Presidential memorial built as a memorial to the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence
General Information
Take 14th St NW to Raoul Wallenberg Pl SW. Turn left onto Raoul Wallenberg Pl SW. Slight left onto Maine Ave SW. Follow Ohio Dr SW to E Basin Dr SW.
The Jefferson Memorial is a presidential memorial built in Washington, D.C. between 1939 and 1943 under the sponsorship of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt thought that it was a suitable memorial to the Founding Fathers of the United States and to Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the founder of the Democratic-Republican Party.
The neoclassical building is situated in West Potomac Park on the shore of the Potomac River. It was designed by John Russell Pope and built by Philadelphia contractor John McShain. Construction began in 1939 and was completed in 1943. The bronze statue of Jefferson was added in 1947. Pope made references to the Roman Pantheon whose designer was Apollodorus of Damascus, and to Jefferson's own design for the rotunda at the University of Virginia. The Jefferson Memorial and the White House form one of the main anchor points in the area of the National Mall in D.C.
In 2007, it was ranked fourth on the "List of America's Favorite Architecture" by the American Institute of Architects.
The Jefferson Memorial is composed of circular marble steps, a portico, a circular colonnade of Ionic order columns, and a shallow dome. The building is open to the elements. It has a diameter of approximately 165 feet (50 m).
The memorial is constructed of white Imperial Danby marble from Vermont, which rests upon a series of granite and marble-stepped terraces. A flight of granite and marble stairs and platforms, flanked by granite buttresses, lead up from the Tidal Basin to a portico with a triangular pediment.
The pediment features a sculpture by Adolph Alexander Weinman depicting the Committee of Five, the five members of the drafting committee of the Declaration of Independence. Besides Jefferson, the members of this committee were John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston. A cornice with an egg and dart molding surrounds this pediment, below which is a plain frieze.
The interior of the memorial has a 19 feet (5.8 m) tall, 10,000 lb (4,500 kg) bronze statue of Jefferson by the sculptor Rudulph Evans. The statue was added four years after the dedication.
The site of the monument is in West Potomac Park, in Washington, D.C., on the shore of the Potomac River Tidal Basin, and is enhanced with the massed planting of Japanese cherry trees, a gift from the people of Japan in 1912.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Jefferson Memorial", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0
Jefferson Memorial Pics
