Lincoln Memorial – Washington DC
No trip to Washington, D.C. would be complete without a stop at the Lincoln Memorial. Walking up the steps to stand near this seated Lincoln is as awe-inspiring the first time as it is every time, and from these steps, overlooking the National Mall, you get one of the greatest views in the city.
The memorial itself was born from a long national desire to honor Abraham Lincoln after his assassination in 1896. Congress formally created a commission in 1911 to oversee the project, and President Willian Howard Taft played a central role in guiding it forward.
Architect Henry Bacon was selected to design the temple-like structure in a neoclassical style evocative of ancient Greek democracy, and American sculptor Daniel Chester French was commissioned to create the colossal, seated statue of Lincoln within.
Construction of the memorial spanned eight years, from 1914 to 1922, and the 19-foot marble statue of Lincoln took about four years to complete. The Lincoln Memorial was officially dedicated on May 30, 1922, in a ceremony attended by thousands.
Today, the Lincoln Memorial stands not only as an architectural and artistic tribute but as a symbol of unity, freedom and enduring legacy of one of America’s most consequential presidents.
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The Touro Synagogue in Newport – Rhode Island
The Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, stands as the oldest surviving synagogue in the United States and a powerful symbol of religious freedom in the nation. Completed in 1763 for a community of Sephardic Jews as a place where their faith could be practiced openly and without fear. Many in this Jewish community had fled the Inquisition […]
White Sands National Park – New Mexico
White Sands is one of those landscapes that feels almost otherworldly as there is wave after wave of white dunes stretching across the Tularosa Basin in southern New Mexico. What surprised us most was these dunes are not sand but are made of gypsum. Gypsum is a soft mineral that usually dissolves in water, but here, because of the […]
Great Falls of Paterson National Historical site – New Jersey
Driving back from an event in New Jersey, I spotted the familiar brown National Park sign for Great Falls of Paterson. Recognizing that unmistakable marker, I asked Marty to pull off the highway for a newer national park. What we found was the Great Falls of the Passaic River plunging about 77 feet. We learned beyond the […]
