Wednesday 25 November 2015

USA 2015 - Washington DC

Into Washington DC, capitol territory and probably home to the greatest concentration of lawyers on the planet!

View of Jefferson Memorial from our hotel room

It’s neat, it’s symmetric, it’s interesting and it has lots of history on display, but it’s also rather without a soul in the very centre – a lack of restaurants and bars and other places of social congregation. However, it has lots to see and learn about, and we did just that.

Washington Monument

Flags at half mast after the Paris terrorist attacks

Lincoln Memorial

The man himself

Looking back up The Mall from Lincoln Memorial

The (survivors) Soldiers, overlooking the Vietnam Memorial


1959-1975 and over 57,000 names

The small crosses signify Missing In Action

Someone being remembered

The mirror of the stone




I first saw the Vietnam Memorial in '86 en route home from Dallas and remembered how moving it was then.  This time I saw less people touching names and staring at someone dear lost in that conflict. At one moment, I was rather dismayed at hoards of noisy school kids, clearly on an organised, rushing by the marble in what seemed a rather disrespectful and cursory dismissive manner.  Thankfully, they moved on and left the more appropriate solemn atmosphere that is reflected in the photos above.

There are some changes and additions around The Mall – Women’s, WWII, Korean War and Martin Luther King Memorials. 

Womens' Memorial

WWII Memorial
Atlantic and Pacific Theatres
States and Territories acknowledged





4,000 Stars, each 100 lives lost
"Here We Mark The Price of Freedom"


Korean Memorial
19 Soldiers advancing

Etchings and reflections in the wall
19 doubles to 38
Degrees - the parallel that divided Korea


White House South Lawn
where the President's chopper lands

North side of the White House

Plenty of Secret Service & Police presence
plus canine patrols

Secure east entrance to White Entrance

He's everywhere!
Next President?

FBI
Voted the ugliest building the World a few years ago!

The struggle between man and his budget
The man has been losing for some years!

Union Station

Inside

Supreme Court

The Capitol Building was shrouded in scaffold, which was a shame, but we enjoyed an informative tour inside. 

Capitol Hill

Capitol Building Visitors Centre

The original Senate Chamber

A rather sad Abraham Lincoln

The rotunda roof mural shrouded during repairs
to the leaking roof

Scaffold inside the rotunda

Franklin D Roosevelt Memorial

FDR in his wheelchair (polio)

"I see one-third of a Nation ill-housed ill-clad ill nourished"

There's always a joker on every tour!




Martin Luther King Memorial



Iwo Jima Memorial

Arlington Cemetery

 27 funerals per day on average
Honour guard prepares for volley

The Pentagon

It was a first to visit the National Archives to see the original so of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as well as a visit to the Smithsonian Museum of American History. I also managed a quick sortie into the Air & Space Museum, while Jean perused art next door.


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