Tribute:  John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln in Ford's Theater on 14 April, 1865.  Lincoln died the next day.  Four decades passed before congressional and public support reached a consensus on the design and siting of a monument to this well-loved president.  Work began on the memorial on the eve of World War 1 and continued until 1922, when Henry Bacon's Greek temple was dedicated. 

 

History in Stone:  The 36 columns symbolize the 36 states in the Union when Lincoln died.  The names of the 48 states in the Union, at the time of the monument's dedication, are inscribed above the parapet's crowning frieze.  The 5.8 meter (19 feet) marble statue by Daniel Chester French captures a contemplative Lincoln.  The monument's construction is chronicled in a small museum on the lower level.  Lincoln's Gettysburg address and his Second Inaugural Address are inscribed on the south and north walls.  It was here on the steps, a century after Lincoln emancipated the slaves, that Martin Luther King Jr., delivered his famous "I have a dream!" speech before a crowd of 200,000 people.

View from the Arlington Bridge

Entrance to the Memorial

Lincoln

Gettysburg Address