Lincoln Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial at the western end of the National Mall in Washington D.C. was built 1915-1922 to a design by Henry Bacon in honour of the 16th president Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865). It imitates a Doric Greek temple with 36 columns - one for each US state at Lincoln's death - and houses Daniel Chester French's 5.80-metre marble statue of the seated president. The side walls carry the Gettysburg Address and Lincoln's Second Inaugural carved in stone. On the steps Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963 to 250,000 participants in the March on Washington; an inscription on the eighteenth step marks the spot. Open day and night and free to enter, the view back along the Reflecting Pool to the Washington Monument is one of the defining images of America.