Tuesday June 8th - Saturday June 11th 1999

Washington is a city of monuments, many to presidents, others to soldiers. These are some of the most impressive parts of the city, and some are a must on any tour of the city. The one that stands out the most is the Washington Monument, at 555 feet the tallest building in the city. When we were there, it was shrouded in scaffolding to facilitate repair work to deal with the damage caused by pollution and ageing. The amazing thing about the scaffolding is that not one part of it actually touches the column, a remarkable feat of engineering in itself.

The Washington Monument, shrouded in a transparent scaffolding.

Wherever I visit, I always find war memorials to be among the most moving sights. Done well, they can help bring out the futility and awfulness of war while at the same time reminding us of the ultimate sacrifice made by so many. There are many war memorials in DC to the various wars which the US has fought, but none so famous as the Vietnam memorial. It actually consists of two parts, a life-like statue of three nameless soldiers, and a wall of remembrance. The latter is stunning in its simplicity, being a black granite wall engraved with the names of all 58,202 US casualties of the war in the order in which they died. Special books are available on-site to help locate individual names on the wall.

The extremely lifelike statue of three soldiers commemorating the Vietnam war.

The stunning Vietnam memorial wall; the people give an indication of the scale.

Just up from the Vietnam memorial is the Lincoln memorial, a grandiose, Classical temple-like structure devoted to the memory of Abraham Lincoln. The building has 36 columns, representing the 36 states in the Union in Lincoln's time. The whole place is simply huge, and marks the western edge of the National Mall. Lincoln's hands are carved in the shape denoting the letters AL in sign language.

Veronika in front of the statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial.

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