Inside the w. Monument are an elevator and a 897 step stairway.

Lightning rods at the top protect the monument from lightning strikes.

Lincoln memorial

The Lincoln Memorial is a tribute to President Abraham Lincoln and the nation he fought to preserve during the Civil War (1861-1865). The Lincoln Memorial was build to resemble a Greek temple. It was 36 Doric columns, one for each state united into the Union at the time of Lincoln’s death. The Memorial symbolizes Lincoln’s firm belief that all the people must be free.

The first organized effort to erect a monument to Abraham Lincoln in W. came year his death, in 1867. A special association appealed for subscriptions and prepared plans for a monument, but nothing was accomplished. The years passed 2 it was not until 1911 that Congress passed the legislation on that issue.

In 1922, on Memorial Day, May 30, the completed memorial was presented to President Warren Harding, who accepted it for the us.

On the attic walls are the names of the 48 states comprising the Union in 1922 and their dates of admission. The addition of Alaska and Hawaii, to the Union in 1959 is noted by an inscription on the terrace to the memorial.

The memorial chamber contains a colossal statue of Lincoln and two huge inscribed stone tables. On the south wall is inscribed the Gettysburg Address and on the north wall, Lincoln’s Second inaugural address. But the dominant feature of the memorial chamber is magnificent, realistic figure of Lincoln seated in the centre of the open temple, facing the capitol. The marble statue, 19 feet tall, was designed and executed by sculptor Daniel Chester French. It represents Lincoln as the War President. The two murals on the north and south walls represent, allegorically, principles of conduct and thought evident in the life of Abraham Lincoln. The mural above the Gettysburg Address on the south wall shows an Angel of Truth freeing a slave; on the left and right groups of figures represent Justice and Immortality. The mural above the Second Inaugural Address on the north wall depicts the unity of North and South; on the left and right, groups of figures symbolize Fraternity and Charity.

THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION was established as a result of a gift from an Englishman who never saw America in his life – a men named James Smithson, a chemist, who died in 1829 and left his fortune (half a million dollars – a very large sum in those days) to the U.S. to found an instruction for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among man.

The Smithsonian Institution is almost everything: scientific institutes, art galleries, zoo. It administers the US National Museum, National Collection of Fine Arts, Astrophysical Observatory, International Exchange Service, National Air Museum, National Zoological Park, Publishing centers, etc.

People sometimes affectionately call the Smith. Institution the “national attic”, because, it contains such odd items as Jorge W’s mess kit and tent, the stuffed horse of a Civil War general and a collection of dresses worn by the wives of past US Presidents.

W. has many other famous buildings and monuments – the Jefferson Memorial, the Grant Memorial, the Tomb of Unknown Soldier (Arlington Cemetery), the Library Congress, the Kennedy Centre, historic Ford’s theatre.

The Arlington National Cemetery is the nation’s famous burial ground. It is the site of the Tomb of the Unknowns, containing the unidentified remains of service members from both world wars, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Here there is also the Tomb of the Unknown Civil War Dead. Pierre Charles Enfant’s grave was placed at a spot that is believed to offer the best view of W., the city he designed.

There is also he gravesites of President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis rests next to her husband. The 35^th U.S. President’s famous utterance is inscribed on the wall: “And so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”.