Arlington National Cemetery

The residence of Robert E. Lee and his family before the Civil War, Arlington House connects to many important figures, issues and events in American history. Built by enslaved laborers of George Washington Parke Custis between 1802 and 1818, the house and grounds have served many purposes over the last 200 years: a memorial honoring George Washington, a family home for the Lees and Custises, a plantation estate and home to 63 enslaved people, a a military headquarters for Union troops, a community for emancipated slaves and a national cemetery. With 650,000 annual visitors, Arlington House is the most visited historic house museum in the national park system. Since 1933, the NPS has managed Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial. The 16.28-acre memorial now lies within Arlington National Cemetery, which was built entirely within the historic 1,100-acre Arlington estate, according to the National Park Service.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery stands atop a hill overlooking Washington, D.C. On March 4, 1921, Congress approved the burial of an unidentified American soldier from World War I in the plaza of the Memorial Amphitheater. The Tomb sarcophagus is above the grave of the Unknown Soldier of World War I. West of the World War I Unknown are the crypts of unknowns from World War II, Korea and Vietnam. Those three graves are marked with white marble slabs flush with the plaza.The remains of the Vietnam Unknown were exhumed May 14, 1998. Based on mitochondrial DNA testing, DoD scientists identified the remains as those of Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie, who was shot down near An Loc, Vietnam, in 1972. It has been decided that the crypt that contained the remains of the Vietnam Unknown will remain vacant. The crypt cover has been replaced with one that has the inscription “Honoring and Keeping Faith with America’s Missing Servicemen, 1958-1975.”

A soldier is about to take his post standing guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

A solder undergoes inspection by the Relief Commander during the changing of the guard at Arlington Cemetery's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The relief Commander inspects an M-14 rifle of a tomb guard.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is guarded 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and in any weather by Tomb Guard sentinels. Sentinels, all volunteers, are considered to be the best of the elite 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard), headquartered at Fort Myer, Va.

From October 1 to March 31 the guard is changed every hour. From April 1 through September 30 the change occurs every half hour.

Thousands of visitors from around the nation and the world each day witness the Changing of the Guard.

Throughout each day, visiting groups pay their respects, laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Wreath=laying ceremonies are often repeated dozens of times each day, as visiting groups pay their respects.

While standing guard, sentinels at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier march 21 steps down the black mat behind the Tomb. They turn, face east for 21 seconds, turn and face north for 21 seconds, then take 21 steps back down the mat and repeat the process.

A funeral service was conducted on September 12, 2002, in the Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery for the final remains of the 184 victims of the September 11, 2001 attack on the Pentagon. The group burial was a funeral service for all 184 victims, but a special emphasis was placed on the five families who did not receive any recovered remains of their loved ones. Following the service in the amphitheater the group burial was held in Section 64. A five sided granite group marker was placed over the gravesite. On the five panels are the names, arranged alphabetically, of all those that perished in the Pentagon or on American Airlines Flight 77. The gravesite containing the remains is a short distance from, and within view of the Pentagon.

Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery is the final resting place of many of those service members killed in action during recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Following the establishment of Arlington National Cemetery in 1864, the grounds were enclosed. Several gates provided pedestrian and vehicular access. The main entrance to the cemetery was originally located where the McClellan Arch stands.

The Memorial Amphitheater was dedicated on May 15, 1920. While many ceremonies are conducted throughout the country, many consider the services at Arlington's Memorial Amphitheater to be the nation's official ceremonies to honor all American service members.

The Women in Military Service Memorial honors US servicewomen, past, present and future, including living or deceased women veterans; Active Duty, Reserve, Guard and US Public Health Service uniformed women; and women in the Coast Guard Auxiliary and Civil Air Patrol.

National Geographic Society unveiled its white granite tribute to the explorer, Robert Edwin Peary. The monument, with its smooth terrestrial globe, bears the Latin inscription: "Inveniam Viam Aut Facium," meaning "I shall find a way or make one."

The Battle of the Bulge was fought from December 16, 1944, to January 25, 1945. One of the inscriptions on the memorial reads, “To World War II American Soldiers who fought in the Battle of the Bulge- The greatest Land Battle in the history of the United States Army”. The Veterans Benefits Act 0f 2002, Public Law 107-330, was passed on December 6, 2002. Section 204 of that Act authorized the placement of a memorial in Arlington National Cemetery honoring World War II veterans who fought in the Battle of the Bulge.

