When was Arlington National Cemetery first created?
Confederate Memorial (Arlington National Cemetery)
Arlington National Cemetery was established in June 1864 as a cemetery for Union (United States of America) Civil War dead. The first military burial at Arlington (a white soldier, William Henry Christman) was made on May 13, 1864, close to what is now the northeast gate in Section 27. However, formal authorization for burials was not given by Major General Montgomery C. Meigs (Quartermaster General of the United States Army) until June 15, 1864.
Arlington Memorial Amphitheater
Little additional work was done at Memorial Amphitheater until 1954. By then, settling of the amphitheater and entrance hall, cracking of walls and exterior marble, water damage, and other serious problems were beginning to affect the structure. Congress appropriated $15,000 for fiscal 1954 (which began June 30, 1953) for a year-long study of the problems. A preliminary estimate indicated that repairs would cost $179,000. But the finished study identified even more serious issues, almost all of which were caused by design deficiencies which did not take into account the seasonal expansion and contraction of the building's marble. Arlington National Cemetery officials were forced to ask Congress for $447,000 to repair the amphitheater and $179,000 to repair the entrance building. Congress approved the request.
Netherlands Carillon
The first carillon at the Arlington National Cemetery was installed by Amvets in 1949 and dedicated by president Harry S. Truman. Presumably the Netherlands Carillon superseded the original carillon, though its fate is unknown.
Arlington Memorial Amphitheater
Memorial Amphitheater is an outdoor amphitheater, exhibit hall, and nonsectarian chapel located in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, in the United States. Designed in 1913 as a replacement for the older, wooden amphitheater near Arlington House, ground was broken for its construction in March 1915 and it was dedicated in May 1920. In the center of its eastern steps is the Tomb of the Unknowns, dedicated in 1921. It has served as the site for numerous Veterans Day and Memorial Day services, as well as for memorial services and funerals for many individuals.
List of memorials and monuments at Arlington National Cemetery
A number of public improvements and memorials were planned for construction in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area for the 1932 bicentennial of the birth of George Washington, the first President of the United States and American Revolutionary War hero. Among these were Arlington Memorial Bridge and the Mount Vernon Memorial Parkway (now known as the George Washington Memorial Parkway). To link the Virginia landing of the bridge with Arlington National Cemetery, a wide avenue known as Memorial Avenue was constructed and a new entrance to the cemetery (the Hemicycle) constructed.
List of memorials and monuments at Arlington National Cemetery
Owing to space constraints, Arlington National Cemetery does not permit the construction of large memorials or monuments without an act of Congress. The cemetery does, however, encourage the donation of trees ("living memorials") and permits small memorial plaques to be placed before these plantings. As of 2011, there were 142 such memorial plaques in the cemetery.
Confederate Memorial (Arlington National Cemetery)
The Arlington Confederate Memorial Association (ACMA) was founded in 1906, although sources differ as to the exact date. On June 7, 1906, John M. Hickey of Camp No. 171, United Confederate Veterans, submitted a resolution to his local chapter authorizing the establishment of a committee on "ways and means" to erect the memorial. According to Hilary A. Herbert, the resolution in its final form established the ACMA. But historian Karen Cox puts the organization's founding at a meeting organized by Thompson and sponsored by the UDC on November 6, 1906. Local news media, however, reported that the founding occurred on December 28, 1906, when Confederate organizations in Washington, D.C., met under the auspices of Camp 171. Even the list of founding directors is not agreed upon. Herbert says the board consisted of himself as well as Hickey, J.T. Callaghan, James McDowell Carrington, F.M. Hare, the Reverend Doctor Randolph H. McKim, and Judge Seth Shepard. The "Washington Post", however, did not list Callaghan, Carrington, or Hare and instead included former Brigadier General Frank Crawford Armstrong (CSA), former Missouri Senator Francis M. Cockrell, and former West Virginia Senator Charles J. Faulkner.
Arlington National Cemetery
George Washington Parke Custis, grandson of Martha Washington and adopted son of George Washington, acquired the land that now is Arlington National Cemetery in 1802, and began construction of Arlington House, which was ultimately named after the village of Arlington, Gloucestershire, England, where his family was originally from. The estate passed to Custis' daughter, Mary Anna, who had married United States Army officer Robert E. Lee. Custis' will gave a "life inheritance" to Mary Lee, allowing her to live at and run Arlington Estate for the rest of her life but not enabling her to sell any portion of it. Upon her death, the Arlington estate passed to her eldest son, George Washington Custis Lee.
James Parks
The first graves in Arlington National Cemetery were dug by James Parks, a former Arlington Estate slave. Parks was freed in 1862 under the terms of the will of his former owner, George Washington Parke Custis. He still lived on Arlington Estate when Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton signed the orders designating Arlington as a military burial ground. Parks served in the U.S. Army from 1861 to 1929 by working as a grave digger and maintenance man for the cemetery.
Arlington Memorial Amphitheater
Ground for Memorial Amphitheater was broken on March 1, 1915. President Woodrow Wilson laid its cornerstone in a ceremony on October 13, 1915. A copper box placed in a hollowed out section of the cornerstone contained a copy of the United States Constitution, a copy of the United States Declaration of Independence, the Bible, the flag of the United States, one each of every coin and postage stamp then in circulation, a Congressional directory, a telephone directory of the District of Columbia, an autographed photograph of President Wilson, and several items connected with Arlington National Cemetery. Kimball participated in the ground-breaking and cornerstone ceremonies, but did not live to see the amphitheater completed: He died on May 15, 1916.
Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial
On March 4, 1925, the 68th United States Congress enacted Public Resolution 74, which authorized the restoration of the Lee Mansion in the Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia. The War Department then began to restore Arlington House, and the Department of the Army continues to manage over half of the original plantation's 1,100 acres, as Arlington National Cemetery. However, for several years after Congress enacted the authorizing legislation, the War Department, which was responsible for managing the house and grounds, largely ignored the legislation. Contradicting the authorizing legislation, the Department, largely at the insistence of Charles Moore, the director of the United States Commission of Fine Arts, furnished and interpreted the Mansion to “the first half of the republic.” This decision was based, in part, on the popularity of the Colonial Revival movement which was still popular in 1925. The Mansion was restored to the period of George Washington Custis, and no furniture manufactured after 1830 was accepted. This approach negated Lee's role and presence at Arlington.
Arlington National Cemetery
British Diplomat and Field Marshal Sir John Dill was buried at the cemetery when he died in Washington D.C. during World War II. He became the first non-American to be buried at this cemetery. The equestrian statue on Dill's grave is one of only two such statues at the cemetery; the other is Major General Philip Kearny's.
Confederate Memorial (Arlington National Cemetery)
After the process of informing families ended, reburials began in April 1901 and were completed the following October. It is unclear how many Confederate dead were disinterred and reburied in the new Confederate section. In 1912, the House Committee on Appropriations observed that legal authority existed for interment of 264 Confederate soldiers—128 of which came from the Soldiers' Home National Cemetery and 136 of which came from Arlington National Cemetery. More modern sources provide different numbers, however. One historian says just 128 bodies were reinterred, although the majority of sources say 264 or 267 bodies were reburied. Other sources pin the number of reinterrments at 265, 409, 482, and 500 bodies. Discrepancies may be attributable to a law, the Act of August 24, 1912 (37 Stat. 440), which permitted any Confederate veteran living in or near Washington, D.C., to be buried in the Confederate section at Arlington.
