Washington National Cathedral is a proper Gothic cathedral built in the medieval manner — with stone-on-stone construction, flying buttresses, and hand-carved gargoyles that include a Darth Vader figure on the northwest tower. Construction took 83 years, from 1907 to 1990. It is the sixth-largest cathedral in the world and the second-largest in the United States.
The cathedral serves as the venue for national funerals and memorial services — Reagan, Ford, and Bush Sr. were all honoured here. The nave is 300 feet long and the central tower 301 feet high. The gardens surrounding the cathedral are peaceful and little-visited; the Bishop's Garden on the south side has a formal rose garden and medieval herb beds. Admission is charged for most of the interior; the nave is free for a short daily period.