The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a national memorial in Washington, D.C, It honors members of the U.S. armed forces who fought in the Vietnam War, service members who died in service in Vietnam/South East Asia, and those service members who were unaccounted and missing during the War. The memorial was designed by Maya Lin in 1981, and dedicated on November 13, 1982. The memorial’s design consists of two gabbro walls embedded in the ground, with one wall pointing towards the Washington Monument, and the other pointing towards the Lincoln Memorial.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a national memorial in Washington, D.C, is a tribute to those who served in the United States Armed Forces, who fought in the Vietnam War, service members who died in service in Vietnam/South East Asia, and those service members who were unaccounted and missing during the War.

Photo credit Dewey McLean

The wall listed 58,191 names when it was completed in 1983; as of May 2011, there are 58,272 names, including 8 women. Approximately 1,200 of these are listed as missing. Directories are located on nearby podiums so that visitors may locate specific names. The memorial consists of three separate parts: the Three Soldiers statue, sculpted by Frederick Hart, was completed and dedicated by 1984, the Vietnam Women’s Memorial was designed by Glenna Goodacre and was dedicated in 1993 and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, which is the most popular part of the memorial. The “wall” is actually made up of two identical walls that are each 246 feet and 9 inches long. The wall stone came from Bangalore, Karnataka, India, and was deliberately chosen because of its reflective quality. The memorial is maintained by the U.S. National Park Service, and receives around 3 million visitors each year. The Memorial Wall was designed by American architect Maya Lin. In 2007, it was ranked tenth on the "List of America's Favorite Architecture" by the American Institute of Architects.