Arlington National Cemetery
With more than 400,000 interments, the cemetery has the second-largest number of burials of any national cemetery in the United States. The largest of the 130 national cemeteries is the Calverton National Cemetery, on Long Island, near Riverhead, New York, which conducts more than 7,000 burials each year.
In addition to in-ground burial, the cemetery also has one of the larger columbaria for cremated remains in the country. Four courts are currently in use, each with 5,000 niches. When construction is complete, there will be nine courts with a total of 50,000 niches; capacity for 100,000 remains. Any honorably discharged veteran is eligible for inurnment in the columbarium, if s/he served on active duty at some point in her/his career (other than for training).
Arlington National Cemetery
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier stands on top of a hill overlooking Washington, D.C. One of the more well-attended sites at the cemetery, the tomb is made from Yule marble quarried in Colorado. It consists of seven pieces, with a total weight of 79 short tons (72 metric tons). The tomb was completed and opened to the public April 9, 1932, at a cost of $48,000.
Arlington National Cemetery
On June 25, 1925, President Calvin Coolidge approved a request to erect a Commonwealth Cross of Sacrifice with the names of all the citizens of the USA who lost their lives fighting in the Canadian forces during World War I. The monument was dedicated November 11, 1927 and after the Korean War and World War II the names of US citizens who died in those conflicts were added.
Arlington National Cemetery
In 1901, Confederate soldiers buried at the Soldiers' Home and various locations within Arlington were reinterred in a Confederate section that was authorized by Congress in 1900. On June 4, 1914, the United Daughters of the Confederacy dedicated the Confederate Memorial designed by Moses Ezekiel. Upon his death in 1917, Ezekiel was buried at the base of the monument as he was a veteran of the Confederate army. All Confederate headstones in this section are peaked rather than rounded.
Tanner Amphitheater
On July 16, 1862, the United States Congress passed legislation authorizing the U.S. federal government to purchase land for national cemeteries for military dead, and put the U.S. Army Quartermaster General in charge of this program. At this time, the Soldiers' Home in nearby Washington, D.C., and the Alexandria Cemetery were the primary burying grounds for war dead in the D.C. area, but by late 1863 both cemeteries were full. In May 1864, large numbers of Union forces died in the Battle of the Wilderness. Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs ordered that an examination of eligible sites be made for the establishment for a large new national military cemetery. Within weeks, his staff reported that Arlington Estate was the most suitable property in the area. The estate was high and free from floods (which might unearth graves), it had a view of the District of Columbia, and it was aesthetically pleasing. It was also the home of the leader of the armed forces of the Confederate States of America, and denying Robert E. Lee use of his home after the war was a valuable political consideration. Although the first military burial at Arlington was made on May 13, Meigs did not authorize establishment of burials until June 15, 1864.
United States National Cemetery System
The United States National Cemetery System is a system of 147 nationally important cemeteries in the United States. The authority to create military burial places came during the American Civil War, in an act passed by the U.S. Congress on July 17, 1862. By the end of 1862, 14 national cemeteries had been established (see text of photo). A national cemetery is generally a military cemetery containing the graves of U.S. military personnel, veterans and their spouses, but not exclusively so. The best known national cemetery is Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, outside Washington, D.C.. Some national cemeteries, especially Arlington, contain the graves of important civilian leaders and other important national figures. Some national cemeteries also contain sections for Confederate soldiers. In addition to national cemeteries, there are also state veteran cemeteries.
Arlington National Cemetery mismanagement controversy
Allegations of mismanagement at Arlington Cemetery were first raised in 2008. The widow of a United States Army soldier complained that the wrong headstone was on her husband's grave. A Pentagon investigation found that two servicemen had been buried in the same grave. Cemetery workers had also buried the cremated remains of a servicemember in a grave which was already in use, but unmarked. The cremation error was discovered in May 2008 and the remains buried in an unused grave. However, Arlington National Cemetery officials may not have followed proper procedures in notifying the servicemember's next of kin about the reburial.
Arlington Memorial Amphitheater
An Easter sunrise service has been held at Memorial Amphitheater every year since 1931. The first such service was held in 1931 and organized by the Knights Templar, a group of Freemasons. Music was provided by the United States Marine Band. President Herbert Hoover attended the service, along with several thousand people. Along with Memorial Day and Veterans Day ceremonies, it is one of the annual and most well-attended events in the amphitheater.
Confederate Memorial (Arlington National Cemetery)
The federal government's policy toward Confederate graves at Arlington National Cemetery changed radically at the end of the 19th century.
Arlington National Cemetery
The national cemetery was established during the Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, which had been the estate of Confederate general Robert E Lee's wife Mary Anna Custis Lee (a great-granddaughter of Martha Washington). The Cemetery, along with Arlington House, Memorial Drive, the Hemicycle, and the Arlington Memorial Bridge, form the Arlington National Cemetery Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in April 2014.
Navy Annex
In January 2013, the County Manager of Arlington County, Virginia, and the Executive Director of the Army National Military Cemeteries (consisting of Arlington National Cemetery and the United States Soldiers' and Airmen's Home National Cemetery) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Arlington County Board and the Department of the Army to expand the Cemetery even further. Under the tentative plan, Arlington County would give up the easement for Southgate Road (which lies between the Navy Annex property and the cemetery's 2012 boundary), and obtain a narrow easement along the southwest border of the Navy Annex site for a new Southgate Road. In exchange, the Department of Defense would give the Navy Annex parking lot to the county.
Arlington National Cemetery
In 2014, volunteers placed over 700,000 memorial wreaths at 1,000 locations in the United States and overseas, including the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, Bunker Hill, Valley Forge, and the National September 11 Memorial at the World Trade Center site in New York City. During that year, volunteers were able to place wreaths in all sections of the cemetery for the first time. In 2016, this number increased to 1.2 million wreaths being placed at more than 1,230 cemeteries across the nation.
UA Archives (Upper Arlington, Ohio)
The UA Archives website launched on September 15, 2004, after two years of planning and over 1,500 hours of work. At that time it included historical photographs depicting little known facts about early life in the community. One photograph shows the Marble Cliff Depot, a railroad station known originally as the Scioto Depot. This station house served the Upper Arlington area until the late 1920s and was located on the south side of Fifth Avenue just east of the Pennsylvania tracks, near the present day entrance to First Community Village. Another photograph shows the first teacher and students in Upper Arlington at a time when classes were held in the basement of the home of King Thompson, one of Upper Arlington's founders. Yet another captures a scene from Camp Willis, a military training camp located in Upper Arlington during the community's early development in 1916. Ohio Guardsmen were trained at this camp to defend the United States against cross-border attacks from Pancho Villa's Mexican troops.
Baltimore National Cemetery
The area of the Baltimore National Cemetery was once part of an elevated site in Baltimore, referred to as early as 1750 as the Cloud Capped estate. It was originally owned by the Baltimore Company and Charles Carroll of Carrollton. In 1890 it was acquired by Blanchard and Susan Randall. When the nearby Loudon Park National Cemetery was deemed full, the War Department surveyed the area for a new site. In 1936 the federal government took possession of the land for a cost of $95,000, and began converting the estate to "Little Arlington". The old mansion was demolished, fences were put up, roads were constructed, and landscaping was done as part of a Works Progress Administration to invest in infrastructure during the Great Depression.The first interment took place on December 22, 1936, but the cemetery was not formally dedicated until May 30, 1941.
