CAPITAL APPRECIATION WASHINGTON, D.C., HAS ITS SCARS, BUT THE WELCOME MAT IS STILL OUT.

Byline: Story by Eric Noland Travel Editor

WASHINGTON - The nation's capital may be bruised and bowed, but its bearing is still grand - and maybe even a little defiant.

Over a period of 13 1/2 months, terrorists slammed a passenger jet into the Pentagon, anthrax spilled from mysterious pieces of mail and the D.C. snipers conducted a murderous rampage.

As a direct result, the visitor's experience in one of the nation's most popular tourist destinations has been substantially altered - likely forever. The city, once renowned for having the open, welcoming spirit of a vast public park, is not an armed camp, with anti-missile batteries, spirals of razor wire and patrolling Humvees, but if you haven't been to Washington in a couple of years, you might be taken aback - and a little saddened - by the changes.

Temporary concrete barriers have sprouted everywhere. Bag checks and metal detectors are in place at every public building. Ugly chain-link fences have been thrown up around some of the monuments, a mocking insult to the grand staircases and marble pillars. Convenient parking lots have been closed, subjecting visitors to long walks. And a number of streets are being systematically shut off to vehicles, with security gates that resemble upside down guillotines - a steel plate knifing up from a slot in the street - installed at the intersections; this is only worsening the city's already nightmarish car traffic.

In some places, the temporary concrete barriers have been removed, replaced with enormous concrete flower pots and planter boxes that are bolted to the ground. But these decorative touches fool no one.

Though it can be argued that all of this is necessary as a nation gets its guard up, the tourist is the net loser. Lines are longer at the Smithsonian museums because of the security checks. Public tours of the White House are not being conducted for the general public, only for specially arranged school and military groups. Tickets are limited for entry to such popular sites as the Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol.

Visitors can't breeze about the city as they once did, bagging several attractions in one day. Instead, over a short visit, they likely will have to choose the sites they feel most strongly about and concentrate on them, leaving others until next time.

But by working with a flexible game plan, being patient, heeding a few insider tips and being willing to explore Washington treasures off the customary tourist path, the summer visitor can still be ensured of an enriching experience. For despite its recent troubles, Washington remains a majestic tribute to our grand experiment in liberty.

Pierre L'Enfant's 18th-century design of the city may torment today's car drivers with a lot of confusing wheel-spoke streets and circles and squares, but the layout shows off the classical buildings and monuments that represent the seat of government and honor the forerunners who cemented the nation's foundation. It's difficult not to feel a surge of patriotism while walking among them.

When planning a trip to Washington, realize that the guidebook under your arm is probably already out of date. Even if it just came out last week. The tourism situation has been fluid since 9-11, although some previously closed buildings have begun to reopen to the public - notably the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, where about $40 million worth of currency is printed every day.

An important first stop in the planning process is a Web site operated by the city's convention and tourism organization: www.washington.org. From the home page, click on ``Travel Update'' to get the latest on Washington's attractions. The site is updated on a daily basis. If you don't have Internet access, call [phone].

Prepare to pick your spots. For example, same-day tickets are available at the U.S. Capitol, the Washington Monument and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The problem is that a line forms at each early in the morning, and the tickets are gone quickly. During my visit in mid-May, there was a long line at the Capitol when its kiosk opened at 9 a.m. to dispense public-tour tickets. The tickets had disappeared by 10 a.m. Across the Mall, the Washington Monument had a similar line, and its tickets were snapped up just as quickly.

Much of Washington, however, is like a secret handshake. There are ways to circumvent the inconveniences and long waits.

Locals will tell you, for example, never to enter the Smithsonian museum entrances that front the Mall, a tourist pedestrian thoroughfare. Each museum also has a street entrance in the rear, along Independence and Constitution avenues. Many visitors are unaware of them, and the lines are much shorter there.

Sometimes, as well, you just pick something up. Outside the Library of Congress' popular Jefferson Building, several school groups formed a long, rambunctious line. Taking pity on me, a security guard stopped by to whisper a tip: Across the street, the library's Madison Building has short security lines, and an elevator to the basement accesses a tunnel to the Jefferson Building.

Bingo. Minutes later, I was walking through an impressive exhibit, ``American Treasures of the Library of Congress,'' which has weathered, leather-bound books from Jefferson's personal library, early surveyors' charts of the Rocky Mountains and Pacific Northwest, and a video screen that continuously plays the experimental films of Thomas Edison.

Later, on my way to the visitors' gallery that overlooks the library's Main Reading Room (made famous in ``All the Presidents' Men''), I encountered a sign that declared the gallery was only open to members of tours. Well, a large tour was headed up the stairs at that moment, and it was easy to blend into it. Inside the gallery, however, it was disappointing to discover that the overlook is now shielded by bulletproof glass.

Travelers who plan ahead can also pull an inside job on the U.S. Capitol. Rather than scrambling for tour tickets out front, call your member of Congress in advance and try to hook up with a staff-led tour.

