The Lincoln Memorial honors a great man and provides a place where visitors can reflect on a watershed time in American history. The site for the Lincoln Memorial was decided as an extension of the National Mall, a long linear parkland that’s a central area of Washington. The Capitol stands at one end, with George Washington’s monument—the obelisk—at the other. The mall was then extended with a long reflection pond leading to the Lincoln Memorial site situated near the Potomac River.
Arriving at the memorial, the steps incrementally and then abruptly lead upward to the memorial’s main floor, where one is met with giant-scaled Doric columns. The memorial has 36 columns at the perimeter of the rectangular building, one for each state in the Union at the time of Lincoln’s death.
On the interior, a row of columns lines each side of Lincoln’s sculpture, forming three chambers. The sculpture is centrally positioned in the main chamber, the south chamber holds Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, and the north chamber holds Lincoln’s second inaugural address.
Henry Bacon’s design was selected for the memorial. He chose the Parthenon as a model, as it’s symbolic of the Golden Age in Classical Greece.
Daniel Chester French was the sculptor chosen to depict Lincoln, and he does it with power and gentleness. His hands tell a story: The left hand clenched in a fist, showing his determination to save the Union, while his right hand is more open, showing his compassion by welcoming the confederate states back into the Union following the war.
Standing at the top of the stairs and gazing out over the National Mall, viewers are now connected to place, to history, and to what it means to be free in America today.
