Monumental Memorials

The Washington Monument reopened earlier this month. It was closed for three years after a rare and minor earthquake in 2011 caused structural damage, making it unsafe for visitors. It took engineers 33 months to repair more than 150 cracks, and cost a reported $15 million. There was a ceremony to honor the occasion.

Monuments and memorials tie us to our past and teach us lessons for the future. Official memorials must be pre-approved by an act of Congress. There are 29 official national monuments located throughout the United States, and they are owned and managed by the National Park Service. Fourteen of them are in our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. and receive millions of visitors each year. As we approach Memorial Day, btw takes a look at a few of the notable national monuments throughout the United States, focusing on those located outside of D.C.

Remembering Famous Americans

• Benjamin Franklin National Memorial (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) – Sculpted in 1911, dedicated in 1938 and officially made a national memorial in 1972, this 20-foot marble statue of one of our Founding Fathers is considered the only “privately owned” national monument in the United States. In 2008, it underwent a major renovation that included many state-of-the-art upgrades and a multi-media presentation.

• General Grant National Memorial (New York, New York) – Commonly known as Grant’s Tomb (mostly because of a lingering 1950s game show joke ), this monument is the burial place of our 18^th president, who was also the Commanding General of the Union Army during the Civil War. It was completed in 1897, twelve years after Grant’s death and is the largest mausoleum (a building where tombs are kept above ground).

• Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial (Lincoln City, Indiana) – Our 16^th president was born in Kentucky and later settled in Illinois, but he spent age 7 to 21 in Indiana. He has said that many of his moral values were formed there. This memorial site includes two memorial halls, a museum, wooded trail and the Living Historical Farm, a re-created homestead with a cabin, animals and crops.

Honoring Events

• Wright Brothers National Memorial (Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina) – Last fall, btw brought you news of a new player in the birth of human flight. But North Carolina will remain the site commemorating the Wright Brothers first successful airplane flight. The dedication ceremony for the monument, erected in 1927, was one of the few to honor a person still living (Orville Wright).

• Oklahoma City National Memorial (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) – When Timothy McVeigh blew up the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, it was then the deadliest act of terrorism on American soil. The blast killed 168 people and injured nearly 700 more. The memorial, formally dedicated in 2000, sits on 3.3 acres and features a reflecting pool, field of empty chairs with the names of each victim and a survivors wall.

• Flight 93 National Memorial (Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania) – On September 11, 2001, passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93 kept terrorists from reaching their intended target and crashed their plane into a field in Southwest Pennsylvania. Phase One of the permanent memorial was dedicated on September 10, 2011.

Dig Deeper The 9/11 Memorial and Museum, at the site of the World Trade Center, also recently opened. Do some research and then write a paragraph about the accomplishments and challenges of the creation of the memorial.