Arlington Memorial Amphitheater
On May 24, 1964, Memorial Amphitheater was the site of a late-afternoon ceremony celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of Arlington National Cemetery. During its 50th year anniversary in 1969, the American Legion, along with the American Legion Auxiliary donated an exterior lighting system so that Memorial Amphitheater and the Tomb of the Unknowns could remain lit at night. In the midst of ceremonies also marking the 50th anniversary of the Paris Caucus – President Richard Nixon formally took possession of the lighting system in the nation’s name, flipping the switch that turned the lights on.
Construction of Arlington Memorial Bridge
The first public concert was held at the Lincoln Memorial watergate on July 14, 1935. The National Park Service paved the D.C. approaches to Arlington Memorial Bridge that same month.
Tanner Amphitheater
The popularity of Arlington as a site for patriotic meetings and Civil War remembrance events soared after the establishment of Decoration Day (later known as Memorial Day). Spontaneous decoration of Civil War graves and the maintenance of cemeteries had occurred since the early days of the war in both the North and the South since the earliest days of the war. John A. Logan, a former Major General in the Union Army, had been elected "Commander in Chief" of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization for Union Civil War veterans. Aware of the growing acceptance of Decoration Day as a holiday, Logan issued a statement on May 5, 1868, calling for "Decoration Day" to be observed nationwide on an annual basis. Logan set the date for May 30, because it was not the anniversary of any particular battle.
Arlington National Cemetery mismanagement controversy
As part of the ongoing investigation into the cemetery's mismanagement, the United States Army Corps of Engineers conducted a comprehensive investigation of Arlington's buildings, facilities, infrastructure, roads, and other systems between July 2010 and June 2011. The Corps discovered that, for roughly the past 20 years, ANC managers conducted maintenance and repair only when systems were on the verge of "catastrophic failure". This diverted funds away from a preventive maintenance program, which was never implemented.
The Arts of War and The Arts of Peace
Congress finally authorized construction of the Arlington Memorial Bridge in 1925. Major traffic jams clogged the narrow and decrepit Highway Bridge during the November 1921 dedication of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, angering members of Congress and President Warren G. Harding. Recognizing the need for a new bridge, Congress enacted legislation in June 1922 funding at last the work of the Arlington Memorial Bridge Commission. The bridge commission on April 4, 1923, chose the architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White to design the structure. Architect William Mitchell Kendall was the lead designer.
Montgomery C. Meigs
Meigs was one of the principal architects of Arlington National Cemetery; the choice of its location, on Robert E. Lee's family estate, Arlington House, was partly a gesture to humiliate Lee for siding with the Confederacy.
Navy Annex
A 1998 Congressional proposal to expand Arlington National Cemetery onto land that the Navy Annex and Fort Myer then occupied led to concerns that Arlington County officials had not been properly consulted, leading to the withdrawal of the proposal. However, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000 (Public Law 106-65), which was enacted into law during October 1999, subsequently required the Secretary of Defense to transfer to the Secretary of the Army administrative jurisdiction of the Navy Annex property. The Act required the Secretary of Defense to demolish the Annex's buildings and prepare the property for use as part of the Cemetery, while requiring the Secretary of the Army to incorporate the Annex property into the Cemetery.
Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial
In 1995, officials of the United States Department of the Interior and the United States Department of the Army signed an agreement to transfer from Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial, to the Army a part of Arlington Woods, which was located in Section 29 of the NPS at Arlington National Cemetery between Arlington House and Fort Myer. The property transfer, which involved of NPS land, was intended to enable the Cemetery to increase its space for burials.
Environmentalists expressed concerns that the agreement would result in the partial destruction of the remnant of an historically important stand of native trees. Nevertheless, Congress enacted legislation in September 1996 authorizing the transfer.
List of memorials and monuments at Arlington National Cemetery
In 2012, legislation began moving through Congress to approve a "Place of Remembrance" at Arlington National Cemetery. The memorial will be an ossuary designed to contain fragments of remains which are unidentifiable through DNA analysis. The legislation required that these remains be cremated before placement in the memorial. Cemetery officials said that Arlington National Cemetery has no means of receiving and burying these remains, and placing them in the Tomb of the Unknowns would be inappropriate. The legislation leaves the design and placement of the memorial up to cemetery officials. On September 18, 2012, the House of Representatives approved the memorial, sending the legislation to the Senate. This legislation was not acted on by the Senate, and died at the end of the 112th United States Congress.
List of memorials and monuments at Arlington National Cemetery
The first memorial constructed was the Civil War Unknowns Monument. United States Army Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs ordered the construction of the monument in 1865. The bodies of 2,111 Union and Confederate dead were collected and placed in a vault beneath the monument, which was sealed in September 1866.
Confederate Memorial (Arlington National Cemetery)
The Confederate Memorial is a memorial in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, in the United States, that commemorates members of the armed forces of the Confederate States of America who died during the American Civil War. Authorized in March 1906, former Confederate States Army sergeant and sculptor Moses Jacob Ezekiel was commissioned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in November 1910 to design the memorial. It was unveiled by President Woodrow Wilson on June 4, 1914 (the 106th anniversary of the birth of Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States of America).
USS Maine Mast Memorial
In January 1913, the Corps of Engineers reported that enough funds were left over from salvage of the "Maine" to permit construction of the Arlington National Cemetery Memorial. The following month, shortly before the commemoration ceremonies at the "Maine" Memorial at Arlington, President Taft announced his preference for the establishment of the memorial in the field of the "Maine" dead rather than another location in the cemetery. Secretary of War Lindley Miller Garrison then placed the design project on hold to allow the CFA to consider placement of the memorial in relation to three other projects also approved for construction: The Arlington Memorial Bridge (which included a new drive to a new ceremonial gateway to the cemetery), Arlington Memorial Amphitheater, and a receiving vault and chapel. After discussions about the proposed location for the memorial, Wyeth submitted three designs to the CFA. In executive session, the commission made a recommendation to the Secretary of War. Acting Quartermaster General Henry Granville Sharpe recommended that Secretary of War Garrison accept Wyeth's design, and he did by June 30, 1913.
Montgomery C. Meigs
A staunch Unionist, Meigs detested the Confederacy. His feelings led directly to the establishment of Arlington National Cemetery. On July 16, 1862, Congress passed legislation authorizing the U.S. federal government to purchase land for national cemeteries for military dead, and put the U.S. Army Quartermaster General in charge of this program. The Soldiers' Home in Washington, D.C., and the Alexandria Cemetery were the primary burying grounds for war dead in the D.C. area, but by late 1863 both cemeteries were full. In May 1864, Union forces suffered large numbers of dead in the Battle of the Wilderness. Meigs ordered that an examination of eligible sites be made for the establishment for a large new national military cemetery. Within weeks, his staff reported that Arlington Estate was the most suitable property in the area. The property was high and free from floods (which might unearth graves), it had a view of the District of Columbia, and it was aesthetically pleasing. It was also the home of Robert E. Lee, future General-in-Chief of the Confederacy, and denying Lee use of his home after the war was a valuable political consideration. Although the first military burial at Arlington had been made on May 13, Meigs did not authorize establishment of burials until June 15, 1864. Meigs ordered that the estate be surveyed and that be set aside for use as a cemetery.
