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Marion Anderson performed a concert at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939 after being barred from performing at nearby Constitution Hall because of her race, in 1963 the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a massive rally was held for African-American civil rights, at which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. The largest officially recorded rally was the Vietnam War Moratorium Rally on October 15, 1969. Even Forest Gump was present.

But besides protests, The National Mall has long served as a location for countless movies and a meeting place for the residents and visitors to Washington who like to exercise and use it jogging path, picnics, and other forms of light recreation.

It also plays host to several popular annual events such as the Capitol Fourth celebration held each Independence Day, with a huge fireworks display and live music.

On Monday nights during July and August, the mall hosts the annual Screen on the Green movie festival where free classic movies are projected onto large portable screens. The event typically draws crowds of thousands of people or more.

The Mall is also lined with some of the best museums in the world and its best known and most influential is the Smitsonian Institution. The Smithsonian has outgrown its single building and now is a network of 9 buildings displaying everything from art, history, world culture and such pop culture icons as Archie Bunkers Chair to Arthur Fonzarelli’s Leather Jacket. Other museums that line the Mall include the Spy Museum, where one can see first hand the tools of the espionage trade, The National Gallery of Art and National Archives which all rival any museum in the world.

But above all, The Mall honors the country’s most revered heroes in monuments and memorials, built on a grand scale. So let’s begin our tour with the Lincoln Memorial.

To the west of the Mall stands the Lincoln Memorial at 23rd St. N.W., Almost immediately you will recognize it as the building pictured on the US Penny and five-dollar bill.

Inside the Greek Architecture / Temple of Zeus Inspired, memorial sits a larger-than-life statue of Abraham Lincoln.

The Lincoln Monument Association was incorporated by the United States Congress in March 1867 to build a memorial to Lincoln. Some 34 years later, a site was chosen in 1901, where a former swamp was soon to be transformed.

Congress formally authorized the memorial on February 9, 1911, and the first stone was put into place on Lincoln’s birthday, February 12, 1914.

Completed in 1922, the monument’s 36 Doric style columns represent the states in the Union at the time of Lincoln’s death.

The centerpiece of the memorial is Daniel Chester French’s sculpture of Lincoln, who is seated. French studied the photos of famed civil war photographer Mathew Brady, who by the way took most of the photos of Lincoln we see today, where he was able to accurately portray the President worn and pensive look. He had Lincoln gazing eastwards over the Reflecting Pool toward the Washington Monument. It’s a stunning visual.
The statue itself stands 19 feet 9 inches (6 m) tall and 19 feet wide, and was carved from 28 blocks of white Georgia marble.
Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is inscribed on the south wall, and Lincoln’s second inaugural address is inscribed on the north wall. If you look closely, in the first column of his Second inaugural address, the word “Future” is misspelled, reading “Euture.”
Above the texts are a series of murals by Jules Guerin that depict an angel which represents truth, on the south wall, above the Gettysburg Address is a mural of a slave being freed and the unity of the American North and South can be seen above the Second Inaugural Address.
On the wall behind the statue, visible over the statue’s head, is this dedication:

In This Temple
As In The hearts Of The People
For Whom He Saved The Union
The Memory of Abraham Lincoln
Is Enshrined Forever

If you stroll around to the Potomac side of the monument, you’ll see it faces Memorial Bridge with a long view up to Arlington House, once Robert E. Lee’s home.

The view is intentional, and serves as a symbolic reuniting of the North and South. This is most likely where the Urban legend of Robert E. Lee’s face being carved onto the back of Lincoln’s head comes from.

The statue also seems to depict Lincoln using sign language to represent his initials. The Lincoln memorial is a sight to see and behold, day or night and a great way to start your visit to the National Mall. Visit the The Lincoln Memorial at 23rd st NW
Washington, DC.

Northeast of the Lincoln Memorial, is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial located at Constitution Gardens at 21st St. and Constitution Ave.+1 202 426 6841 ) The monument is simply called the Wall. Its simplicity makes it so powerful. It is inscribed with the names of the roughly 58,000 men and women of the American armed forces who were killed or reported missing in action in Vietnam.

It was designed in the early 1980’s by a 21-year-old Yale architectural student, Maya Ying Lin. Judging by the many visitors who come here to mourn or pay somber respects, Lin’s moving symbol of healing and gratitude remains powerfully affecting.

Soon three other more conventional war monuments were dedicated nearby—one to women who served in Vietnam (1993) and another by Frederick Hart depicting soldiers in that same conflict (1984). Harts monument was commissioned to help quiet the controversy that ensued concerning the abstract quality of the Wall. The third, dedicated in 1995, memorializes soldiers who served in the Korean War.

Join us next time as we continue our walk along the National Mall in Washington, DC. Many museums abound to celebrate the arts, history, pop culture and the cultures of the world. Insider guides partner journeyPod picks the Spy Museum In Their Washington, DC City Guide as a must see, but get a reservation museum.

Click on the podcast below.

The National Park Service also has an excellent resource site.

 

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