Sarah Cockerill, a staffer with Rep. David Dreier, R-Claremont, led our group of five on an hourlong tour of the building (the public tours have 50 people in them).

We strolled beneath the rotunda dome, learning that its octagonal panels can be removed to accommodate Secret Service marksmen when President George W. Bush is in the house. We wandered into Statuary Hall, which once was the House chamber, and tested the room for its famous acoustical quirk - words softly spoken at one spot in the room can be heard distinctly at another. John Quincy Adams was said to put his head down on his desk and pretend to sleep, all the while eavesdropping on his adversaries.

A staff-led tour can also offer special perks. Dreier is chairman of the powerful House Committee on Rules, and Cockerill guided us into the inner sanctum where this committee conducts its meetings and hearings.

Elsewhere in Washington, it's difficult to go wrong at any number of stops both on and off the main tourist trail.

--The Jefferson Memorial, because it is well off the Mall, sometimes gets bypassed by visitors, but it is a personal favorite: a classical, colonnaded dome that stands quietly at the edge of the Tidal Basin. Its parking lot has been closed, so if you're driving you'll have to park a couple of hundred yards away and walk.

A statue of Jefferson commands the center of the memorial, and inscriptions of his writings surround him. Alert the 9th Circuit: In the inscriptions, Jefferson invokes God no fewer than nine times.

--You won't be able to snap that classic photo of the Washington Monument in the Reflecting Pool this summer. A giant construction crane mars the scene. The World War II Memorial, scheduled for completion next May, is being built just west of the monument.

It's certainly a worthy project, but it represents a trend of hey-what-about-us commemorative structures that followed the construction 20 years ago of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial - Maya Lin's stark black wing of death. The Korean War Veterans Memorial, a sculpture of weary-looking soldiers trudging along in their rain ponchos, then was installed directly across the Reflecting Pool.

At the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where the names of the 58,226 dead are etched in the black marble, I searched for the name of Cal Courtemanche, a guy from my hometown who was killed over there in 1967. I heard a toddler ask his mom what this was all about. I didn't envy her the challenge. ``Well,'' she said, ``there were these really bad people ...''

--Service men and women have been fighting people perceived to be really bad since the birth of the republic, as the rows of white headstones at Arlington National Cemetery testify.

Groups of teenagers cavort and clown as they make their way up Roosevelt Drive, but all conversation and commotion slam to a halt at the white-marble Tomb of the Unknowns. Army sentries keep a 24-hour vigil here, regardless of the weather.

The mood is similarly somber on a hillside nearby, where the flame at John F. Kennedy's gravestone flickers continuously. Rather than elbowing your way through the tour groups at the main entrance to the Kennedy site, approach it from Arlington House, on the hill above. The house can be reached from the Tomb of the Unknowns via the pleasant Crook Walk.

--Even though they can't get in, tourists still troop to the White House, gazing across the South Lawn at the distinctive South Portico from E Street NW, or mingling with the protesters in Lafayette Square along Pennsylvania Avenue. (Both streets were shut off to vehicle traffic during the Clinton administration because of security concerns.)

While in the neighborhood, take a breather at the rooftop restaurant of the Hotel Washington (515 15th St. NW). The food isn't anything special, but the view is terrific, taking in the Washington Monument, the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials, Arlington National Cemetery, the Potomac River, the east side of the White House and the planes taking off from Reagan National Airport.

--Another fabulous view - arguably the best in the city - can be had from the towers of Washington National Cathedral. Few visitors make their way here, probably because it's on the northwest outskirts of town (off many maps).

En route, head up Massachusetts Avenue from Dupont Circle to take in the stately mansions of Embassy Row - and test your knowledge of international flags.

The cathedral may look as if it were constructed in medieval times, but that's just because an elaborate Gothic design was employed - the building was begun in 1907, completed a few years ago. The cathedral's art, architecture (including a Darth Vader-ish gargoyle) and Bishop's Garden are impressive, but the highlight of a visit here is riding an elevator to the Pilgrim Observation Gallery, where, at 676 feet above sea level, you'll survey Washington from the highest point in the city.

--Every visitor to Washington has faced this reality: It would be perfectly feasible to spend an entire day at the Smithsonian. Or most of a day at any of its dozen museums or galleries located on or near the Mall.

Check out the Wright brothers' rickety-looking 1903 Flyer or the Apollo 11 command module at the National Air and Space Museum, or observe a triceratops skeleton at the National Museum of Natural History.

My favorite is the National Museum of American History, which has liberal doses of popular culture - Archie Bunker's chair, Julia Child's kitchen, etc. - but also addresses the serious stuff: the presidency, inventions, time pieces. Currently on display is the actual Woolworth lunch counter at which four African-American men staged a sit-in in 1960 to protest segregation in Greensboro, N.C.