Washington Cemetery (Brooklyn)
The founder of Washington Cemetery, James Arlington Bennet, is buried there, as are his wife and son. Bennet was born in New York, and was proprietor and principal of the Arlington House, an educational institution on Long Island. He usually is remembered as Joseph Smith's first choice as Vice-Presidential running mate in the United States presidential election of 1844, before Smith was assassinated. His surname is misspelled on his headstone, which reads, "Author of Bennett's Book Keeping & Other Works. Founder of Washington Cemetery."
Arlington National Cemetery mismanagement controversy
On December 22, 2011, Army officials released the report mandated by Congress in December 2010. The report stated that cemetery officials had completed photographing and documenting every burial marker at Arlington and double-checked the photographic records against the cemetery's 500,000 paper records (which had also been scanned and were now available electronically). The double-checks revealed that records regarding 64,230 (about one-quarter) of the cemetery's 259,978 burial sites contained "discrepancies" that required additional investigation. Arlington National Cemetery officials said in the report that they believed these problems were minor, such as typos in names or dates of death, and that another six months would be needed before these discrepancies could be resolved. Army officials said this did not necessarily mean that remains are buried in the wrong graves, but could not rule it out. The report also found that many burial and management records from the American Civil War period are missing, many headstones are in such disrepair that they cannot be read, and that significant changes in burial procedures over the years have made it difficult to maintain records and keep track of burials.
Arlington National Cemetery
In 2006, over 150 different locations simultaneously held ceremonies with Arlington's. Additionally, the project had its first "Veterans Honor Parade" with "Patriot Guard Riders" who escorted the wreaths from Maine to the cemetery. The parade, which is held each year, now visits schools, monuments, veterans' homes and communities along its route.
Arlington National Cemetery
On July 12, 1999, the NPS issued a Federal Register notice that announced the availability of an environmental assessment (EA) for the transfer. The EA stated that the Interment Zone contained the oldest and largest tract of climax eastern hardwood forest in Arlington County. This forest was the same type that once covered the Arlington estate, and had regenerated from trees that were present historically. A forestry study determined that a representative tree was 258 years old. The Interment Zone was also determined to contain significant archeological and cultural landscape resources, in addition to those in the Preservation Zone. The EA described four alternative courses of action.
Arlington, California
"Arlington" is common as a place name in the United States, with other significant communities bearing the same name in Virginia (near Washington D.C.) and Texas. The Southern California location was apparently so named in an 1877 meeting of early residents. At the time, the nation's union Civil War dead were being commemorated through frequent use of the place name, in honor of Arlington National Cemetery.
Construction of Arlington Memorial Bridge
Arlington Memorial Bridge was informally dedicated in January 1932. Grant and members of the Arlington Memorial Bridge Commission inspected the bridge on January 14. On January 16, President Hoover, First Lady Lou Henry Hoover, and members of the AMBC, CFA, NCPPC, and D.C. office of the Army Corps of Engineers informally dedicated the bridge by driving over its length. Although only one lane in each direction was open, the caravan of 12 automobiles traveled from the White House to the bridge, and then across the bridge to the entrance of Arlington National Cemetery and back again. The same day, the George Washington Memorial Parkway opened to traffic.
Arlington County, Virginia
Arlington National Cemetery is an American military cemetery established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's home, Arlington House (also known as the Custis-Lee Mansion). It is directly across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., north of the Pentagon. With nearly 300,000 graves, Arlington National Cemetery is the second-largest national cemetery in the United States.
Constitution Avenue
On March 4, 1913, Congress created the Arlington Memorial Bridge Commission (AMBC) whose purpose was to design and build a bridge somewhere in West Potomac Park which would link the city to Arlington National Cemetery. But Congress appropriated no money for the design or construction due to the onset of World War I. But after President Warren G. Harding was trapped in a three-hour traffic jam on the Highway Bridge while on his way to dedicate the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on November 11, 1921, Harding began pushing Congress to move on constructing a new bridge. Congress approved funding for design work on June 12, 1922, and authorized construction of the Arlington Memorial Bridge on February 24, 1925.
Arlington National Cemetery
The Cemetery is divided into 70 sections, with some sections in the southeast and western part of the cemetery reserved for future expansion. Section 60, in the southeast part of the cemetery, is the burial ground for military personnel killed in the Global War on Terror since 2001. Section 21, also known as the Nurses Section, is the area of Arlington National Cemetery where many nurses are buried and is the site of the Spanish–American War Nurses Memorial and the Nurses Memorial. Another section—Chaplains Hill—includes monuments to Jewish, Protestant, and Roman Catholic military chaplains.
List of memorials and monuments at Arlington National Cemetery
Several memorials and monuments in Arlington National Cemetery no longer exist. One of the earliest memorials to be built in the cemetery was the Sheridan Gate, named for General Philip Sheridan. The gate was constructed in 1879 of four Ionic columns salvaged from the demolition of the War Department Building (located at the site of the current Eisenhower Executive Office Building). Initially, there was no name inscribed on the gate's pediment, although the last names of Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Edwin M. Stanton, and Winfield Scott were chiseled into the front of each column. After the death of Sheridan, his last name was added to the pediment and the gate became known as the Sheridan Gate. Another early memorial was the Ord-Weitzel Gate, named for Major General Edward Ord and Major General Godfrey Weitzel. Also completed in 1879, it was constructed from two salvaged War Department Building columns. Like the Sheridan Gate, this gate was initially not dedicated to anyone. But by 1902, with the passing of both Ord and Weitzel, their names were inscribed into left and right columns of the gate, respectively. Arlington National Cemetery's easternmost boundary had, since 1864, been the Arlington Ridge Road (what is present-day Eisenhower Drive). In 1971, the cemetery expanded eastward to its present boundary (the Jefferson Davis Highway). At that time, the Sheridan and Ord-Weitzel gates were dismantled and the columns, marble pediments, and iron gates put into outdoor storage. Unfortunately, both gates were severely damaged during their dismantling. They were further damaged by inappropriate outdoor storage, and have been heavily vandalized.
Arlington Memorial Amphitheater
By the early years of the 1900s, however, the Old Amphitheater had grown far too small for the large ceremonies which were held there. Judge Ivory Kimball, Commander of the Department of the Potomac chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic (or GAR, a veterans' group for those who fought for the Union in the Civil War), believed that not only should a new and larger facility be built, but also that the new amphitheater represent the dead of all wars in which the nation had fought. Kimball and the GAR began their push for a new amphitheater in 1903, and sketches for the amphitheater drawn up by Frederick D. Owen, a civilian engineer working for the United States Army Corps of Engineers. But legislation failed to pass Congress in 1905, 1907, and 1908. Legislation passed in 1908 authorizing the establishment of a memorial commission, but it received only $5,000 in funding. Legislation was introduced again in 1912 by Senator George Sutherland. Sutherland's bill proposed construction of a 5,000-seat amphitheater with an underground crypt (for the burial of famous individuals) to cost no more than $750,000. Prospects for passage initially seemed dim. But during the third session of the 62nd Congress, a number of new federal memorials were approved, including the Arlington Memorial Bridge, the Lincoln Memorial, a memorial to women who served in the Civil War (now the American Red Cross National Headquarters), and a George Washington memorial auditorium. The successful push for new memorials helped supporters win the passage of legislation authorizing construction of Memorial Amphitheater. President William Howard Taft, in one of his last acts as president, signed the legislation into law on March 4, 1913.
