LINCOLN MEMORIAL, Every single day more people see this than any other monument!!
Written: Nov 18 '03 (Updated Apr 15 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Beautiful from a distance, awesome up close!
Cons: Some people do not respect the area for what it is.
The Bottom Line: Everyone must walk the steps up to this monument, spend time, reflect on Lincolns words and then appreciate all that is out in view from this memorial.
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| popsrocks's Full Review: Lincoln Memorial |
I have not read nor heard that statement from any other person, place, or source. It is a position that I back up with my own facts.
Every day each of us work with money. The "Penny", the US one cent piece, has the Lincoln Memorial on the back of it. We handle and see this monument everyday! The fact is the memorial was introduced to the penny in 1959. Previous to that the coin had Lincoln's profile on one side. Lincoln is the only president who has his likeness on both sides of a coin. Take a magnifying glass to the coin and sure enough, you will see Abraham Lincoln sitting in the sheltered memorial.
LINCOLN MEMORIAL, Washington DC
The Lincoln Memorial is also one of the most visited of all Washington DC destinations. It anchors the west end of the mall with the Washington Monument pretty much in the middle and the Capitol Building on the east end.
I have been fortunate to climb the steps of this memorial many times. It is awesome! When you first read or look at it you may not realize the impact this place can have on a person. It is like hallowed grounds and you feel the power and wisdom of this great president of ours.
HISTORY
The Lincoln Memorial's first stones were laid on Abraham Lincoln's birth date of February 12. The year was 1915. It was not until May 1922 that the memorial was dedicated.
The structure is based on that of a Greek Temple. It has 36 tall stately columns. Each of these honors, with its presence and wording, each of the existing states when Lincoln was in office.
From a distance the memorial catches your eye. It is when you actually climb the stairs that you share the feeling of its grandeur.
Just a quick note telling those who may have difficulty climing the stairs that there is a special elevator for your needs. I believe it is on the north side. Check with any of the on site rangers. Be sure to have your National Passport canceled at this site.
The statue was designed and finished by Daniel Chester French, a leading sculpture of his time. The statue is actually 28 separate blocks that were carved and then put together at the site. Daniel Chester was not in the memorial when it was first being set by means of block and tackle. He was never sure, until he saw the sculpture with his own eyes, as to the harmony of the size of the statue and the overall dimensions of the monument. The statue was first commissioned to be 12' high. Because of the immense proportions of the 204' long, 134' wide and 99' high temple the statue was redesigned to be 17' high. He was relieved when he saw it all and that everything came together in proper scale.
Above and behind the statue are the words.
IN THIS TEMPLE, AS IN THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE FOR WHOM HE SAVED THE UNION, THE MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN IS ENSHRINED FOREVER.
The statue is placed in the middle chamber of three. Lincoln looks out. He seems weary, tired, and in deep thought. It seems that he would just come alive and see those around him. He is ready for anything.Look at his hands and feet. His right hand is relaxed and open in an almost "inviting you" in sort of way. My grandmother was first generation Italian. As a young child I remember her waving me over to her. With her hands palms down she would open and close her finger tips beckoning me closer. So it is with Lincoln. His hand is palm down and fingers semi extended. He seems very relaxed yet ready for a shake of a hand or putting out an extended hand to anyone in need. His right leg is also relaxed. It is stretched out in front of his body.
Now note Lincolns left hand. It is a clenched fist showing determination. His left leg is pulled back, almost under his body, set so that he can rise in a flash and take any action the moment calls for.
Mr French made many models until his inspiration came through in the statue we see today. It is worth the time to study the sculpture and feel the man's spirit is within those blocks of stone.
Abraham Lincolns spirit also lives in his words upon the walls of the other two chambers. On one side is his most famous speech The Gettysburg Address. Read it for inspiration and to see the depth of Lincolns heart.
LINCOLN'S GETTYSBURG ADDRESS
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve 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.
