Falls Church, Virginia, 1981 · filmed in New York, 2012–2018
SittingThe Jennings family
Two KGB officers raise American children in the Virginia suburbs, and an FBI agent moves in across the street. New York played Washington, and the story came out of a real case.
A train station stairwell · 2010
The show came out of a real case. The FBI watched Russian illegals living as ordinary Americans, and saw two of them swap identical bags as they passed each other on the stairs of a train station. Start the walkers. Press when they are level, and each clean pass hands over a Brooklyn street that played Washington.
Two people, two identical bags, one stair. Start them walking.
The agents were seen swapping identical bags while passing each other in the stairwell of a train station; the station is not named. The timing here is this page’s own.
Joe Weisberg was partly inspired by the 2010 case, and set the series in the Cold War instead.
Flatbush Avenue, November 2016
Not handed over yet.
Red Hook, December 2015
Not handed over yet.
Joralemon Street
Not handed over yet.
Carroll Gardens
Not handed over yet.
Brooklyn
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Compare toursMorningside Heights and Hudson Yards
Washington offered little help to film crews, so the show shot New York. Its location manager, Michael Fucci, went uptown round Columbia for the architecture. Each card shows its cover first. Turn it to see what it really is.
Fucci on going uptown round Columbia, Grant’s Tomb as a very D.C.-looking monument, and the seminary and the cathedral as backdrops.
Washington lacks filming incentives, and its bureaucracy is complex.
In the story · Washington, D.C.
A big chase at the end of season one runs through the streets round Grant’s Tomb.
In the story · Washington, D.C.
The seminary on Broadway is another uptown backdrop for Washington.
In the story · Washington, D.C.
St. John the Divine is one of the uptown buildings that stand in for Washington.
In the story
The Javits Center is dressed as an airport.
Four covers. Turn one.
Upper Manhattan
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Compare toursDressing New York for 1981
Production designer Diane Lederman and the locations team had to take the present out of every room and street they borrowed. Press each thing to take it away.
A kitchen in Virginia
The street outside
Six things that were not there in 1981. Pull them out.
Traffic lights, parking meters, flatscreen TVs and digital thermostats; refrigerators pulled and gas stoves removed by plumbers, because high-end appliances were rare in early-1980s Washington. A storefront in the first episode was dressed as a bar, and passers-by asked when it would open.
Vienna, 9 July 2010
On 27 June 2010 the FBI arrested ten Russian agents in raids in Boston, Montclair in New Jersey, Yonkers and Northern Virginia, at the end of an investigation it called Operation Ghost Stories. They had hidden messages inside digital photographs. Twelve days later they were flown to Vienna and exchanged for four prisoners held in Russia.
From the United States
From Russia
Two planes on the tarmac. Ten on one side, four on the other.
Arrests on 27 June 2010 in Boston, Montclair, Yonkers and Northern Virginia; Operation Ghost Stories; messages hidden in digital photographs; the exchange in Vienna on 9 July 2010 for Igor Sutyagin, Alexander Zaporozhsky, Sergei Skripal and Gennady Vasilenko. The FBI released surveillance stills and video on 31 October 2011.
Schwechat, Lower Austria
On 9 July 2010 the ten agents arrested in the United States were exchanged here for four prisoners held in Russia.
It opened in 1938, at Schwechat, 18 km south-east of central Vienna.
Austria’s main airport, 18 km south-east of central Vienna.
16th Street, Pennsylvania Avenue, Connecticut Avenue, L’Enfant Plaza
Joe Weisberg graduated from Yale in 1987 and joined the CIA about three years later, for a short career. He wrote a novel about a young officer, taught at a school in Queens until 2010, and then moved into television. With Joel Fields he ran The Americans for six seasons.
Weisberg’s Yale degree in 1987, CIA service from around 1990, An Ordinary Spy, teaching in Queens until 2010; Fields as co-showrunner.
1125 16th Street NW, Washington, D.C.
A Beaux-Arts mansion built in 1910 for Mrs. George Pullman. Russia bought it in 1913, and the Soviet Union took it over when the United States recognised it in November 1933.
It was the Soviet, then Russian, embassy until 1994, when the new compound on Wisconsin Avenue took over. It is now the ambassador’s residence.
The show’s Rezidentura, the KGB station inside the embassy, was built on a stage in New York, down to Nina’s office and the radio room.
Now the Russian ambassador’s residence. Look from the pavement on 16th Street; it is not open.
935 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C.
The FBI’s headquarters from 1975: Gerald Ford dedicated the Brutalist block on 30 September that year.
Stan Beeman’s bullpen, corridors, conference room and interrogation room were all built on stage.
In 2025 the FBI announced a move to the Ronald Reagan Building and said this one would close; in August 2026 a judge ruled the move would break the 2026 Appropriations Act.
Seen from Pennsylvania Avenue only. Public tours stopped after 2001.
1919 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, D.C.
Ronald Reagan was shot outside its T Street NW exit on 30 March 1981.
The fourth episode, In Control, is built round the aftermath: Philip and Elizabeth first hear of it from a television in a hotel lobby.
William B. Tabler designed it; it opened on 25 March 1965 in a double-arched shape, and has 1,070 rooms.
A working hotel. The T Street NW side is where the shooting happened.
700 L’Enfant Plaza SW, Washington, D.C.
On 2 April 2014 the museum opened The Americans: Fact and Fantasy in its lobby, pairing props from the show with KGB bugging devices, Soviet code sheets and real identity papers.
It was meant to run two months; interest kept it open until 15 July. Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields came for a screening.
That was at the old building on F Street. The museum reopened at L’Enfant Plaza on 12 May 2019.