The 1908 authorizing legislation established an Arlington Memorial Amphitheater Commission (AMAC) to oversee the design and construction of the structure. Its members included the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy, the Superintendent of the U.S. Capitol, Judge Kimball (as a representative of the GAR), and Charles W. Newton (as a representative of the United Spanish War Veterans, a Spanish–American War veterans group).
Dayton National Cemetery
The cemetery was established in 1867 as a place to inter veterans who died while under the care of the Central Branch of the National Asylum for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers and Seamen, located in Dayton. The first interment, of Civil War veteran Cornelius Solly, was on September 11, 1867. The National Asylum became part of the newly formed Department of Veterans Affairs in 1930 and evolved into today's Dayton VA Medical Center. The cemetery was administered as part of the medical center until 1973, when it was transferred to the National Cemetery Administration.
Arlington Ridge, Virginia
In January 1934 the Commissioner of Public Roads prepared a report on the situation for the National Capital Parks and Planning Commission. This report resulted in a plan for a system of arterial highways in the area that would, among other things, allow expansion and protection of the Arlington National Cemetery by elimination of the adjacent segment of Arlington Ridge Road, which at that time, constituted the eastern boundary of the Arlington National Cemetery. Although approved by the Commission in 1934, little was done to realize the plan.
Arlington National Cemetery
On May 11, 2016, the Department of the Army published in the Federal Register a proposed rule that would, among other things, prohibit a visitor to an Army National Military Cemetery (Arlington National Cemetery and the United States Soldiers' and Airmen's Home National Cemetery) from riding a bicycle without first acquiring a pass to visit a relative's gravesite or columbarium niche. After receiving 13 comments from 13 individuals concerning the use of bicycles in the cemetery (including comments from representatives of the Arlington County Board and local bicycle advocacy groups that opposed the new restrictions), the Department of the Army published a final rule in the Federal Register on September 26, 2016, that implemented the proposed rule, effective October 26, 2016.
Arlington Memorial Amphitheater
Memorial Amphitheater has been the site of numerous Memorial Day and Veterans Day ceremonies. Every American President except Woodrow Wilson has visited the building since it was dedicated in 1921. Although the structure was dedicated during Wilson's presidency, he never visited Memorial Amphitheater or the Tomb of the Unknowns due to a massive stroke on October 2, 1919, from which he never recovered. He died on February 3, 1924. President Warren G. Harding was the first sitting president to visit Memorial Amphitheater, which he did on Memorial Day on May 30, 1921. President Harding was the first President to visit the Tomb of the Unknowns, as he was present during its dedication in November 1921. Harding was also the first president to speak in the Memorial Amphitheater before laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns, which he did on Memorial Day on May 30, 1923. Harding attended a service in the amphitheater on Memorial Day in May 1922, but did not speak or lay a wreath. He laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns on Veterans Day in November 1922, but did not speak in the amphitheater. On June 1, 1923, Colonel Charles Young (United States Army), The United States Military's first African American Colonel, became the fourth soldier honored with a funeral service at Arlington Memorial Amphitheater. He had died the previous year with serving as an attaché in Africa.
Arlington National Cemetery mismanagement controversy
In September 2012, the US Army's Inspector General issued a report on Arlington cemetery and the United States Soldiers' and Airmen's Home National Cemetery which found that the Army's new management of the institutions had transformed both, "into premier institutions of excellence capable of setting the standards for federal cemeteries across the nation." The report stated that 96% of the 400,000 grave markers at Arlington had been verified for accuracy as of 17 September 2012. The report lauded a program at Arlington, implemented by new director Patrick Hallinan, which used geospatial technology to track cemetery operations. In response to the report, Senator Mark Warner stated, "Condon and her team deserve a lot of credit for implementing reforms to fix the problems at Arlington and begin restoring our trust."
Confederate Memorial (Arlington National Cemetery)
On June 5, 1899, Lewis and other Confederate veterans sent a petition to President McKinley asking that the Confederate dead at Arlington be disinterred and reburied in a "Confederate section". McKinley approved of the idea. Former Confederate Brigadier General Marcus Joseph Wright (by 1898 an agent of the War Department collecting Confederate war records) drafted legislation to approve the reinterments, and Senator Joseph Roswell Hawley (a former brevet major general of volunteers for the Union) introduced it in Congress. Congress approved the bill in 1900 and authorized $2,500 for the plan, which specified that the reburials occur near the field where Spanish–American War dead had recently been interred. McKinley signed the bill into law on June 6, 1900. A list of the dead at both Arlington and the Soldiers' Home was published so that families who wished to do so might remove their loved ones' remains from Arlington and reinter them closer to home.
List of memorials and monuments at Arlington National Cemetery
The rules were relaxed somewhat in 2012. On August 6, 2012, Congress enacted the "Honoring America's Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act of 2012" (P.L. 112-154; 126 Stat. 1165). Title VI, Section 604 of this legislation permits the Secretary of the Army to establish regulations for the erection at Arlington National Cemetery of memorials or monuments to an individual or military event if 25 years have passed. Such monuments may be placed only in areas designated by the Secretary of the Army, and must be paid for entirely by private donations. All alternative locations to Arlington National Cemetery must be ruled out, and the United States Commission of Fine Arts must be consulted on the memorial's appropriateness. The 25-year requirement may be waived if the event or service is ongoing, or if a "manifest injustice" would occur. In such cases, Congress may override the waiver by joint resolution within 60 days.
Arlington Farms
The Arlington Farms land was originally considered for the new War Department building. However, when construction of the Pentagon began in 1941, it was on the nearby site of the old Washington-Hoover Airport. In April, 1942, the National Capital Park and Planning Commission selected numerous sites around the city for construction of temporary war housing. In addition to plans in West Potomac Park, near the Lincoln Memorial, on Capitol Hill, near present-day RFK Stadium, and in Suitland, Maryland, some 7,000 units were slated for Arlington Farms, just over the Arlington Memorial Bridge.
Confederate Memorial (Arlington National Cemetery)
Confederate military personnel were among those initially buried at Arlington. Some were prisoners of war who died while in custody or who were executed as spies by the Union, but some were battlefield dead. For example, in 1865, General Meigs decided to build a monument to Civil War dead in a grove of trees near the flower garden south of the Robert E. Lee mansion at Arlington. The bodies of 2,111 Union and Confederate dead within a radius of the city of Washington, D.C., were collected. Some of the dead had been interred on the battlefield, but most were full or partial remains discovered unburied where they died in combat. None were identifiable. Although Meigs had not intended to collect the remains of Confederate war dead, the inability to identify remains meant that both Union and Confederate dead were interred below the cenotaph he built. The vault was sealed in September 1866. Other Confederate battlefield dead were also buried at Arlington, and by the end of the war in April 1865 several hundred of the more than 16,000 graves at Arlington contained Confederate dead.
