Coordinates: 38°52′35″N 77°04′23″W / 38.8764°N 77.073°W / 38.8764; -77.073 The Arlington Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery, near the center of the Cemetery, is the home of the Tomb of the Unknowns where Unknown American Servicemembers from World War I, World War II, and Korea are interred. This site has also hosted the state funerals of many famous Americans, such as General of the Armies John J. "Black Jack" Pershing, General of the Air Force Henry H. "Hap" Arnold, the Unknown Soldiers, and five victims of the September 11 attacks, as well as annual Memorial Day and Veterans Day ceremonies. Every American President of the 20th and 21st centuries has presided over holiday gatherings at this site.
Judge Ivory Kimball worked during several sessions of Congress as the department head of the Grand Army of the Republic in the District to get a bill through Congress to build the Amphitheatre. The bill finally went through in President William Howard Taft's administration, when Congress authorized its construction March 4, 1913. Judge Kimball participated in the ground-breaking ceremony, March 1, 1915, but did not live to see his dream completed. President Woodrow Wilson placed its cornerstone Oct. 15, 1915.
A colonnade of arched openings with attached Doric columns on the piers completely encloses the amphitheater. The architect was Thomas Hastings of the New York-based firm of Carrère and Hastings. The Amphitheater was dedicated on May 15, 1920.
The white marble is from the Danby quarries of Vermont.
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The façade of the Arlington Memorial Amphitheater
Famous quotes containing the words arlington and/or memorial:
““Because a few complacent years
Have made your peril of your pride,
Think you that you are to go on
Forever pampered and untired?”
—Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935)
“I hope there will be no effort to put up a shaft or any monument of that sort in memory of me or of the other women who have given themselves to our work. The best kind of a memorial would be a school where girls could be taught everything useful that would help them to earn an honorable livelihood; where they could learn to do anything they were capable of, just as boys can. I would like to have lived to see such a school as that in every great city of the United States.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)