While in the neighborhood, don't forget the National Gallery of Art. It is set up so that every room has at least one important work. In the West Building, along with the impressionist paintings of Renoir, Monet and Cassatt, are the works of Winslow Homer and Thomas Eakins.

Gilbert Stuart's famous portrait of Washington - a florid George grimacing over his uncomfortable dentures - is here. Through Sept. 7, survey the incredibly lifelike sculptures of Enlightenment artist Jean- Antoine Houdon.

--Ford's Theatre, though a working playhouse, is maintained to look exactly as it did when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated there on April 14, 1865, and its basement museum is excellent, but the entire facility will be closed through at least Sept. 30 for renovations.

But over at the Lincoln Memorial, the 16th president still gazes down soberly from his chair in the center of the temple-like edifice, flanked on one side by an inscription of his Gettysburg Address, on the other by his second inaugural speech.

His view out through the Doric columns takes in the Reflecting Pool and the Washington Monument ... but not without first falling on the chain-link fence and concrete barriers, newly positioned here to deter car bombers.

The words from Lincoln's second inaugural referred to the Civil War, but they could well apply to the nation - and to Washington - today: ``Let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation's wounds.''

IF YOU GO

THE METRO: Because of its convoluted street patterns and dearth of parking, Washington, D.C., might be the worst major city in the country for the uninitiated driver. Fortunately it has an exceptional Metro system - clean, safe, user-friendly. Tickets and passes can be purchased from self-service machines at all stations - a one-week all-access pass is only $25. For information, visit www.wmata.com (peruse the pull-down menu under ``Metrorail''). Automated info line: [phone]. If you're flying into Dulles International Airport, you can get to the nearest Metro station (West Falls Church) on the Washington Flyer bus ($8 one way). Information: [phone]; www.washfly.com.

LODGING: Dupont Circle sits squarely astride Embassy Row in the city's northwest quadrant, and the neighborhood is richly ethnic. We enjoyed a stay at Jurys Washington Hotel, part of an Irish-owned chain, and routinely encountered dashiki-clad diplomats in the lobby. Rooms can be found for around $100. The hotel is a short walk across Dupont Circle from the Metro station. Information: [phone]; www.jurys.com/usa/washington-hotel.htm.

DINING: When afoot in Washington, it's always a challenge to find a decent lunch spot. Though the museums on the Mall serve the food up cafeteria-style, the fare at the National Gallery of Art's Garden Cafe (West Building) was found to be pretty good - and a water-cascade sculpture provides an intriguing backdrop. The Sky Terrace Restaurant atop the Hotel Washington, near the White House, serves up a fabulous view with a decent lunch; 515 15th St. NW; [phone]; www.hotelwashington.com.

For dinner near Dupont Circle, don't be put off by the name of this establishment: Cashion's Eat Place. It's a comfortable gourmet restaurant with some ambitious preparations of seafood and game: pan-roasted turbot filet with wild mushrooms in a vin blanc sauce, jumbo soft-shell crabs fried in tempura batter, confit of rabbit leg, roasted duck in a rhubarb sauce. Main courses in the mid-$20s. 1819 Columbia Road NW; [phone].

And for a dining experience that will have you longing for Paris, try a plate of steak frites and a bottle of vin rouge at cramped, noisy Bistrot du Coin. 1738 Connecticut Ave. NW; [phone].

INFORMATION: Washington's convention and tourism organization maintains a comprehensive Web site at www.washington.org. A key feature on the home page is ``Travel Update'' _ since visitor conditions have been in a constant state of flux since 9-11. Phone: [phone]. An informative and easy read for the flight east is Christopher Buckley's ``Washington Schlepped Here'' (Crown Journeys; $16).

CAPTION(S):

8 photos, box, map

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) The Washingtom Monument juts skyward, above, and Lincoln gazes down from the center of his memorial, left, in the nation's capital, which has taken its lumps over the last two years.

(3 -- 4 -- color) The new look Washington, D.C., includes ugly concrete barriers and chain-link fence in front of the Lincoln Memorial, right, but determined visitors can still enjoy many of the city's gifts. One such option is to hook up with a staff-led tour of the U.S. Capitol. Above, Sarah Cockerill, right, guides a group into a committee room used by her boss, Rep. David Dreier, R-Claremont.

(5 -- 6) The dome of the Capitol Rotunda, top, is a breathtaking sight for visitors to Washington, D.C. Above, a statue of Thomas Jefferson dominates the center of his memorial.

(7 -- 8) Top, The Smithsonian is exhibiting the Woolworth lunch counter where African-Americans staged a sit-in to protest segregation in Greensboro, N.C., in 1960. Above, visitors huddle around the eternal flame at John F. Kennedy's grave site at Arlington National Cemetery.

Eric Noland/Travel Editor

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IF YOU GO (see text)

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WASHINGTON D.C.

Jorge Irribarren/Staff Artist