The St. Louis Gateway Arch stands on the banks of the Mississippi River in Missouri. It is a monument to the westward migration of Americans to settle in the Midwest and the West. The stainless steel arch at its peak is 630 feet high. The St. Louis monument, designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen, opened in 1965. Visitors go to the top of the Arch in trams that have carried more than 25 million passengers to see the view.
The gift from France honored the 100th anniversary of the founding of the United States. Designed by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, the sculpture is 305 feet and six inches tall, including the pedastal. Workers unpacked the 214 crates holding the pieces of Lady Liberty and assembled her. The statue was declared a national monument in 1924. The Emma Lazarus poem, "The Collosus," is a welcome to immigrants and is inscribed on the base of the statue. The Statue of Liberty is a monument to the concepts of freedom and opportunity.
The indigenous ancient population of what is now Ohio and West Virginia were the Adena. Around 250 to 150 BCE, they shifted more than 60,000 tons of earth to create Grave Creek Mound. Multiple grave sites have been found inside, along with ornaments and a sandstone tablet. Once surrounded by a 40-foot wide moat, the monument stands 69 feet high. At the base, its diameter is nearly 295 feet. The mound is maintained as both an archaeological site and a monument to the Adena civilization.
Columbia, South Carolina is the location of the African American History Monument. Four rocks are contained in the design. The rocks come from and represent the four homelands of African-American slaves in South Carolina: Sierra Leone, Congo, Ghana and Senegal. A slab of stone holds a map showing the slave trade routes. A metal relief depicts African-American history in the United States. The sculptor Ed Dwight was the artist. The monument stands on the grounds of the state capitol.
Maya Ying Lin designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC. It is a wall of black granite. The names of 58,195 soldiers who died in the war are carved into the wall. Running 493 feet and six inches, the wall is 10 feet and three inches high. The monument is visited not only by families of those killed or missing in the war, but Americans who wish to pay them tribute.