Mirjam's World - Travel - USA

AN AFTERNOON IN WASHINGTON DC

It was my first time in the Capitol and I only had an afternoon to sightsee. I met with a good
friend of mine who was living there at the time and she and her husband volunteered to show
me around. They took me to explore the National Mall, which is a big park with many well
known Memorials, located in downtown Washington DC and is surrounded by many very
important buildings like the Capitol, the White House, the Smithsonian Museum, the Library of
Congress, the United States Supreme Court, the National Archives, the Bureau of Engraving,
and many, many more.

One of the most visible monuments in the city is
certainly the Washington Monument, which can be
seen from almost everywhere. It is shaped like an
Egyptian obelisk and 555 feet 5.5 inches high.

The Roosevelt Memorial (photos above) has four outdoor gallery rooms - one for each of
Roosevelt's terms as president. It also has very nice waterfalls, reflection pools, and
bronze sculptures.

Huge bronze statue of
Thomas Jefferson, which was
just a plaster model till the
end of the WWII, is facing the
White House. The interior has
carved quotations from the
Declaration of Independence.

The National WWII
Memorial honors
more than 16
million men and
women who
served in the U.S.
armed forces and
400,000 of those
who lost their lives
on its battle fields.

The view from and towards the Lincoln Memorial must be one of the most famous in
the park, due to many famous gatherings and speeches that happened and are still
happening here, with the most famous one being Martin Luther King's "I have a dream"
speech in 1963. This memorial to the 16th President, Abraham Lincoln, was finished in
1922 and was constructed in the style of a classical Greek temple with 36 columns
meant to represent the Union at the time of Abraham Lincoln's death.

We finished our tour by the Korean War Veterans
Memorial.

The statues of nineteen soldiers that represent men of
various ethnic origins were becoming eerie, ghostly
images in a decreasing evening light. The simplicity of
the black granite wall, with faces of soldiers etched
into it, only increased the feeling of death, and
suffering, and also the appreciation of the fact that we
will be leaving shortly to the safety of our homes and
hotel rooms…