The Jefferson Memorial, taken in March 2009 during the Cherry Blossom Festival

 I love the building for the Jefferson Memorial, the Greek temple feeling, the way it sits across the Tidal Basin from the rest of the Mall area. Because it was so far on the other side of the Basin, I didn't get a chance to see it up close on my visit last year.

Good grief he's tall!

This trip, despite the heat and humidity, we made a point of walking around the Basin (and gobs of obstructionist construction) to see Jefferson. (I posted my Franklin and Jefferson posts out of order, since we actually saw Jefferson first, then walked through Franklin backwards, but oh well.) Up close, the building is, sad to say, a little less impressive. It seemed a little dingy, and smelled a bit like stale sewer water. Maybe that was just the heat, or the construction.

The statue is impressively large, at any rate, and there are nice excerpts from Jefferson's writings on the walls. I can't say that Jefferson is my favorite president - I mean, I am incredibly impressed with everything he did and studied and invented, but somehow he just leaves me a bit cold. Perhaps a hangover from the semester I had to spend studying him and the movie Jefferson in Paris for a high school research paper? 

Anyway, I hope that his monument gets a good cleaning and a polish once the construction is done outside.  And if a few more people learn something about democracy by visiting, then I am not going to be upset. But I'd recommend they take a trip to Franklin Roosevelt when they are done!

Monuments and memorials

OK - at least one more DC post for you today - the Monuments and Memorials. It seems impossible to see all the monuments and memorials in DC, especially in the space of one afternoon. Despite the short time frame, I did manage to see quite a few. You can't miss the Washington Monument, since it towers over DC, and the mall in particular. It was so omni-present that I took far too many pictures of it.

I did not do anything on this list, however, but then, I didn't go up in the monument itself. You have to stand in line to get tickets (and then stand in line with the tickets, just like at Disneyland, but without the music and scary, life-sized cartoon characters). No time for that for this blogger, so I just took the pictures and moved on.

Nearby to the Washington Monument is the World War II Memorial. The columns with wreaths stand for each state, and continue all the way around the fountain. It is tasteful, but somehow it was far less moving than the Vietnam Memorial.

Seeing the sheer number of names alone is striking, sobering. There was a volunteer with a handy-dandy little computer index who would look up names for you, if needed, and help you find them on the wall. The wall itself is a mirror, and a blackness that absorbs the light.

The Lincoln Monument is also quite striking, and I would have liked to sit there and watch it for a while, but without all the other people.

This strange monument was in Alexandria, near our metro stop. It is the George Washington Masonic Memorial. Hmm. Just what is it with all these pointy topped monuments?!

I didn't get to see the Capitol Building, except from afar, and never got close to the Jefferson Memorial. And there are countless other memorials and monuments that I would like to see, whenever I get back to DC...So I guess I had better go!