Audio
Ranger Reflections: The Views
Transcript
This is Michael Kelly of the National Parks Service interpreting the views from the Lincoln Memorial.
A great civil war had come to the Republic with North against South, brother against brother. President Abraham Lincoln recognized the symbol of a safe and secure Washington and sought to protect it with powerful armies and naval forces and a ring of fortifications. Just as President Lincoln sat securely within the White House surrounded by a ring of forts, a large marble statue of Abraham Lincoln now sits within an enormous white marble edifice surrounded by 36 columns symbolizing the states of the Union and those state soldiers who marched to Washington to fight in Lincoln’s armies and guard his forts.
All around him stand symbols of the Union and the reuniting of the country after civil war. Any visitor to the Lincoln Memorial recognizes its awesome, inspiring, and impressive vistas. From the west colonnade of the Memorial, one appreciates the view to the west from which Abraham Lincoln rose from obscurity to become perhaps our nations greatest President. And in addition, an incomparable panorama lies before ones eyes, that of the mighty Potomac River beyond which lies Arlington National Cemetery and the home of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. From Lee’s house, Arlington Memorial Bridge spans the river and symbolically links Lee, the very symbol of Virginia and the Confederacy, with Lincoln, the preeminent symbol of the North and the Union. Perhaps the greatest vista is that which extends east from the heart of the Memorial chamber. The Lincoln Memorial proudly crowns the National Malls post civil war western terminus sharing prominence with the Washington Monument.
From within his temple, to the secured union of states, the marble Lincoln confidentially gazes eastward across ground that stretches like the stripes of the American flag towards a rising sun. The completed Washington Monument dominates his view, testament to American ability to overcome exclusion as does the completed Capital whose dome symbolizes the strength of an American union. At the foot of Capital Hill 2 miles distant stands the memorial to General Ulysses S. Grant. Lincoln looks at Grant and Grant looks at Lincoln while between them stands the monument to George Washington. This is not a random setting. Lincoln the political savior and Grant the military savior relied on each other and together they saved the Union. The Union that George Washington helped to create during the American Revolution and to maintain as first President of the United States
Description
Listen to Park Ranger Michael Kelly explore symbolism expressed in the views and vistas of the Lincoln Memorial.
Duration
2 minutes, 31 seconds
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