An Army wreath ceremony was conducted July 27, 1987 for the Korean War Veterans Association and the Canadian Colonel Schmidtman, Deputy Commander, Military District of Washington. The wreaths were placed by His Excellency Kyung-Won Kim, Korean Ambassador; Kap Chong Chi, Chairman, United Nations Korean War Allied Association; and Mr. Bill Norris, Founder and President, Korean War Veterans Association. The Canadian wreath was placed by four Korean War Veterans. The Korean War Bench is located on the north side of the Memorial Amphitheater beside the Korean White Pine tree donated by President Kim of Korea in 1965. The pine tree was replaced by President Roh Tae Woo on October 17, 1989. A Korean Mountain Ash was planted behind the bench on June 15, 1989.

Two tragic episodes in U.S. Coast Guard history prompted the construction of this memorial, which sits atop a hill near the southern edge of the cemetery. On Sept. 16, 1918, 19 members of the crew of the cutter Seneca volunteered for a rescue party to help salvage the British steamer, Wellington, which had been torpedoed by a German submarine. Eleven of those volunteers were lost when the Wellington exploded and sank. Only 10 days later, on Sept. 26, 1918, the cutter Tampa was sunk by an enemy submarine in the British Channel, and all 131 on board that ship were lost.

The largest single disaster suffered by the United States Coast Guard in World War II was the destruction of the USS Serpens (AK-97). The 14,250-ton ammunition ship exploded off Lunga Beach, Guadalcanal, British Solomon Islands.

The Space Shuttle Challenger exploded on Jan. 28, 1986, just seconds after take off, killing all seven crew members. It was nearly two months before the remains were recovered from the ocean floor, about 18 miles off the shore of Cape Canaveral.

The history of Arlington National Cemetery is steeped in the Civil War, for it was this great national struggle that necessitated the establishment of this cemetery to bury its many dead. For many years following the war, the bitter feelings between North and South remained, and although hundreds of Confederate soldiers were buried at Arlington, it was considered a Union cemetery. Family members of Confederate soldiers were denied permission to decorate their loved ones' graves and in extreme cases were even denied entrance to the cemetery. These ill feelings were slow to die but over time they did begin to fade. Many historians believe it was the national call to arms during the Spanish-American War that brought northerners and southerners together at last. In that war numerous Confederate veterans volunteered their services and joined their Northern brothers on the battlefield in the common defense of our nation. In June 1900, in this spirit of national reconciliation, the U.S. Congress authorized that a section of Arlington National Cemetery be set aside for the burial of Confederate dead. By the end of 1901 all the Confederate soldiers buried in the national cemeteries at Alexandria, Virginia, and at the Soldiers' Home in Washington were brought together with the soldiers buried at Arlington and reinterred in the Confederate section. Among the 482 persons buried there are 46 officers, 351 enlisted men, 58 wives, 15 southern civilians, and 12 unknowns. They are buried in concentric circles around the Confederate Monument, and their graves are marked with headstones that are distinct for their pointed tops. Legend attributes these pointed-top tombstones to a Confederate belief that the points would "keep Yankees from sitting on them."

Near Arlington House, in what was once part of its famous rose garden, stands a monument dedicated to the unknown soldiers who died in the Civil War. The monument, dedicated in September 1866, stands atop a masonry vault containing the remains of 2,111 soldiers gathered from the fields of Bull Run and the route to the Rappahannock. The remains were found scattered across the battlefields or in trenches and brought here. This monument was the first memorial at Arlington to be dedicated to soldiers who had died in battle, and who later could not be identified. Because in some instances only a few bones or a skull were recovered, it is assumed that the vault contains the remains of Confederate soldiers as well as Union troops.

The Woodhull flagpole rises 90 feet above the south lawn of the Memorial Amphitheater and is one of only two flagpoles located in Arlington National Cemetery. The other stands in front of Arlington House. Erected in 1924, the Woodhull flagpole is dedicated to the memory of Commander Maxwell Woodhull, who served in the United States Navy from 1813 to 1863. The flags on the Woodhull flagpole and the Arlington House flagpole fly at half-staff, commencing one-half hour before the first burial service of the day. They remain at half-staff until one-half hour after the last service.

