First Division Monument

The First Division Monument sits in President's Park just south of the White House and commemorates the dead of the U.S. 1st Infantry Division, the famed Big Red One. Erected in 1924 to a design by New York architect Cass Gilbert, a gilded bronze figure of the winged victory goddess Nike crowns its tall granite shaft. Tablets were later added for the division's fallen in World War II, Vietnam and the Gulf War, turning the memorial into a layered record of American military history. Today it stands on one of the busiest tourist axes in Washington between the White House and the Ellipse. Visitors can read the inscriptions and find a quieter counterpoint to the grand National Mall memorials.