Page:The national monument to Abraham Lincoln.djvu/9

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VIEW LOOKING UP THE MALL TO THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT AND THE CAPITOL FROM THE COLONNADE ON THE LINCOLN MONUMENT

In the center of this plateau will rise an eminence supporting a terraced wall of masonry fourteen feet high, two hundred and fifty-six feet long, and one hundred and eight-six feet wide. Crowning the terrace will stand the pure white marble memorial.Three steps eight feet high form a platform under the columns, two hundred and four feet long and one hundred and thirty-four feet wide.

The colonnade is to be one hundred and eighty-eight feet long and one hundred and eighteen feet rwide, the marble columns being forty-four feet high and seven feet and five inches in diameter at the base. The total height of the structure above the terrace is nin nine feet.

Mr. Bacon's conception of the most ap- propriate memorial to Lincoln was that it should be composed of four features— a statue of Lincoln himself, a memorial of the Gettysburg speech, another of the second inaugural address, and finally a symbol of the Union which he saved. The statue of Lincoln will occupy the central memorial hall. Within this imposing chamber no other object excspt the heroic efﬁgy of the Emancipator will be placed. At either side will be smaller halls—one containing the memorial of the second in- augural, the other that of the Gettysburg address The speeches will be shown in bronze letters on a monumental tablet

The symbol of the Union is found in a Colonnade surrounding the walls within xxhich the memorials are enclosed—a colon- nade of thirty-six pillars, one for each State existing at the time of Lincoln's death. On the walls above the Colonnade will be placed forty-eight festoons, one for each State of the present Union.

In brief, this is the simple, dignified, noble memorial that is planned for Lincoln. Mr. Bacon believed that the same splendid simplicity which lay at the bottom of the great President’s character should also give dominating tone and quality to an ap- propriate memorial in his honor.