Chaplains from four wars rest on Chaplains Hill in Section 2 of Arlington National Cemetery. Those buried at Arlington include: the Army's first Chief of Chaplains, Colonel John T. Axton of World War I; World War II's Chief of Chaplains William A. Arnold, who was the first Chaplain to make General; and Major Charles Joseph Watters who served in Vietnam and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on November 19, 1967. Unarmed, Watters was rendering aid to fallen comrades, disregarding his own safety when he was killed by a bomb explosion. Four monuments on Chaplains Hill are dedicated to the memory of chaplains who have served in the United States Armed Forces.

The mast of the USS Maine Memorial is in Section 24, Map Grid O-23 1/2 of Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. The Maine Mast Monument, bounded on two sides by Sigsbee Drive, is named after Adm. Charles Dwight Sigsbee, who commanded the vessel as a captain at the time of its destruction. The mast is the actual main mast from the USS Maine, which was sunk in Havana Harbor, Cuba, Feb. 15, 1898. The foremast is at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

Eleven days prior to Kennedy's assassination he returned to Arlington for the 1963 Armistice Day services. This time he did not address the crowd in the amphitheater. On Nov. 22, 1963, while on a campaign trip to Dallas, President Kennedy was shot and killed. There are only two U.S. presidents buried at Arlington National Cemetery. The other is William Howard Taft, who died in 1930. Though Kennedy is buried at Arlington, at the time of his death, many believed that he would be buried in Brookline, Mass. Woodrow Wilson was the only other president besides Taft who had been buried outside of his native state and in the National Capital Region. President Wilson is buried at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, in consultation with Robert F. Kennedy and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, approved burial of the president at Arlington National Cemetery with the gravesite below Arlington House. On May 23, 1994, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis was buried next to President Kennedy. The gravesite was completed with addition of her grave marker Oct. 6, 1994.

ew countries enjoy the bonds of goodwill and friendship that the United States and Canada share. Our common border remains the longest unguarded frontier on earth, and our nations have shared triumphs and tragedies throughout history. It was in this spirit of friendship that in 1925 Canadian Prime Minister MacKenzie King first proposed a memorial to the large number of United States citizens who enlisted in the Canadian Armed Forces, and lost their lives during World War I. Because the Canadians entered the war long before the United States, many Americans enlisted in Canada to join the fighting in Europe.

They became one of the best-known cavalry units in American history, though few people remember their official title, the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry. But mention the name "Rough Riders," and visions come to mind of the charge up San Juan Hill, led by Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, who would later become U.S. President.

The 3rd Infantry Division monument was approved by President George Bush on 29 September 1988 in Public Law 100-456. The memorial is located on the right (north) side of the curved part of Memorial Drive near the Canadian Cross and the Challenger memorial.

Monuments, Memorials and points of interest at Arlington National Cemetery. Photos first appeared in an online interactive map of the cemetery. Event was the 150th anniversary of Arlington Cemetery.

The fall of 1979 was a turbulent period in Iran. The Shah had been deposed by Islamic fundamentalists under the Ayatollah Khomeini, and although diplomatic relations still existed between the United States and Iran, these relations were strained. On November 4, 1979, hundreds of Iranians seized the U.S. embassy and took 66 Americans hostage. For days nothing was known of the hostages' condition until their captors finally released all female and black hostages. Later, one other man was released for medical reasons, leaving 53 Americans captives of the Iranian Moslem fundamentalists. By spring of 1980, the situation had reached a virtual standstill, with all diplomatic channels apparently exhausted. In the absence of diplomatic options, President Jimmy Carter authorized a secret military operation on April 25, 1980, designed to rescue those remaining American hostages. The plan called for a rendezvous of helicopters and cargo planes at a remote desert site in Iran before attempting the actually rescue of the hostages. However, the mission was aborted when a freak accident caused two of the aircraft to collide. The ensuing explosion and fire claimed the lives of eight American service personnel. Their bodies could not be recovered before the surviving aircraft had to abandon the desert staging area. Shortly thereafter the eight bodies were returned to the United States, but the remaining 53 hostages were not freed until January 20, 1981, 444 days after they had been captured. A monument dedicated to the memory of those gallant servicemen, who died in the valiant effort to rescue the American hostages, has been erected near the Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery. The white stone marker bears a bronze plaque listing the names and ranks of the three Marines and the five airmen. Three of those men -- Maj. Richard Bakke, Maj. Harold Lewis, Jr. and Sgt. Joel Mayo --are now buried at Arlington in a grave marked by a common headstone located about 25 feet from the group memorial.

