Vietnam Veteran's Memorial

• Between the late 1950s and the fall of Saigon 1975, more than 2.7 million American troops served in Vietnam. More than 58,000 Americans were killed. Between 1 and 3 million Vietnamese soldiers and civilians lost their lives. 

• The war was highly controversial among Americans and opposition grew during the 1960s leading to mass demonstrations

• In 1980, Maya Lin won a competition to design a memorial to those U.S. military personnel who died. 

• She aimed to create a non-political memorial - very different from the heroic nature of other war memorials. 

• The more than 58,000 names of men and women are listed in chronological order of when they were killed. 

• One way to interpret the design is to view it in the shape of a scar in the earth. 

• Some politicians claimed it portrayed the U.S. in a negative light, an alternative monument was constructed nearby called "The Three Soldiers" which is a more typical style of war memorials. 

Lincoln Memorial

• Abraham Lincoln was the nation's 16th president serving from 1861 until he was assassinated in 1865. 

• Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation to free the slaves was put into effect in 1863.

• Following the Battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address in which he argued that the thousand who had died on the battlefield had done so to guarantee that the nation would endure and recognize that all men are created equal. Full text HERE. 

• The memorial was designed to look like a Greek temple and was completed in 1922. 

• The Gettysburg Address and Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address are inscribed on the interior walls. National Park Service links to inscriptions are HERE.

• In the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln commemorated the sacrifices of Union soldiers in the Battle of Gettysburg.

  • that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

• In Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, he called for unity after the civil war. 625,000 Americans died during this war, which was 2% of the population. The equivalent today in the U.S. would be 6 million. 

  • "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. " Read the full text HERE. 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial

• FDR began his first of four terms in office in 1933 during the nation's largest economic downturn known as the Great Depression. Statues of soup lines and Dust Bowl farmers dramatize this period. 

• There are several inscriptions in the memorial that display his famous quotes such as "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." There is also an inscription of the "Four Freedoms" described in his famous 1941 speech: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear. Read the full text HERE. 

• FDR led the U.S. to victory in the Second World War and died just before the war ended in 1945. 

• FDR's legacy: established the Social Security system to protect financial security of retirees, but he is also known for signing an executive order to place Japanese American citizens and immigrants in internment camps during the war. 

• Water features are meant to symbolize freedom and progress. The four rooms symbolize each of his four terms in office. 

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

• The memorial opened to the public on August 22, 2011

• His likeness is carved out of stone and was inspired by King's I Have a Dream speech in 1963, which contains the text: "Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope."

Jefferson Memorial 

• Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the U.S. serving from 1801-1809. 

• He was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence

• After the Library of Congress was burned by the British in 1814, Jefferson sold his personal library to Congress.

• Although he was a Deist, he was deeply committed to religious freedom

Washington Monument

• Commemorates the first president of the United States George Washington.

• Washing served as the commander of the Continental Army which fought and defeated the British.

• He also served as president from 1789 until 1797. 

• Washington was viewed by many Americans as a god-like figure - consider the "Apotheosis of Washington" fresco in the dome of the U.S. Capitol.

• The monument is the world's tallest predominantly stone structure and the world's tallest obelisk

• Construction began in 1848 and was stopped from 1854 to 1877 due to a lack of funds and the Civil War

• It was finally completed in 1888 - two different colors of marble are visible due shift in quarry during construction hiatus.

Further Reading

Meyer, Jeffrey F. Myths in Stone: Religious Dimensions of Washington D.C. University of California Press, 2001.