Beautifully etched on the landscape at the west end of the Washington D.C. Mall, the Lincoln Memorial honors the man who held the Union together during the Civil War and brought an end to slavery in the United States.

"A house divided against itself cannot stand," Abraham Lincoln once warned.

The cornerstone of the memorial was laid in 1915 and formally dedicated on Memorial Day 1922. Designed by New York architect Henry Bacon, the temple-like building modeled the Parthenon and features 36 Doric columns—one for each state in the Union at the time of Lincoln’s death.

"Commitment," said Lincoln, "is what transforms a promise into reality."

The heart of the memorial is a 19-foot statue of Lincoln, sculpted by Daniel Chester French from 28 blocks of White Georgia marble. It was assembled for the first time inside the memorial. The walls are inscribed with the 16th President’s Gettysburg Address and his Second Inaugural Address.

"I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me," Lincoln said.