Vietnam Veterans Memorial
A black wall with more than 58,000 names of the fallen, in which the living are reflected
The story
Before you is the Wall, the memorial to the Americans who died or went missing in the Vietnam War. Two polished black granite walls meet in a wide V and sink into the earth. One arm points to the Washington Monument, the other to the Lincoln Memorial. The design was chosen unanimously in an open competition. It was designed by Maya Lin, a twenty-one-year-old architecture student at Yale. At first many people disliked it: too somber, and not like a monument at all. So in 1984 a bronze statue of three soldiers was added nearby. In 1993 a memorial to the women who served in the war followed. The Wall was dedicated in November 1982, during Veterans Day week. It carries more than fifty-eight thousand names. They are not in alphabetical order but by date of death. The list begins at the highest point, in the center, with those who died in 1959. It runs along the right arm, continues from the far end of the left arm and comes back to the center. The last to die, in May 1975, meet the first. A diamond by a name means “killed,” a cross means “missing.” If the person came back alive, the cross is circled. Look into the stone: you, the trees and the sky are reflected in it, the living beside the names. People press paper against a name and rub it with a pencil to take it home.
Visiting
Open 24 hours, free. Rangers are on duty from 9:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. The memorial is in Constitution Gardens, northeast of the Lincoln Memorial. Name directories on stands at both ends of the Wall help you find a name.
Sources
- National Park Service — Vietnam Veterans Memorial: Overview
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Vietnam Veterans Memorial
- Wikipedia (EN) — Vietnam Veterans Memorial
- National Park Service — National Mall and Memorial Parks: Operating Hours
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