McClellan Gate
Brigadier General Montgomery C. Meigs was Quartermaster General of the United States Army, had founded Arlington National Cemetery, and was superintendent over all Army cemeteries until his retirement in February 1882. Meigs personally designed or oversaw the design of most of the early structures at the cemetery (such as the Civil War Unknowns Monument and Old Amphitheater), and in 1871 he ordered a gate constructed in the eastern boundary wall to honor Major General George B. McClellan. When built, the structure was a tribute, not a memorial, to McClellan, for McClellan was still living.
Arlington National Cemetery
There are several memorials on the grounds of the cemetery. However, due to the lack of space for burials and the large amount of space that memorials take up, the U.S. Army now requires a joint or concurrent resolution from Congress before it will place new memorials at Arlington.
Spanish–American War Memorial (Arlington National Cemetery)
Choosing a site for the memorial was not difficult. The Army Quartermaster Corps controlled Arlington National Cemetery, and in March 1901 Lyster asked the Quartermaster General, Brigadier General Marshall I. Ludington, for permission to erect the memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. Permission was granted, provided the federal government bore none of the cost. It is unclear just when the society obtained the pre-determined 1899 site, however. The Secretary of War had chosen the site in early 1899, and the existing memorial was already located there. Obtaining the site for the Society memorial was not a foregone conclusion. The record is clear, however, that Justine Van Rensselaer Townsend, President of the National Society of Colonial Dames, approached Secretary of the War Root directly and secured the existing location for the Society's memorial.
Spanish–American War Memorial (Arlington National Cemetery)
The Spanish–American War Memorial is a memorial in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, in the United States that commemorates those American military personnel who died in the Spanish–American War. Constructed by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America and dedicated on May 21, 1902, the memorial consists of a granite column in the center of a small grass-covered plaza. A granite sphere and bronze eagle with outstretched wings stand atop the shaft. The memorial faces west; to its rear across Lawton Avenue is a flagstone terrace on which are placed four cannon, aimed east.
List of memorials and monuments at Arlington National Cemetery
In May 2014, Arlington National Cemetery officials renamed the Old Amphitheater, rededicating it as the James R. Tanner Memorial Amphitheater. Tanner, a Union Army veteran, lost both legs during the American Civil War. He became a stenographer and clerk with the War Department, and took down most of the eyewitness testimony during the early hours of the investigation into the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Tanner is buried a few yards from the amphitheater.
George Washington Parke Custis
His daughter, Mary Anna Randolph Custis, married Robert E. Lee. They inherited Arlington House and the plantation surrounding it, but the property was confiscated by the federal government during the Civil War. Arlington House is now a museum, interpreted by the National Park Service as the Robert E. Lee Memorial. The remainder of Arlington plantation is now Fort Myer and Arlington National Cemetery.
Confederate Memorial (Arlington National Cemetery)
The federal government did not permit the decoration of Confederate graves at the cemetery, however. As Quartermaster General, Meigs had charge of the Arlington cemetery (he did not retire until February 6, 1882), and he refused to give families of Confederates buried there permission to lay flowers on their loved ones' graves. In 1868, when families asked to lay flowers on Confederate graves on Decoration Day (now known as Memorial Day), Meigs ordered that the families be barred from the cemetery. Union veterans' organizations such as the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR; whose membership was open only to Union soldiers) also felt that rebel graves should not be decorated. In 1869, GAR members stood watch over Confederate graves at Arlington National Cemetery to ensure they were not visibly honored on Decoration Day. Cemetery officials also refused to allow the erection of any monument to Confederate dead and declined to permit new Confederate burials (either by reburial or through the death of veterans).
Arlington National Cemetery
President Herbert Hoover conducted the first national Memorial Day ceremony in Arlington National Cemetery, on May 30, 1929.
R. Steven Whitcomb
Arlington National Cemetery mismanagement controversy
Civil War Unknowns Monument
The Civil War Unknowns Monument is a burial vault and memorial honoring unidentified dead from the American Civil War. It is located in the grounds of Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, in the United States. It was designed by Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs and constructed in 1865 in a former tree and flower garden.
List of memorials and monuments at Arlington National Cemetery
Memorial Avenue is part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway. The roadway was formally transferred from the U.S. Army to the Department of the Interior in October 1940. The memorials and monuments which line Memorial Avenue are often believed to be part of Arlington National Cemetery, but are not. The memorials and monuments on Memorial Avenue include (as of 2012):
List of memorials and monuments at Arlington National Cemetery
Below is a list of the major memorials and monuments in the cemetery.
John C. Metzler Jr.
In 2007, Metzler implemented the Millennium Project, a $35 million, 100-year-long expansion plan which transferred of woodland from the National Park Service-controlled Arlington House and from adjacent Fort Myer to the cemetery. Another of cemetery property currently occupied by maintenance buildings would also be converted to burial space. The expansion would add 14,000 burial and 22,000 inurnment spaces. The Millennium Project expanded Arlington's physical boundaries for the first time since the 1960s, and this was the largest expansion of burial space at the site since American Civil War. Metzler also implemented plans move several utility lines to gain even more space. Metzler's plans were criticized and opposed by several environmental and historical preservation groups.
Arlington, Massachusetts
The Town of Arlington was settled by European colonists in 1635 as a village within the boundaries of Cambridge, Massachusetts under the name Menotomy, an Algonquian word meaning "swift running water". A larger area, including land that was later to become the town of Belmont, and outwards to the shore of the Mystic River, which had previously been part of Charlestown, was incorporated on February 27, 1807 as West Cambridge. In 1867, the name "Arlington" was chosen in honor of those buried in Arlington National Cemetery; the name change took effect that April 30.
Arlington National Cemetery
Before the Arlington Memorial Amphitheater was completed in 1921, important ceremonies were held at what is now known as the "Old Amphitheater." This structure sits where Robert E. Lee once had his gardens. The amphitheater was built in 1868 under the direction of Civil War General John A. Logan. Gen. James A. Garfield was the featured speaker at the Decoration Day dedication ceremony, May 30, 1868, later being elected as President of the United States in 1881. The amphitheater has an encircling colonnade with a latticed roof that once supported a web of vines. The amphitheater has a marble dais, known as "the rostrum", which is inscribed with the U.S. national motto found on the Great Seal of the United States, "E pluribus unum" ("Out of many, one"). The rostrum was designed by General Montgomery C. Meigs, then Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army. The amphitheater seats 1,500 people and has hosted speakers such as William Jennings Bryan.
