Last updated: April 23, 2024
Place
Information Panel: Avenue of Heroes
NPS / Claire Hassler
Quick Facts
Amenities
1 listed
Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits
Memorial Avenue was created at the same time as Arlington Memorial Bridge to serve as a ceremonial entrance to Arlington National Cemetery. The avenue was orginally planned to be flanked by numerous statues of American heroes. Seven memorials have been placed along it since 1960.
At the western terminus of the avenue, a large hemicycle was constructed that today houses the Women in Military Service for America Memorial. The avenue is partly enclosed by a hedge of American holly and white oak trees, the primary historical vegetation of the landscape. Several transportation corridors (Highway 110 and a DC Metro line) pass unseen below grade, but they appear on the avenue as entrance and exit roads, elevators, escalators, and signs. The composite features of the Memorial Avenue corridor landscape are significant as important elements in the neoclassical urban design of the National Capital as it evolved during the first third of the 20th century.
Images, clockwise from upper left:
American Armed Forces Memorial
Seabees of the U.S. Navy Memorial
101st Army Airborne Division Memorial
Admiral Richard Byrd Memorial
United Spanish War Veterans Memorial
Fourth Infantry Division Memorial
Background image: The western terminus of Memorial Avenue in 2005.
At the western terminus of the avenue, a large hemicycle was constructed that today houses the Women in Military Service for America Memorial. The avenue is partly enclosed by a hedge of American holly and white oak trees, the primary historical vegetation of the landscape. Several transportation corridors (Highway 110 and a DC Metro line) pass unseen below grade, but they appear on the avenue as entrance and exit roads, elevators, escalators, and signs. The composite features of the Memorial Avenue corridor landscape are significant as important elements in the neoclassical urban design of the National Capital as it evolved during the first third of the 20th century.
Images, clockwise from upper left:
American Armed Forces Memorial
Seabees of the U.S. Navy Memorial
101st Army Airborne Division Memorial
Admiral Richard Byrd Memorial
United Spanish War Veterans Memorial
Fourth Infantry Division Memorial
Background image: The western terminus of Memorial Avenue in 2005.