Washington, DC 2 (Too) - Monumental

This is my second post with the purpose of sharing the sights from my recent vacation to Washington, DC. There is so much to see there, and of course, I can't seem to keep myself from taking an excessive amount of photos. Some of you have expressed interest in seeing the photos, so I've grouped them by content, not date, and will be posting more here soon. I hope you enjoy!

District of Columbia War Memorial - for the over 26,000 Washingtonians who served in WWI

You can't get a picture of the White House without the fence, now, because there are two fences...

The Jefferson Memorial from across the Tidal Basin

Looking at the front of the Lincoln Memorial from beside the Reflecting Pool

Now looking the other direction, toward the Washington Monument

 The Jefferson Memorial

Todd, me, and Lindsey in front of the Jefferson Memorial

Inside

  Looking up

Wise and inspirational words...

No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship or ministry...

Looking from the Jefferson Memorial across the Tidal Basin to the Washington Monument

The Martin Luther King Memorial; I had never seen this one before.

One of the waterfalls at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial.

I had never been here before either. It was beautiful, huge, and elaborate.

"In 1974, Lawrence Halprin was selected to design the 7.5 acre site adjacent to the Cherry Tree Walk on the western edge of the Tidal Basin. Halprin created a new sort of memorial, a sequence of four galleries or garden rooms, crafted in a narrative sequence to tell the story of the U.S. during the four terms of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidency. The memorial’s rooms and water features, built primarily of red South Dakota granite, use stone to express the fracture and upheaval of the times. Water, in the form of cascades, waterfalls, and pools, is a metaphorical component of the palette, with the volume and complexity escalating as the narrative progresses. The memorial also incorporates 10 bronze sculptures and 21 carved inscriptions, quotations from FDR’s speeches and radio talks. The sculptures, by Leonard Baskin, Neil Estern, Robert Graham, Thomas Hardy, and George Segal, depict images from the Depression and World War II, including a breadline and a man listening to a Fireside Chat on his radio."
https://tclf.org/landscapes/franklin-delano-roosevelt-memorial

His inspirational words were everywhere.

" The large stepped waterfall represents the Tennessee Valley Authority dam building projects, which helped stimulate the economy and electrify an area hard hit by the economic collapse."
http://www.freetoursbyfoot.com/visitors-guide-fdr-memorial/#8

I thought the Mural was really interesting; I believe it's made of copper.

"Walk straight, around the right side of the central wall, and you will see a large stepped waterfall directly in front of you with six columns standing in the center of the room. These columns are meant to represent FDR’s New Deal, depicted as rolls of an industrial printing press. The negative images are shown wrapped around the columns and then “imprinted” on the wall to your left as bronze reliefs. The images show different New Deal programs that FDR enacted to help the United States out of the Great Depression." 

George Segal created powerful sculptures to represent the despair of the Great Depression, such as this one entitled "Breadline."

Eleanor Roosevelt is one of my personal heroes, and her quote, "You must do the thing you think you cannot do" has given me great inspiration in hard times. Among her many political and activist accomplishments, she was also the first United States delegate to the United Nations.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial - no words can express how moving this is.

I hope you enjoyed my little tour of some of the monuments and memorials in Washington, DC. Next up - The Botanical Gardens and Arboretum!