In 1864, Arlington Estate, former family home of Mary Lee, wife of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, was seized by the U.S. government and its lands put to use as a national military cemetery.

Poor Union soldiers were among the first to be buried outside Arlington House, former home of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

The eternal flame, requested by Jacqueline Kennedy, was inspired by a similar flame at The Tomb of the Unknown Solder at the Arc de Triompe in Paris and the book, “Candle In the Wind”, part of the “Once and Future King” collection by T.H. White.

“…ask what we together can do for the freedom of man.”

Opponents to the Wall’s design called it a “black gash of shame,” “a nihilistic slab.” Roughly three million people vist the wall each year.