World War II Memorial

Part 5 - the last one - of the adventure which began way down below.  Backdated from almost two weeks later, because I'm a really bad person.  Some things never change.

I may not have liked the Korean War Memorial very much, but I feel quite differently about the World War II Memorial.  Perhaps this is because I have a thing for fountains...

...or perhaps because I appreciate classical imagery...

If you have trouble deciphering this picture (it is a little dark), it's actually eagles in flight holding up a laurel wreath, which signifies victory and heroism.

...or perhaps because I like my monuments dignified.

The World War II Memorial is at the opposite end of the Reflecting Pool from the Lincoln Memorial, and is actually the larger of the two in terms of square footage (just compare the two on satellite view on Google Maps).  The central pool is elliptical (with embellishments) and has a massive fountain at either end with a ring of smaller fountains all around the edge:

Around the pool is a plaza, and on the north and south sides of the plaza are a large portico-type structure dedicated to the two oceans the war forced America to bridge - Atlantic on the north side and Pacific on the south (it's not appropriate to call them theaters, since no one ever refers to the "Atlantic theater" of the war).  Flanking these porticoes are rows of memorial pillars, one for each jurisdiction which contributed troops to the war effort (48 states plus the territories of Alaska and Hawaii, plus the District of Columbia, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands).  Each column has a memorial wreath, which is a smaller version of the wreath with the eagles shown above (those are inside the Atlantic and Pacific arches).  Of course, I had to go find Wisconsin; here it is:

Where the Korean War Memorial tries to be too many things, the World War II Memorial is only trying to be two - memorial wall/peristyle and water feature - and I think it works.  The overall simplicity is reminiscent of the more severe federal buildings (think the Federal Reserve building), but little details like the bronze wreaths, the eagles, and the metal ropes you can see on either side of the Wisconsin column base give it a slightly more ornate edge.  I love water features, so the central pool is great, but there are other fountains in the memorial, like the two at the base of the Atlantic and Pacific arches:

I can't really explain it, but for me this monument just works.  Perhaps it's the size, which is appropriate to the largest armed conflict our country has ever been involved in.  Perhaps it's the simplicity which would be starkness were it not for the little embellishments that reminds of the architecture of the Great Depression (like the Federal Reserve building, as I said, which was completed in 1937).  Perhaps it's also that people interact with this memorial - they all go to find their state or jurisdiction and take a picture, then marvel at the fountains (because fountains always get people's attention), and then filter out either towards the Lincoln Memorial if they're going west, or the Washington Monument across the street if they're going east.  Perhaps it's because World War II, unlike Korea, is not a forgotten war, and almost everyone has a family member who fought in it, or knew someone who fought in it, or something like that.  Or maybe it's little things like a small wreath someone brought to set inside the huge memorial - a little token in the midst of the memorial to a very large war that shows us that somewhere, someone is remembering.

(For more about this memorial, click here.)