White House

The White House in Washington, DC used to be the official residence of the President of the United States. The White House apparently sustained a direct hit when the bombs fell. After the Great War, all that is left in its place is a giant, highly radioactive crater.

Location
It can be difficult to find the location of the White House. The way to get there is to exit the Penn. Ave Northwest station in Pennsylvania Avenue, go up the stairs, and proceed straight until you reach the building to the north. You will see a manhole cover on the sidewalk at the southwest corner of the building; this is called the Utility door.

(As you leave the Penn. Ave Northwest stairs headed for the manhole, look to your right at the first street and you should see a row of sandbags stacked up. Your results may vary, but it is possible to find there two Paladins and a Super Mutant, all dead, and some ammo boxes with EC Packs and a Gatling Laser on the ground to the right. Instead, there could be three live Brotherhood of Steel soldiers and a fire fight which kills some Super Mutants.

When you enter the Utility tunnel, there is a copy of Pugilism Illustrated, a Workbench, and an Ophthalmoscope in a side room to the right. To get to the White House, take the first left, follow the corridor, and you will eventually find a door to the left that opens onto the ruin-filled radioactive pit that the White House has become.

Radiation Cautions
If you go outside from the utility tunnel to the White House without any radiation resistance, the radiation will be up to 6-7 rad/sec but the best way to counter this is to have an Environment Suit, a Radiation Suit or a Advanced Radiation Suit and take some Rad-X. This will put your rad exposure down to 1 rad/sec and make it easy to get the Fat Man and the Mini Nukes.

Inconsistencies
Though the location on Pennsylvania Avenue is true to the real Washington D.C., the White House is incorrectly placed on Fallout 3's world map. In Fallout 3's World Map, it is located close to the National Archives and the Capitol Building. In reality, it is directly north of the Washington Monument, a number of blocks west of where it is placed on the world map. In the gameworld, however, the Washington Monument is directly south of the White House, where it should be, but it doesn't match up with its location on the world map. This may be a map glitch or an effect of the Fallout universe's divergence from our own.

Appearances
In the ruins of Washington D.C. in Fallout 3.

Bugs
It is possible to escape the fallout map boundaries by jumping on certain wrecked walls. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF-Hp-3Iq9o