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!