by Michelle Doell
Spring has sprung in DC and the #Cherry Blossoms have taken center stage.
Tidal Basin this morning pic.twitter.com/6uq9lRd3V5
— Jeremy Art (@jeremyart) April 11, 2014
The blossoms are the perfect frame for my favorite memorial in DC, the Jefferson Memorial. That might not have been the case if John Russell Pope's original design for the memorial had been built. His plan called for a series of reflecting pools, rectangular terraces and a formal row of trees. The design was controversial because people worried about the fate of the famous cherry trees. The design changed after Pope's death and his colleagues Otto Eggers and David Higgins took over. In 1938, Congress approved the 3 million dollars to start construction.
November 15, 1939, President Franklin D Roosevelt was on hand when the Cornerstone was laid at the memorial. The Library of Congress photo shows the President holding a trowel handed down through the generations since George Washington. Several years later on 200 anniversary of Jefferson's birth, Roosevelt dedicated the completed memorial. This picture from the Library of Congress shows the marines guarding the statue during the dedication.
The final price tag on the memorial was 13 million dollars.
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