I hope you have the time to study these words. The third chamber has another Lincoln speech. This one is not as famous yet, it is noted as one of the most remarkable of all US presidential writings and addresses. I should now put up a warning and a disclaimer as to anyone being harmed or offended by the mix of God, public forum, and government function.
WARNING, this speech contains the words God, He, His, Him, Almighty Power, bible, believers, prayer, Living God, pray, a series of three Biblical quotes and moral judgements.Read this only if you dare!!
This is Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Speech
At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement, somewhat in detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention, and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.
On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it--all sought to avert it. While the inaugeral [sic] address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war--seeking to dissole [sic] the Union, and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.
One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!" If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offences which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South, this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a Living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope--fervently do we pray--that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether"
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.
OK ACLU, Let's get rid of this one! Just what was this man thinking when he wrote and addressed a nation with these words?!
LET's LOOK The OTHER WAY
The memorial, at the top of the stairs is open to the elements. This makes it very special. From here you can turn around and see the view that Lincoln sees in perpetuity. It is an awe inspiring view of the reflection pool and the Washington Monument. Beyond the monument one can see the Capitol building that is set on the highest of all grounds in DC. In the foreground, left and right, one can see the Vietnam Memorial and the Korean War Memorial. Just beyond these monuments and before the Washington Monument is a new structure that is nearing completion. This is the long overdue National World War II Memorial that will be dedicated this coming spring. I hope to have a review of it up within the next week.
AND on THESE STEPS
On the very steps that make their way up to the Lincoln Memorial have been many famous men and political movements. Why Forest Gump was on these steps when he saw his flame Jenny during an anti Vietnam War protest. Ok, I know Forest was make believe, but the protests weren't. Just below the steps you will see vendors lined up selling goods reminding us of POW/MIAs. Many of these shop owners are Vietnam Vets. Stop by and check out their rag tag booths.
Back in the forties a famous black woman was not allowed to sing in a particular public building because of the colour of her skin. Eleanor Roosevelt helped make arrangements that she would sing at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. She did sing on those steps. A crowd of seventy thousand came to see her and the show was broadcast on radio throughout the land.
In 1963, exactly 100 years after Lincoln read the words that are chiseled upon the walls of his monument, Rev Martin Luther King, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, addressed a still torn nation with the words of his famous I Have a Dream speech.
It seems to me that someone or something inspired this man just as Lincoln was inspired. This has to be true with Rev Martin Luther King's words like,
"Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon of light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity....."
More words from this speech
....."I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character...."
"....When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village, every hamlet, from every state, and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing the words of the old Negro spiritual,....Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
Our nation still struggles with division yet we have many freedoms and opportunities that are only dreamed of in other nations throughout the world. It is here at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial that we as Americans can express our feelings. For many reasons the steps of the Lincoln Memorial have drawn people to exercise their rights in the sights of this great man Abraham Lincoln.
Others come here just to be inspired. Over the years I have seen many choirs from all over the nation set up and sing on these steps with Abe Lincoln looking down on them from behind. I remember getting tears in my eyes as I listened to one group sing "God Bless America".
For our freedom and opportunity we can thank, among other good men with strong and good moral character, Abraham Lincoln. His statue towers above us.... so do his words and spirit.
Other reviews by Popsrocks
Ford's Theater Where Lincoln was shot
The Peterson House Where Lincoln Died.
Washington DC
The Washington Monument
Lincoln Memorial
Washington DC
The Korean War Veteran's Memorial
The Vietnam War Veteran's Memorial
The National World War II Memorial This is a new major memorial that will be dedicated May 2004
The National Art Gallery
The National Archives This has just reopened and it's bigger and better!!
The National Air and Space Museum
The Capital Hilton
Fairmont Washington Hotel
The Old Ebbit Grill Good Eats near the White House
Passport to your National Parks
Gettysburg National Military Park
Abe Lincoln's Hat A children's story that gives a fine introduction to the man.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Families
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime
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