Big day planned. We were supposed to do the monuments yesterday, but with the weather set for a maximum of 2C and an apparent temperature somewhere around -11C, we decided to put it off. Wise move it would seem. Today was headed for a high of 14C and much less wind chilly stuff.
We set off by bus heading for the back side of the White House to start off our walking tour, but somehow got on the wrong bus and ended up near the National Archives instead. Nevermind, we could walk up to the White House from there, so off we went. Bit chilly but no where near as bad as yesterday so all good. Noticed there is a Starbucks on nearly every corner so felt obliged to pop in for a B&B (beverage and bagel) to prepare ourselves for the day.
We ended up on the South Lawn of the White House first which, quite frankly looked like it could use a bit of watering. The distance at which visitors are kept away from the building these days renders it somewhat unimpressive. It is impossible to do a tour here now if you are foreign. You have to be someone or know someone to get near the place. You see, a visiting US citizen can apply to their Congressman to get a pass to do a White House tour, but a visiting foreign national needs to apply through the State Department with endorsement from their nation’s ambassador (in our case, Mr Kim Beasley). So you go to the White House website, and it refers you to the State Dept website, which refers you to your own Embassy’s website which tells you they can’t be fucked applying on your behalf. So, meh. No touring the White House for us Aussies… doesn’t matter, last I heard the place was pretty trashed by Channing Tatum and a bunch of wanna be terrorists during Jamie Foxx’s administration anyway.
From there we strolled past a never ending line of souvenir vans and hot dog vendors to go to check out the World War II memorial, which is a very impressive marble and cast bronze space memorializing all the states that participated in the engagements in the Atlantic and the Pacific. Oddly, there is no mention of the allied troops that fought in WWII, that museum is in New Orleans, not in the nation’s capital?!
There are some distinct upsides to travelling at this time of year – hardly any tourists so it is easier to take your photograph without being surrounded by people shouting ‘Daaad! Go stand next to Chris!’ and much less struggle involved in getting pics with fewer other visitors in them. The downside seems to be that all the lovely water features, fountains and reflection pools are empty because, well, they’d fucking freeze up. We walked past a leaking tap on our way from the WWII memorial beside an empty reflection pool, and saw this on the grass…
So no pretty reflections for us. Still, a lovely walk down the tree lined avenue towards the Lincoln Memorial, punctuated by very adventurous squirrels was had.
I think the Lincoln Memorial may well be one of the most impressive edifices (well, you pluralise ‘edifice’, without making something sounding like educated poo particles!), I have ever seen – and having travelled extensively through Europe, that is really saying something. It stands alone in an elevated position, a towering and commanding building with a majestic outlook towards the Washington Monument (one which would probably be even more spectacular were the reflection pool full!). Steps lead up to the oversized statue of Lincoln giving the visitor a sense of height and lofty elevation – preparing them for the grand ideals contained inside. It is extremely well designed.
Again the lack of tourists were on our side and we were able to get photographs of the statue without random strangers cluttering up our photos which is always a bonus in my book. The vista out over the Mall I can imagine is very impressive when the reflection pool is full. It seems they have been doing quite a bit of restoration since the earthquake that hit near Washington in 2011, the Washington Monument itself has been unaccessible to visitors since then and is half under scaffolding as they rehabilitate the monument and the reflection pool appears to have undergone and entire resealing and an installation of a filtration system due to works needed since the earthquake as well.
Our next stops were right nearby, being the Vietnam War memorial and the Korean War Memorials. The Vietnam War is famous for it’s long straight panels of black granite, engraved with over 58,000 names of soldiers whose lives were claimed by that conflict. It is a simple, elegant and unpretentious memorial to those who perished there and hauntingly reflects your own face and the faces of those around you when you look closely to read the names of those lost, due to the high mirror finish on the granite. There is one lonely American flag flying nearby and no pomp or undue ceremony, it is particularly sombre and rightly so.
The Korean War Memorial on the other hand is literally far more figurative showing men traversing through terrain with their packs, rifles, radios and equipment looking fearful yet determined as they trudge in formation upwards towards…? I am not sure? the enemy? victory? history? They have direction and purpose, but the intent is a little unclear as they are facing a flag and flanked by a wall engraved with faces.
After this we went across the street to the relatively new Martin Luther King Jnr memorial, which from the street side looked like a large white granite mountain cleaved down the middle. On the other side of it, carved into the granite was a statue of MLK himself looking stately and larger than life overlooking the Tidal Basin. It was not far from here at the Lincoln Memorial that he gave his famous ‘I had a dream…’ speech at the Million Man March. Either side of the white granite boulders were more granite panels engraved with famous quotes made in speeches around the country.
Across the Tidal Basin, you could see the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in the distance, this was going to be our final stop in our tour of the monuments today, and we were headed past the Franklin D Roosevelt Memorial to get to it. The Roosevelt monument was no where near as grand as the Lincoln Memorial or the Jefferson Memorial, but it rather suited what we know of Roosevelt. He was concerned with the common man, with abolishing poverty, with rights for workers, and attempted to encompass all citizens. The monument was sprawling and meandered through large granite blocks interspersed with large bronze statues of regular people doing every day things. It was humbling to read the words and ideals of Roosevelt and easy to feel that these ideals have been left behind in the modern political arena.
Further around the Tidal Basin is the Jefferson Memorial, which was built to commemorate Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, and by all accounts one of the most thoroughly well educated men I’ve ever heard of – books and knowledge were his passions and he spent the vast majority of his life reading and acquiring knowledge of science, history, philosophy and all good things. The memorial sits on man-made basin that connects to the Potomac and is an imposing marble rotunda that houses a gigantic bronze likeness of Jefferson himself. I can imagine the walk around these monuments will be absolutely gorgeous in about a months time when the Cherry Blossom Festival is in full swing and all the trees in the area are in flower – at the moment, the trees are all bare and the wind coming off the river is cutting.
And there endeth our Day of Monuments… not because we were out of monuments, for there were many still to see, but rather because I was totally out of steam. Was so glad we had held over doing the monuments for the warmer weather.