360 Video: Underneath the Lincoln Memorial

we are at one of those popular spots in Washington DC nearly 8 million visitors a year come to the Lincoln Memorial but very few get a look from the underside of the memorial where we are right now architectural speaking it's known as the undercroft this essentially basement area shows the foundations that hold the memorial up ground was broken from Lincoln Memorial on February 12 begins birthday 1914 built on what was essentially reclaimed swampland at the far end of the National Mall the architects and the engineers were required to go deep in underground to reach bedrock to put in the 122 concrete pillars that would ultimately hold up that award the Foundation's were completed in just over a year by May of 1915 and construction of the memorial proper began at that point from where we stand right now we are located directly beneath the statue of Abraham Lincoln those reinforced concrete ribs that you see directly above those contain reinforcing steel designed to hold up the massive weight of the statue of the seated Abraham Lincoln work is underway and the project is expected to be completed and this will be open by 2022 years before the centennial of the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial one of the fascinating features of the undercroft are a series of charcoal drawings that are found on the concrete pillars of the foundations one can almost picture the workmen on a lunch break or board during a lull in construction activity grabbing a lump of charcoal and just passing the time by doodling or drawing cartoon figures they couldn't possibly imagine that a century later we would still be fascinated by their drawings as they tell us not only a little bit about the men who worked on the memorial but also give us a glimpse into early 20th century American life very few visitors get the opportunity to see the undercroft but the National Park Service is working to change that through a generous donation from businessman and philanthropist David Rubenstein we are the process of designing a new visitor exhibit area will also include exhibits about the history of the memorial and allow us to talk more about some of the the men who helped to construct the memorial

Channel: NBC Nightly News

Views: 33,577

Rating: 4.8095236 out of 5

Keywords: Lincoln Memorial, Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln, Washington DC, District of Columbia

Id: e1Sa2eFBAHI

Length: 2min 33sec (153 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 06 2018