Following Donald Trump’s election to the presidency in 2016, he had a celebratory function including fireworks on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial; untouched then since its dedication in 1922. If re-elected to the presidency in 2024, he will find the Lincoln Memorial under siege by inept contractors doing irreparable damage and compromising the security of the Memorial itself.
As you may know, much of Washington, D.C., was built on a backfilled swamp, including the Lincoln Memorial that is situated next to the Potomac River. Our research indicates that in order to find a secure foundation for the Memorial, the builders went down 40 feet into the swamp to the bedrock and came up with giant columns to ground level. They continued with the columns another 40 feet in the air and these columns and archways (known as the undercroft) are the elevated foundation upon which the Lincoln Memorial actually sits.
When it was completed, earth was backfilled around it to give it the appearance of sitting on a hill, and of course, a long marble staircase makes the assent to the gallery level and Lincoln’s statue.
In an interview with the National Park Service ranger (a retired teacher; 13 years with the park service; he gives public tours of the Lincoln Memorial and the National Post Office building), he said that following 9/11, Homeland Security came to check out the vulnerability of the Lincoln Memorial to any terrorist threat.
He indicated that it was determined at that time that the only access to the basement (undercroft) was limited space at the south end of the Memorial with one elevator shaft going down to the restrooms at that location, but no basement space under the rest of the Memorial. A dynamite blast set off under the south end would not take down the Memorial. He went on to indicate that the experts did determine at that time that a blast under the center of the Memorial would take it down. At that time there was no access underneath to get to the center of the Memorial.
All of that has changed now with this completely unnecessary and misplaced project of tunneling under the Memorial to its center to make space for, of all things, a souvenir shop, a movie theater and a small museum when right across the street from the Memorial there is a several acre vacant parcel of land that would more than accommodate these things in a building which could be built above ground without disturbing the iconic Lincoln Memorial.
Why was this venture capitalist allowed to do such a thing to the Memorial to begin with? The Lincoln Memorial was patterned after the Parthenon atop the Acropolis in Ancient Greece. The Parthenon has stood for 2500 years and the Lincoln Memorial was built to stand the test of time itself if left alone by those wanting to make money off of souvenirs and a movie theater. Plus, once you have a movie theater, you can show any movies you want in the future (the ‘woke politics’ of the day).
Above the head of Lincoln’s seated statue, we find the following words:
“In this TEMPLE as in the hearts of the people
for whom he saved the Union
the memory of Abraham Lincoln
is enshrined forever.”
A temple is contemplative of eternal verity (truth). A museum is educational. If this ‘Rape’ of the Lincoln Memorial is permitted to stand, it will become known in the common parlance as “The Lincoln Museum”. You can’t have it both ways in the public mind and in the language.
Yours very sincerely and respectfully,
Martin Palmer
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