Sunday, February 3, 2013

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was designed by Maya Lin. Her concept was picked out of a pool of over 2000 applicants (The display board is pictured below). She wanted to create a park within a park - a quiet protected place onto itself, yet harmonious with the overall plan of Constitution Gardens. The walls have a mirror-like surface (polished black granite) reflecting the images of the surrounding trees, lawns, monuments, and visitors. The walls seem to stretch into the distance, directing us towards the Washington Monument, in the east, and the Lincoln Memorial, to the west, thus bring the Vietnam Veterans Memorial into a historical context. The wall is accompanied by a sculpture and a flagpole.

Each of the walls is 246.75 feet long, composed of 70 separate inscribed granite panels, plus 4 at the end without names. The panels themselves are 40 inches in width; the largest panels have 137 lines of names, while the shortest have one; there are five names on each line, although with new additions of names, some lines now have six. The walls are supported by 140 concrete pilings driven approximately 35 feet to bedrock; at the vertex the walls are
10.1 feet in height.





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