Philip Kearny, Jr. (June 2, 1815 – September 1, 1862) was a United States Army officer, notable for his leadership in the Mexican-American War and American Civil War. He was killed in action in the 1862 Battle of Chantilly.

Against a background of evergreens, the heroic size white marble figure looks out upon the Army, Navy and Air Force nurses who so valiantly earned their right to lie at Arlington. The granite statue of a nurse in uniform was sculpted by Frances Rich.

The Old Amphitheater was the site of the first Memorial Day ceremony held at Arlington Cemetery, on May 30, 1868. When General John Logan declared the day of remembrance for Union soldiers who had died in the Civil War.

The Lockerbie Cairn, through its 270 blocks of red Scottish sandstone, memorializes the 270 lives lost in the terrorist attack on the United States when Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed Dec. 21, 1988, over Lockerbie, Scotland.

During the period from April 1920 through July 1921, the remains of many servicemen buried in Europe during World War I were disinterred. These remains were either reinterred in selected cemeteries in Europe or returned to the United States. Of these, the remains of about 2100 were reinterred in Arlington National Cemetery, specifically, in Section 18. Through the efforts of the Argonne Unit American Womens Legion, the Argonne Cross was erected to their memory and in their honor. It is situated in the southwest corner of Section 18 and faces east. A grove of 19 pine trees are on 3 sides of the Cross (North, West and South). These trees are symbolic of the Argonne Forest where many of the men fought.

The Spanish-American War was the first war involving the United States in which nurses were assigned as a special, quasi-military unit. The Society of Spanish-American War Nurses dedicated a monument to the memory of those brave women.

Nelson Appleton Miles (August 8, 1839 – May 15, 1925) was a United States soldier who served in the American Civil War, Indian Wars, and the Spanish-American War.

The Space Shuttle Columbia was lost on February 1, 2003, with her seven crew members aboard, during reentry to Earth on mission STS-107.

A request for permission to erect a memorial to the Spanish American War in Arlington National Cemetery was initiated by Mrs. Winifred Lee Lyster, Chairman, Executive Committee, Spanish War Memorial and Marker, in March 1901. The design for the proposed monument was submitted to the Quartermaster General. After some revisions the Acting Quartermaster General recommended approval of the design and erection of the monument.

Field Marshal Sir John Greer Dill, GCB, CMG, DSO (25 December 1881 – 4 November 1944) was a British commander in World War I and World War II. From May 1940 to December 1941 he was the Chief of the Imperial General Staff.

A view of Washington from the the hill at Arlington House.

More than 400,000 people are interred at Arlington National Cemetery.

As of 2017, custom headstones provided by the family are no longer accepted at Arlington National Cemetery. Going forward, all headstones will be the uniform government-issue grave markers.

A view of Washington from the the hill at Arlington House.

Pierre Charles L'Enfant was a captain, U.S. Engineers, and a brevet major, U.S. Army, Revolutionary War. Under the direction of President George Washington, he planned the Federal City of Washington, D.C. Pierre Charles L'Enfant was born in Paris, France, Aug. 2, 1754. He died June 14, 1825, and was interred on the Digges Farm, also known as Green Hill, Prince Georges County, Md. In 1908 the Board of Commissioners of the City of Washington requested the Secretary of War to make available a suitable burial site in Arlington Cemetery. On Dec. 17, 1908, Secretary of War Luke E. Wright advised the Board of Commissioners of his approval for a site in Arlington Cemetery for the reinterment of the remains of Pierre Charles L'Enfant. The site was selected by the Board of Commissioners with the assistance of Army Capt. A. B. Shattuck, who was in charge of National Cemeteries. The L'Enfant memorial offers a view toward the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.

Around 3,000 burials and interments are conducted each year at Arlington National Cemetery.

Full military honors are rendered for a U.S. Army general officer.

Soldiers fold the 5-foot by 9-foot memorial U.S. flag.

Once folded, the flag is presented to the deceased service member's or veteran's family.

According to the Veterans Administration, a United States flag is provided, at no cost, to drape the casket or accompany the urn of a deceased Veteran who served honorably in the U. S. Armed Forces. It is furnished to honor the memory of a Veteran’s military service to his or her country. Generally, the flag is given to the next-of-kin, as a keepsake, after its use during the funeral service. When there is no next-of-kin, VA will furnish the flag to a friend making request for it. For those VA national cemeteries with an Avenue of Flags, families of Veterans buried in these national cemeteries may donate the burial flags of their loved ones to be flown on patriotic holidays.