JFK & Dealey Plaza

On a clear Friday at lunchtime in November 1963, the motorcade of President John F. Kennedy rolled down Elm Street through Dealey Plaza, and in a matter of seconds the place became one of the most studied patches of ground on earth. This loop walks the plaza and the blocks just around it: the brick warehouse from whose sixth floor the fatal shots were said to have come, the grassy slope and the underpass that have fueled half a century of debate, the museum that now tells the story, and the courthouse and rail station that frame the scene. It is a somber walk, and it asks for some quiet. Read the markers, look at the angles for yourself, and end at the spare white memorial a few blocks east — a place meant simply for reflection rather than explanation. Bring water and comfortable shoes; the whole route is flat and short.