New Museum Under The Lincoln Memorial Now Open
- 12 hours ago
- 1 min read
The Lincoln Memorial Undercroft Museum, a $69 million project first announced in 2016, has come to fruition just in time for America’s 250th birthday.
While building the Lincoln Memorial between 1914 and 1922, crews dug out a cavernous space underneath the monument. They filled this hidden, 43,800 square-foot area, called an undercroft, with rows of tall, concrete columns to help support the memorial’s weight and create the illusion that it was situated on top of a hill. Now, after extensive renovations, it has become an immersive museum dedicated to the popular monument on the surface above.
Exhibits will explore how the Lincoln Memorial was built, as well as its significance as a site for civil rights demonstrations: Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his I Have A Dream speech from its steps in 1963.
Visitors will see immersive displays that bring the early 20th-century construction of the Lincoln Memorial to life, including a wall with graffiti from the original construction workers. Loaned, signed copies of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment are also on display.
“Here, history isn’t just something you read,” the National Park Foundation website reads. “The exhibits tell the story of how the memorial was built, how it has shaped Americans’ understanding of President Lincoln, and how its meaning has evolved for generations who have gathered there.”
Visitors can reserve timed-entry tickets at https://www.recreation.gov/ticket/facility/10113318
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