Open daily; advance timed tickets are recommended. Hours vary by season.
Dupont Circle, Washington
The 1965 hotel on Connecticut Avenue outside which Reagan was shot on 30 March 1981, the event the fourth episode turns on. Listed by Washington’s official tourism site.
See the hotelL’Enfant Plaza, Washington
The museum that showed the series’ props beside real KGB gear in 2014, now at L’Enfant Plaza. Open daily; advance timed tickets are recommended and hours change with the season.
Plan a visitThe people
Joe Weisberg created the series. Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys played Elizabeth and Philip, Holly Taylor and Keidrich Sellati their children, Noah Emmerich the neighbour from the FBI and Margo Martindale their handler, Claudia. The pilot, directed by Gavin O’Connor, was shot in May and June 2012.
In 2018 Rhys won the Emmy for lead actor in a drama, and Weisberg and Fields won for writing the finale, START. Martindale won twice as a guest.
Creator, cast, the run from 30 January 2013 to 30 May 2018 in 75 episodes, and the Emmys.
The pilot, directed by Gavin O’Connor, shot from May to mid-June 2012; the series followed from November 2012, delayed by Hurricane Sandy.
Eastern Effects, 68,000 square feet.
13 places you can visit: 8 in New York, 4 in Washington and one in Vienna. The Jennings house is not on the map: it is a private home, and where its exterior was filmed has never been reliably shown.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A National Park Service memorial, open Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 4pm. The plaza and Riverside Park round it are open every day.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working cathedral on Amsterdam Avenue; the nave is open to visitors outside services.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working seminary. The Gothic front on Broadway is the view; the quadrangle is not a public space.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A convention centre, open to visitors during shows. The glass front on Eleventh Avenue is the view.
Riverside Drive at West 122nd Street, Morningside Heights
Michael Fucci, the show’s location manager, called Grant’s Tomb a very D.C.-looking monument. The crew went uptown round Columbia University for its architecture.
A National Park Service memorial, open Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 4pm. The plaza and Riverside Park round it are open every day.
1047 Amsterdam Avenue at West 112th Street
It is one of the uptown buildings the crew used as a backdrop for Washington.
A working cathedral on Amsterdam Avenue; the nave is open to visitors outside services.
Broadway at West 120th Street, Morningside Heights
Another of the uptown backdrops for Washington, and part of the season-one chase round Grant’s Tomb.
A working seminary. The Gothic front on Broadway is the view; the quadrangle is not a public space.
655 West 34th Street, Hudson Yards
The crew used the Javits Center as an airport.
A convention centre, open to visitors during shows. The glass front on Eleventh Avenue is the view.
Stay
A hostel up Amsterdam Avenue from the cathedral, and the Washington hotel the fourth episode turns on.
Upper West Side, Manhattan
A hostel at 891 Amsterdam Avenue on the Upper West Side, up the avenue from St. John the Divine and a walk from the seminary and Grant’s Tomb. Rates are on the booking page.
Check availabilityDupont Circle, Washington
The 1965 hotel on Connecticut Avenue outside which Reagan was shot on 30 March 1981, the event the fourth episode turns on. Listed by Washington’s official tourism site.
See the hotelGo there
The Spy Museum, and walks through Upper Manhattan, brownstone Brooklyn and spy Washington.
L’Enfant Plaza, Washington
The museum that showed the series’ props beside real KGB gear in 2014, now at L’Enfant Plaza. Open daily; advance timed tickets are recommended and hours change with the season.
Plan a visitWashington, D.C.
Live marketplace results for espionage walking and bus tours of Washington. None is built round the series; check each route for 16th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.
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Compare toursUpper Manhattan
Live marketplace results for walking tours of Upper Manhattan. Check each itinerary for Grant’s Tomb and St. John the Divine.
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Compare toursWhat’s on
No screening or event for the series is announced right now.
No current dated events are listed. Check providers for the latest programme.
Take it home
Weisberg’s spy novel, written between the CIA and the series.
Joseph Weisberg · Bloomsbury
Weisberg’s novel about a young CIA officer, published after he left the agency and before he created the series.
Find the bookDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
13 of 13 places · 13 of 13 Moments
Riverside Drive at West 122nd Street, Morningside Heights
A big chase at the end of season one runs through the streets round Grant’s Tomb.
1047 Amsterdam Avenue at West 112th Street
St. John the Divine is one of the uptown buildings that stand in for Washington.
Broadway at West 120th Street, Morningside Heights
The seminary on Broadway is another uptown backdrop for Washington.
655 West 34th Street, Hudson Yards
The Javits Center is dressed as an airport.
Flatbush Avenue between Prospect Place and Sterling Place, Prospect Heights
A bar on Flatbush Avenue, then a block of Prospect Place with twenty vintage cars.
Columbia Street south of Otsego Street, and Bay Street between Henry and Columbia Streets
Red Hook streets cleared of parked cars to keep the 1980s look.
209 Joralemon Street, Downtown Brooklyn
Exterior and interior shots at Brooklyn Borough Hall.
Court, Smith, Carroll and President Streets, Carroll Gardens
Carroll Park, a few blocks from the stages, plays quiet Washington.
1125 16th Street NW, Washington, D.C.
The real Soviet embassy, whose KGB station the show rebuilt on a stage in New York.
935 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C.
The real FBI headquarters; Stan’s bullpen was a set.
1919 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, D.C.
Reagan is shot outside the hotel; episode four follows the aftermath.
700 L’Enfant Plaza SW, Washington, D.C.
Props from the show beside real Cold War spy gear, in the museum’s lobby.
Schwechat, Lower Austria
The ten agents arrested in June 2010 are exchanged for four prisoners.
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