Lest We Forget
On the History Highway, Day 21
WASHINGTON, DC— Though we normally avoid malls at all costs, Washington's National Mall was another story. Since it is home to some of the most cherished symbols of our nation, seeing the mall and memorial parks formed a full agenda for today. Our previous visits to this hallowed ground occurred in the blistering heat of summer (about 1985), when we rode the Tourmobile from site to site, and on a frostbitten winter day ten years ago, when the city was so empty we could easily drive from place to place. Today we relished the pleasant temperature and gentle spring breezes and made our way on foot. Due to the mild winter, spring came early in Washington, and the city's famed cherry trees have already shed their petals, though the National Cherry Blossom Festival is still in full swing.
As we reached street level from the Smithsonian Metro station, spotting the Washington Monument, the tallest structure in the city, guided us toward the National Mall. After an earthquake last summer sent chunks of stone and mortar raining to the ground and left cracks in the walls as long as three feet, visitors have not been permitted to ride the elevator to the 500-foot level of the monument. After extensive assessments, plans for a year-long repair are just now being completed.
When the capstone was finally put in place in 1884, the 555-foot obelisk became the world's tallest structure, a title quickly lost when the Eiffel Tower topped out at 930 feet only five years later. The Washington Monument remains the tallest obelisk and the largest freestanding masonry structure in the world.
Under construction when we were last in the city, the World War II Memorial opened to the public in 2004. Sprawling across the mall between the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument, its massive size befits the more than 400,000 American lives sacrificed in the preservation of freedom and the great proportion of citizens who contributed to the war effort either in military service or on the home front. With a nod to our participatory form of government, the memorial's World War II Registry of Remembrance includes an unofficial compilation of Americans who served in the war effort, where citizens can submit the names of family members, friends, or comrades-in-arms whose efforts helped to win the war.
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National World War II Memorial |
Extending between the World War II Memorial and Lincoln's spot at the end of the mall, the Reflecting Pool was not giving off any mirror images today. For the last 18 months, the familiar water feature has been undergoing renovation to eliminate leaks and to provide a system that will keep the water cleaner. Expected to be concluded soon, this extensive project will replace dirt paths along the perimeter with sidewalks and improve security at the Lincoln Memorial.
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Reflecting Pool under construction |
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Korean War Veterans Memorial |
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Lincoln Memorial |
Continuing around the west end of the mall, we took some time at the heart-wrenching Vietnam Veterans Memorial honoring the U.S. veterans who served in that most controversial of wars. The starkness of the thousands of names of dead and missing engraved on black granite evokes the anguish that so many of our generation experienced during that brutal conflict.
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Vietnam Veterans Memorial |
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Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial |
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President Roosevelt and his dog Fala |
Five hours and five miles after we started, our tour was complete and we headed back to the Metro station for the ride back to Arlington. Along the way, we saw thousands of tourists, both foreign and domestic, peacefully sharing the afternoon and the majesty of these national treasures. We learned a bit more history, found a couple of letterboxes, and came away with a renewed appreciation for those who have worked and sacrificed to enable us to walk around freely and enjoy this beautiful spring day in our nation's capitol.
ROAD NOISE:
- Kilroy Was Here: The World War II memorial incorporates two inconspicuous "Kilroy was here" engravings. Their inclusion in the memorial acknowledges the significance of the symbol to American soldiers during World War II. The familiar graffiti cartoon started in a Naval shipyard in Quincy, MA with an inspector named James Kilroy, who was charged with inspecting the rivets installed on a ship. To indicate that he had checked a vessel, he came up with a symbol to show he had completed his task. When those ships went out to sea, sailors saw the graphic and began repeating it wherever they were, and a legend was born.
- There's an App for That. As the number of smart phone applications continues to explode, the new functions they can fulfill expands into more and more areas of our daily lives.
More Monumental Photos