Bunker Hill Monument, tour the Paul Revere House, or climb aboard the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum for a reenactment that’s more fun than it has any right to be. The USS Constitution, still a commissioned Navy ship, is docked nearby and open for tours.
Philadelphia: the birthplace, literally
Fly nonstop: 5-6x daily with American Airlines
This is where it all got signed. Independence Hall is where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were both debated and adopted, and the Liberty Bell sits right across the street. The Museum of the American Revolution goes deep on the fight that made the paperwork necessary, and the Betsy Ross House covers the flag that started it. Philadelphia has been leaning hard into its 250th moment this year, with new exhibits and long-shuttered sites reopening to the public, so there’s more to see than the postcard version.
Washington, DC: the whole story under one roof (or several)
Fly nonstop: DCA – 5-6x daily with American Airlines and Southwest Airlines; IAD – 4x daily with United Airlines
DC has two airports and roughly a hundred ways to spend a week. Start at the National Archives, where the actual Declaration of Independence is on display. Walk the National Mall past the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial, then pick a Smithsonian museum (or four, they’re free) to round things out. If you only have a weekend, the Mall alone will fill it.
Norfolk: your gateway to the Historic Triangle
Fly nonstop: 2x weekly with Breeze Airways
Norfolk is the quiet way in to one of the most concentrated doses of early American history anywhere in the country. A short drive gets you to Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown, collectively known as the Historic Triangle, covering the first permanent English settlement, colonial life before the revolution, and the battle that ended it. Three sites, one trip, no reenactor left unvisited.
New York City: liberty, loss and everything in between
Fly nonstop: JFK – 4x daily with American Airlines and Delta Air Lines; LGA – 9-10x daily with American Airlines and Delta Air Lines; EWR – 5-6x daily with United Airlines
New York has three airports, so getting there is rarely the hard part. The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island tell the story of who got to become American and how. Federal Hall marks the site of George Washington’s first inauguration. And the 9/11 Memorial & Museum covers a more recent chapter of the same ongoing story, one about what Americans do when it counts.
St. Louis: the gateway to everywhere else
Fly nonstop: 2x daily with Southwest
The Gateway Arch is exactly what it sounds like: a 630-foot monument to westward expansion, complete with a tram ride to the top for anyone who wants the view to match the history lesson. Next door, the Old Courthouse is where the Dred Scott case began, a case that pushed the country closer to reckoning with what “all men are created equal” actually meant. St. Louis earns its nickname honestly.
America’s 250th runs through the rest of the year, and from Columbus, most of it is a nonstop flight away. Check our 55+ nonstop destinations at flycolumbus.com.