Arlington National Cemetery
When Virginia seceded from the Union after the start of the American Civil War at Fort Sumter, Robert E. Lee resigned his commission on April 20, 1861, and took command of the armed forces of the Commonwealth of Virginia, later becoming commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. On May 7, troops of the Virginia militia occupied Arlington and Arlington House. With Confederate forces occupying Arlington's high ground, the capital of the Union was left in an untenable military position. Although unwilling to leave Arlington House, Mary Lee believed her estate would soon be recaptured by federal soldiers. So she buried many of her family treasures on the grounds and left for her sister's estate at Ravensworth in Fairfax County, Virginia, on May 14. On May 3, General Winfield Scott ordered Brigadier General Irvin McDowell to clear Arlington and the city of Alexandria, Virginia, of all troops not loyal to the United States. McDowell occupied Arlington without opposition on May 24.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, most military personnel who died in battle near Washington, D.C., were buried at the United States Soldiers' Cemetery in Washington, D.C., or Alexandria Cemetery in Alexandria, Virginia, but by late 1863 both were nearly full. On July 16, 1862, Congress passed legislation authorizing the U.S. federal government to purchase land for national cemeteries for military dead, and put the U.S. Army Quartermaster General in charge of this program. In May 1864, Union forces suffered large numbers of dead in the Battle of the Wilderness. Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs ordered that an examination of eligible sites be made for the establishment for a large new national military cemetery. Within weeks, his staff reported that Arlington Estate was the most suitable property in the area. The property was high and free from floods (which might unearth graves), it had a view of the District of Columbia, and it was aesthetically pleasing. It was also the home of the leader of the armed forces of the Confederate States of America, and denying Robert E. Lee use of his home after the war was a valuable political consideration. The first military burial at Arlington, for William Henry Christman, was made on May 13, 1864, close to what is now the northeast gate in Section 27. However, Meigs did not formally authorize establishment of burials until June 15, 1864. Arlington did not desegregate its burial practices until President Harry S. Truman issued Executive Order 9981 on July 26, 1948.
Spanish–American War Memorial (Arlington National Cemetery)
The book stand was given to Arlington National Cemetery in 1904. Although designed to stand on the earth in the cellar of Arlington House, cemetery officials placed it on one of the wooden floors above. The book stand was so heavy that the floor sagged and required reinforcement. At the time, the building was not a house museum but rather contained the living quarters of the Superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery and office space for him and his staff. In 1929, the Record Book was transferred from Arlington House to Arlington Memorial Amphitheater when the main floor of the amphitheater became a Memorial Exhibit Hall displaying honors received by the unknown soldiers lying beneath the Tomb of the Unknowns. (It is not clear if it was put on display, or housed in the second-floor offices.) The cemetery offices moved into what is now the Old Administration Building in 1932, and the book stand was misplaced. Its whereabouts are not known as of 2013.
List of memorials and monuments at Arlington National Cemetery
In 1778, John Parke Custis purchased a tract of sylvan land on the Potomac River north of the town of Alexandria, Virginia. This land became the Arlington Estate. In time, his granddaughter, Mary Anna Randolph Custis, inherited the estate. She married Robert E. Lee, an impoverished lieutenant in the United States Army, in June 1831. With the outbreak of the American Civil War on April 12, 1861, Robert E. Lee resigned from the United States Army and took command of Virginia's armed forces on April 23. Mary Custis Lee fled the house on May 17, and Union troops occupied Arlington Estate and Arlington House on May 24.
List of memorials and monuments at Arlington National Cemetery
The Spanish–American War of 1898 led to the creation of several new memorials: The Spanish–American War Memorial in 1902, the Spanish–American War Nurses Memorial in 1905, and the Rough Riders Memorial in 1907. Two more major memorials were added prior to World War I: The Confederate Monument in 1914, and the USS "Maine" Memorial in 1915.
United States Air Force Memorial
In January 1992, the Air Force Memorial Foundation was incorporated to pursue the development of a memorial that would honor the people in the United States Air Force. In December 1993, President William Clinton signed authorizing the Air Force Memorial. In 1994, the National Capital Memorial Advisory Commission approved a site adjacent to Marshall Drive and State Route 110, down the hill from the Netherlands Carillon, known as Arlington Ridge. Fundraising and detailed designs began.
Arlington National Cemetery
In January 2013, the County Manager of Arlington County, Virginia, and the Executive Director of the Army National Military Cemeteries (consisting of Arlington National Cemetery and the United States Soldiers' and Airmen's Home National Cemetery) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Arlington County Board and the Department of the Army to expand the cemetery even further. Under the tentative plan, Arlington County would give up the easement for Southgate Road (which lies between the Navy Annex property and the cemetery's 2012 boundary), and obtain a narrow easement along the southwest border of the Navy Annex site for a new Southgate Road. In exchange, the Department of Defense would give the Navy Annex parking lot to the county.
Women Airforce Service Pilots
The 1977 legislation, either despite or because of its language, did not expressly allow WASPs to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. That was because Arlington National Cemetery, unlike most other national cemeteries, is administered by the Department of the Army, not the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Secretary of the Army determines eligibility for Arlington burial. The reason for the position taken by the Army on this issue may have been the rapidly diminishing space at Arlington. But in 2002, the Army re-considered and decided that deceased WASPS were able to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. In 2015, however, the Army re-interpreted the law and its own regulations against the backdrop of thirteen years of war, which once again threatened to deplete the cemetery of land. The Army ruled that the 1977 statute did not mandate the burial of deceased WASPs at Arlington. When WASP, Elaine Harmon, died on April 21, 2015, her request to have her ashes interred at Arlington was denied. Another WASP, Florence Shutsy-Reynolds, began a social media campaign to advocate for Harmon and other WASP members who wished to be interred at Arlington. Legislation in 2016 seemingly overruled the Army's interpretation and it was widely reported that WASPs could "again" be buried at Arlington. The 2016 law revived the long-held concern about limited space at the cemetery. Thus, the legislation in the 114th Congress (S.2437 by Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland) and H.R. 4336 by Rep. Martha McSally (R-Arizona), a retired Air Force fighter pilot), provides only for internment of cremated remains and not ground burial.
Abbey Mausoleum (Arlington County, Virginia)
Abbey Mausoleum was built in 1924 by the U.S. Mausoleum Company. The land was owned by the Syphax family. Maria Custis Syphax, the matriarch of the family, was the mulatto daughter of George Washington Parke Custis, grandson of Martha Washington and founder of the Arlington Estate on the banks of the Potomac River (later the home of Robert E. Lee). The Spyhax family sold the land to John Dormoyle in 1901, who then sold it to Frederick Rice in 1924. Rice subdivided the property into two lots, and sold one lot to the U.S. Mausoleum Corporation the same year. The lot was rectangular in shape and located next to the Hobson Gate.
Arlington National Cemetery
The Cemetery received the authority to transfer of woodland from the NPS-controlled Arlington House in 1996 and 2001, of land in 1999 from the DoD that was the site of the Navy Annex building, of land in 1999 from the Department of the Army that was part of Fort Myer, of land from Arlington County's Southgate Road right-of-way in 2004, and just under of land from Fort Myer in 2005.
Arlington National Cemetery
After the cemetery's management controversy began to end, the Army appointed Patrick K. Hallinan the acting superintendent of the cemetery in June 2010. He was promoted permanently to the position in October 2010. Hallinan had previously worked for the Office of Field Programs in the National Cemetery Administration, an agency of the United States Department of Veterans' Affairs. In that capacity, Hallinan had oversight of 131 national cemeteries, national cemetery policy, procedures, and operations. Hallinan was promoted to Executive Director of the Army National Military Cemeteries upon the retirement of Kathryn Condon in spring 2014.
