Road trip along John Wilkes Booth's escape route
By JESS MOSS
History buffs -- this one's for you. To mark the 150th anniversary of President Lincoln's assassination by John Wilkes Booth, you can take a road trip following Booth's historic escape route out of Washington D.C. through Maryland and into Virginia.
After shooting President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth leaped from the balcony at Ford's Theatre and escaped the city. He stopped at a few houses and hid out in swamps, woods and a barn to avoid capture. He was eventually caught -- and killed -- twelve days later in Virginia.
The historic 66-mile escape route he took is now marked with signs along local highways. You can visit some of the homes Booth stopped at, and there are museums and informational markers about the Civil War era along the way.
For highlights of what you'll see along the road trip, click through the slides above. The full route is available here.
Lincoln sites in D.C.
Before you hit the road, you might want to check out some of the many Lincoln-centric spots around Washington. There's the Lincoln Memorial, of course, plus his summer cottage (now a national monument). His iconic top hat now lives at the National Museum of American History, and the Willard has a hotel bill for Honest Abe's for his pre-White House stay on display. Hungry after all this? Lincoln, the restaurant, has seasonal small plates and a floor covered in pennies.
Related video: Commemorating the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's assassination
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