Washington DC National Mall Mystery Hunt

The Washington DC National Mall Adventure Trivia Hunt

Directions: This hunt involves locations on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Read the quatrains (in strict iambic heptameter, as you'll see) below and use the Internet or other resources in the library to figure out what numbers A, B, C, D and E are. Then follow the directions in the last quatrain and use the Internet to find the secret code word. Take the code word to the librarian. If you're the first one with the correct code word, you win!

Quatrain #1:
This man, he saved the Union and his house is at the end;
His chair is just the place for your adventure to begin.
In twenty words and three we’re told the purpose of this place;
The number of lines there is coded “A” within your race.

Quatrain #2
This stretches up past all the rest, it’s pointy on the top
It honors he who in our Nation’s family was ‘Pop’;
How many flat planes form this symbol of our Nation’s best?
You call that number “B” and you’ll be ready for the rest.

Quatrain #3
The Home of Our Two Houses stands at one end of the strip;
To find a place that looks like that, to London you must trip.
How many are elected to the house that’s on the North?
That number’s final digit is the “C” as you go forth.

Quatrain #4
This wall of names, half-buried, tells a tale of loss and woe;
These men and women served and gave their lives some years ago;
The list of names is long; how many show upon that stone?
The total’s starting digit’s “D”; your code is nearly grown.

Quatrain #5
Around a pond go fifty states in this white cenotaph
Remembering a war in which the whole world stood in awe;
The year in which it ended in Japan, this is your clue:
That year’s first digit we call “E” and soon you will be through.

Quatrain #6
Now go to your web browser and get ready to put in
An address that will lead to a code word that is therein.
Three W’s, a dot, and then “ABCD” and “E”
A dot, “weebly.com," press <Enter> and the word you'll see.

You might try to solve it--or scroll down for an solution for each quatrain.
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Quatrain #1 Solution: The quatrain refers to Lincoln and his house is the Lincoln Memorial; there is a 24-word inscription behind the chair in which Lincoln sits (a very beautiful inscription, as a matter of fact). The inscription is arranged in 5 lines, and so A = 5.

Quatrain #2 Solution: This quatrain refers to the Washington Monument, which honors the “Father” (“Pop”) of our Nation”. There are eight flat planes that make up the monument: the four sides, and then four sides of the pyramid on the top. Therefore, B = 8.

Quatrain #3 Solution: This quatrain refers to the US Capitol, which includes two houses of the Legislative Branch: the House of Representatives and the Senate. The building’s cupola is patterned after St. Paul’s Cathedral, in London. The north end of the building houses the US Senate, and there are 100 elected senators, so C = 0.

Quatrain #4 Solution: This quatrain refers to the Vietnam Memorial, which is level to the ground on one side and could therefore be described as “half-buried.” There are 58,286 names as of July 2013; the first digit of that number is 5. Therefore, D = 5.

Quatrain #5 Solution: This quatrain refers to the World War II Memorial. Japan surrendered to the Allies in 1945. The first digit of that year is 1. Therefore, E = 1.

Quatrain #6 Solution: This quatrain directs you to construct the following web address--www.ABCDE.weebly.com--plugging in the numbers for A, B, C, D, and E. That produces www.58051.weebly.com, which leads to a web page that provides the prize word “cornflakes.” Cornflakes is the code word. When a kid brings that to the librarian, they get the prize and the hunt is over.