It’s definitely worth visiting Washington, D.C., regardless of the fact that you live in the US or are a global traveler.
It’s a unique city full of famous and amazing monuments. You can spend days exploring the parks, museums, statues and monuments. But one thing is for sure: if you decide to visit it one day, make sure you do research and have some information before your trip. It will be more interesting if you know a little about the history of the monument you’re visiting.
All the sights are beautiful and very interesting, but the “wall monuments” are especially thrilling for me. The first wall monument is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (1982). This fund for the memorial was founded by Jan Scruggs (a Vietnam War veteran) and is devoted to all of the servicemen of the Vietnam war (1955-1972).
“The Wall” is designed by an American architect Maya Lin. It consists of two 246-foot long granite walls that start very low and gradually go higher reaching 10.1 feet at the point where these two walls meet. There are 58,261 names (as of May 2009) of the servicemen who took part in the war etched on the walls.
This sight is full of visitors all year round. People come to honor the memory of those who were killed or classified as missing in action. Some put flowers, candles or old photographs by the wall, others put notes and letters that give you a chill when you read them.
The scene is really breathtaking. You stand in front of the black wall and see thousands of engraved names, and each one of them has a history. This makes you think about some important things in life and all of your daily problems seem to vanish when you compare them to that huge wall.
If you, for any reason, can’t visit the Vietnam Veteran Memorial, you should be attentive not to miss “The Traveling Memorial Wall” as well. “The Traveling Memorial Wall” is the smaller version of the original wall in Washington, DC. It gives the opportunity for people who can’t visit the capital to honor the memory of their loved ones in their own home towns.
Besides “The Wall,” the memorial also includes “The Three Soldiers.” This is a bronze statue of a White American, an African American, and a Hispanic American, that look in tribute at the names of the main wall from some distance away.
This statue was designed by Frederick Hart and is undoubtedly one of the most impressive statues I’ve ever seen, and together with the main wall it creates a very dramatic scene.
The final part of the memorial is the “Vietnam Women’s Memorial,” which was designed by Glenna Goodacre. The statue consists of 3 women, one of who is praying (“Faith”), another one is looking up (“Hope”) and the other one is holding a wounded soldier (“Charity”).
In my next post I will tell about another astonishing wall: the Korean War Veterans Memorial.
Photo: © Américo Nunes, yeowatzup, cliff1066™
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