Arlington National Cemetery
On February 22, 1995, officials of the United States Department of the Interior and the United States Department of the Army signed an agreement to transfer from Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial, to the Army a part of Arlington Woods, which was located in Section 29 of the NPS at Arlington National Cemetery between Arlington House and Fort Myer. The property transfer, which involved of NPS land, was intended to permit Metzler to start expanding the cemetery beyond its existing boundaries.
List of memorials and monuments at Arlington National Cemetery
In 1867, Congress enacted legislation requiring that all military cemeteries be fenced. Meigs ordered the construction of a red Seneca sandstone wall around the cemetery. The construction of the wall (which would not be complete until 1897) necessitated the construction of gates as well. Construction began on a memorial to Major General George B. McClellan (the McClellan Gate) in 1870, but delays in obtaining high-quality red Seneca sandstone delayed its completion until 1879.
Arlington National Cemetery
Two of the astronauts who were killed in January 27, 1967 flash fire inside the Apollo 1 Command Module, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee, are buried at the cemetery. John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth and a longtime U.S. Senator from Ohio, was buried at the cemetery in April 2017.
Arlington National Cemetery
The Space Shuttle "Challenger" Memorial was dedicated on May 20, 1986, in memory of the crew of flight STS-51-L, who died during launch on January 28, 1986. Transcribed on the back of the stone is the text of the John Gillespie Magee, Jr. poem "High Flight", which was quoted by then President Ronald Reagan when he addressed the disaster. Although many remains were identified and returned to the families for private burial, some were not, and were laid to rest under the marker. Two crew members, Scobee and Smith, are buried in Arlington. On February 1, 2004, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe dedicated a similar memorial to those who died when the Shuttle "Columbia" broke apart during reentry on February 1, 2003. Astronauts Laurel Clark, David Brown and Michael Anderson, who were killed in the "Columbia" disaster, are also buried in Arlington.
Insight on the News
"Insight" was founded in 1985. In 1991 the magazine was one of the first publications to use the word "Islamophobia". In 1997 "Insight" reported that the administration of President Bill Clinton gave political donors rights to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. This charge was widely repeated on talk radio and other conservative outlets; but was later denied by the United States Army, which has charge over the cemetery. Media and political pressure led to the body of M. Larry Lawrence, a former United States Ambassador to Switzerland, to be exhumed at Arlington and reintered at another location.
Construction of Arlington Memorial Bridge
Arlington Memorial Bridge opened on January 17, 1932. However, access was limited to Saturdays and Sundays from 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. Nearly 31,000 vehicles traversed the $21 million bridge the day it opened to the public. The first funeral procession to Arlington National Cemetery to cross the bridge did so on January 18, the second day the bridge was open.
Houston National Cemetery
First established on December 7, 1965 as a Veterans Administration Cemetery, it became Houston National Cemetery in 1973 after the passage of the National Cemetery Act. It was the only government cemetery constructed in the United States during the 1960s and was the largest of its kind at the time of construction. At , the cemetery is smaller than the of Arlington National Cemetery.
Henry G. Shirley Memorial Highway
Construction began in October 1941. The first section in Arlington, from the Pentagon south to State Route 7, mostly 2 lanes, was opened in October 1943. This section was completed with four lanes in October 1944. Due to wartime constraints, the new highway had an unusual at-grade railroad crossing instead of a bridge over the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad just north of Shirlington Circle. This location was the site of a fatal collision between a train and a dump truck on June 26, 1952. The remaining portions of the Shirley Highway south to U.S. Route 1 in Colchester, just north of Woodbridge, were completed in 1952. It facilitated the rapid development of Arlington County in the Shirlington, Parkfairfax, and Fairlington neighborhoods during World War II, and during that period connected the city to suburban shopping opportunities at Shirlington Shopping Center, at that time a five-minute trip away.
Spanish–American War Memorial (Arlington National Cemetery)
At its April 1900 National Council meeting in Washington, D.C., the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America voted to seek to place a memorial to Spanish–American War dead at Arlington National Cemetery. The genesis of this effort is unclear, but a committee to consider "the subject of a tablet at Arlington in memory of the officers, soldiers, and sailors of the Spanish–American War" was appointed some time prior to the biennial National Council meeting. Winifred Lee Brent Lyster, wife of Dr. Henry Francis LeHunte Lyster of Michigan and a relative of Confederate Army General Robert E. Lee, conceived of and was the primary advocate for the memorial. The Memorial Committee proposed a bronze tablet bearing the name of all those who died (from whatever cause) during the war, and that this tablet be erected before the National Council meeting in May 1902. The National Council approved a motion to have a tablet erected, but left the design and content up to a committee (to be appointed by the chair), which was given the power to act on the resolution.
Arlington National Cemetery
In 2007, Metzler implemented the Millennium Project, a $35 million expansion plan to begin utilizing the Arlington woodland, Fort Myer, and Navy Annex land. The project also included converting of unused space and of maintenance property on the cemetery grounds into burial space in 2006 and 2007 to allow an additional 26,000 graves and 5,000 inurnments. The Millennium Project expanded the cemetery's physical boundaries for the first time since the 1960s, and was the largest expansion of burial space at the site since the American Civil War. Several environmental and historical preservation groups criticized Metzler's plans, as did the NPS and the manager of Arlington House.
Arlington National Cemetery
On September 23, 1996, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1997 (Public Law 104-201) authorized the Secretary of the Interior to transfer to the Secretary of the Army all of the land in Section 29 that was within an "Arlington National Cemetery Interment Zone" and some of the land in the Section that was within a "Robert E. Lee Memorial Preservation Zone".
Arlington Cemetery (Pennsylvania)
The Arlington Cemetery Company was founded in 1895. The cemetery occupies roughly . on State Road in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, United States.
McClellan Gate
In February 1867, Congress passed a national cemeteries bill which required that all military cemeteries be surrounded by a fence. Arlington was already enclosed by a picket fence, painted white. Construction soon began on a fence composed of sandstone taken from Seneca Quarry in Maryland. Five years later, all the Arlington Estate land not encompassed by the cemetery was declared to belong to Fort Whipple (now Fort Myer). Enclosure of Arlington National Cemetery was complete by 1891. (Due to expansion into the area formerly occupied by Freedmen's Village, the fence was enlarged. This enlargement was completed in 1897.)
George Washington Parke Custis
In 1864, Montgomery C. Meigs, Quartermaster General of the United States Army, appropriated some parts of Arlington Plantation for use as a military burial ground. After the Civil War ended, George Washington Custis Lee sued and recovered title to the Arlington Plantation from the United States government in 1882, when the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in favor of Lee in "United States v. Lee", 106 U. S. 196. Lee then sold the property back to the United States government for $150,000. Arlington House, built by Custis to honor George Washington, is now the Robert E. Lee Memorial. It is restored and open to the public under the auspices of the National Park Service, while the Department of Defense controls Fort Myer and Arlington National Cemetery on the remainder of the Arlington Plantation.
Arlington Memorial Park
Prior to its creation the ground was owned by Julius Pratt, who later negotiated the development of the "attractive and picturesque" cemetery.
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery is a United States military cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., in whose the dead of the nation's conflicts have been buried, beginning with the Civil War, as well as reinterred dead from earlier wars. The United States Department of the Army, a component of the United States Department of Defense (DoD), controls the cemetery.