Completed in 1982 near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., this memorial honors the Americans who died or went missing in the Vietnam War. Its design, by Maya Lin, was chosen through a national competition open to any American adult.
Two walls of polished black granite meet at an angle, one pointing toward the Washington Monument and the other toward the Lincoln Memorial. They rise from just 8 inches at the ends to about 10 feet where they meet, sinking into the earth as visitors walk down and back up, like a wound that is closed and healing. More than 58,000 names are carved into the stone in the order in which they died, and visitors see their own reflections among them.
It was controversial at first for its lack of heroic statues, but its reputation grew. About three million people visit each year.
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