Day 8: Monuments

Our last day in DC was spent having a delicious brunch and then off to the monuments before being dropped off at the airport for a early afternoon flight back to SL,UT.


Washington Monument (aka in Visual Culture terms.. the "Big White Phallus." I like to call it the "Big White Penis" that exerts its power over and over again... ok we know you're HUGE! Get over it!)


The Korean Memorial


Vietnam Memorial


I have spent alot of time and intellectual study on Maya Lin's Memorial and it was so incredibly powerful to walk down into the memorial, walk down into the silent tomb and be surrounded by all of those that were lost in the Vietnam War. I could have stayed there for hours taking it all in.

In 1981, at age 21 and while still an undergraduate at Yale, Lin won a public design competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, beating out thousands of other competition submissions. The black cut-stone masonry wall, with the names of 58,253 fallen soldiers carved into its face,was completed in late October 1982. The wall is granite and V-shaped, with one side pointing to the Lincoln Memorial and the other to the Washington Monument.

Lin's conception was to create an opening, a wound in the earth to symbolize the gravity of the loss of the many soldiers. Although initially controversial, the memorial has since become an important pilgrimage site for relatives and friends of the American casualties in Vietnam where personal tokens and mementos are left at the wall daily in their memory. We saw everything from beer cans to zippo lighters to flowers.

Looking at the many names carved into the smooth and polished granite one cannot get away from one's own projected image on the flat surface and it really hits you how powerful and haunting the memorial is. Your image is reflected back off of the names. You could be one of them... and in the background the symbol of American power and strength, the Washington Monument looms and is reflected back through the black cold stone. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. It moved me to tears.


Lincoln Monument




World War II Memorial








A fitting last picture for not two hours later we were on a plane flying over the Mall and beautiful DC heading home to Utah.


Thanks Bec for letting us sleep on your floor, dropping us off and picking us up at the metro every day and going with us to get delicious food! We are so happy for you getting your house and even more pleased that we were able to help you, from paint to boxes, with this new life changing step into becoming a home-owner!