Stock photography picture of Sunlight bathes the eastern facade of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC shortly after dawn

B2JEJ8 - Royalty Free Caption Sunlight bathes the eastern facade of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC shortly after dawn Description The Lincoln Memorial, in Washington, DC, was built to honour Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States. The architect was Henry Bacon. The first stone was put into place on Lincoln's birthday, 12 February 1914, and the monument was dedicated on 30 May 1922 at a ceremony attended by Lincoln's only surviving child, Robert Todd Lincoln. Unlike the Roman style of most Washington architecture, the building is in the form of a Greek Doric temple. It is constructed of Indiana limestone and Yule marble. It has 36 columns, each 10 metres high, surrounding the cella of the building itself. As an afterthought, the columns were seen to represent the 25 U.S. states at the time of Lincoln's death as well as the 11 seceded states, and their names were inscribed above each column. The names of the 48 states of the Union when the memorial was completed are carved on the exterior attic walls, and a later plaque commemorates the admission of Alaska and Hawaii in 1959. The words of the Gettysburg Address carved into one wall and Lincoln's second inaugural address is inscribed on another. Above the texts are murals by Jules Guerin that depict an angel representing truth, the freeing of a slave, and the unity of the American North and South. The temple contains a large sculpture of Lincoln seated. Sculptor Daniel Chester French depicted him as thoughtful and weary, gazing east across the Reflecting Pool toward the Washington Monument. The statue is almost six metres tall and is carved from white Georgian marble. On the wall behind Lincoln's head is the dedication, "In this temple, as in the hearts of the people from whom he saved the Union, the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever." The memorial has been the site of many famous speeches, including Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered on 28 August 1963. Keywords abraham, abraham, lincoln, america, architecture, beautiful, beauty, blue, blue, sky, capital, capitol, classical, columns, dawn, facade, famous, flags, golden, graceful, greek, historic, imposing, impressive, large, lincoln, lincoln, memorial, mall, marble, memorial, morning, nation's, capital, national, national, mall, place, president, presidential, sixteenth, president, sky, solemn, states, stone, sun, sunrise, sunshine, united, states, of, america, us, usa, washington, washington, monument, yellow