A stroll through the National Mall
Monuments are built in order to remember us of events, people and places. Monuments are historical, which remind us of our past and how we got to today’s world. For example the Washington monument which is the tallest building in Washington DC, the peaceful World War II monument and the huge Lincoln monument. Each of these monuments represents some part of history that we passed and has a story linked behind it. I choose these three the Washington, Lincoln and the World War II monument to write about because they have some similarities and differences. They are similar in the way they are positioned because when you stand on one end of the mall you can see all three of them in one straight line and different because they are represent different parts of history.
The Washington monument has a really interesting fact the most people would have never know of, which is that no building can be taller than the monument in the District of Columbia. In regards to this matter a while ago the statue on top of the capital was taller than the monument so they trimmed the statue on the capital and made it smaller so it wasn’t taller than the Washington monument. It also symbolizes that since Washington was the father of United States he got the tallest monument to represent what he did for our country.
The next monument I strolled through was the World War II memorial which was recently built in remembrance of the people who died while protecting the world, the two bombs that were dropped on Japan. This monument represented peace and there was pin drop silence while I was walking in and around it. The reason behind this might be that since people would imagine the horrible things that went on during those times. One really interesting fact that I noticed was that the water fountain that is in the middle has the shape of the smoke after the bombs were dropped in Japan. The only thing that was missing was the mushroom head but all the other characteristics are the same.
The final monument that I visited was the Lincoln memorial and apart for it being in a straight line in reference to the other monuments, Lincoln did free all the slaves. Even though I had no one in my family tree that was a slave in America but how every in my family tree my grand father was a slave in Kenya. He was taken from India as a slave to build railroads by the British. Getting back to the point, anyone who freed slaves took a huge step in improving humanity.
These monuments represent different things and have a lot of history behind it, whether the event was glorious or horrific. Like the Washington monument everyone is enjoying, having a picnic, throwing the ball around and having fun in the grass area around it because it represents victory against the British. However the World War II monument reminds everyone of the sad things that went on so everyone is quite and just enjoying the peaceful environment. The Lincoln memorial was extremely noisy mainly because it is in an enclosed environment and the voices echoed around and out side people are sitting on the stairs and enjoying the view of the Washington monument’s reflection in the pool of water.