Jefferson Memorial

The Thomas Jefferson Memorial is a national memorial in Washington, D.C., built in honor of Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the nation's third president.

Built between 1939 and 1943, the memorial features multiple quotes from Jefferson intended to capture his ideology and philosophy, known as Jeffersonian democracy, which was staunchly supportive of American republicanism, individual rights, religious freedom, states' rights, virtue, and prioritized and valued what he saw as the undervalued independent yeoman. Jefferson was simultaneously deeply skeptical of cities and financiers and hostile to aristocracy, elitism, and corruption. He is widely considered among the most influential political minds of his era and one of the most consequential intellectual forces behind both the American Revolution and the American Enlightenment.

The Jefferson Memorial is built in neoclassical style and is situated in West Potomac Park on the shore of the Potomac River. It was designed by John Russell Pope, a New York City architect, and built by Philadelphia contractor John McShain. Construction on the memorial began in 1939 and was completed in 1943, though the bronze statue of Jefferson was not completed and added until four years after its dedication and opening, in 1947. Pope made references to the Roman Pantheon, whose designer was Apollodorus of Damascus, and to Jefferson's own design for the rotunda at the University of Virginia as inspirations for the memorial's aesthetics.

The Jefferson Memorial and the White House form anchor points to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The Washington Monument, initially intended to be built at the intersection of the White House and the Jefferson Memorial's site, was ultimately built farther east because the ground at that location was deemed too soft and swampy.

The Jefferson Memorial is a designated national memorial and is managed by the National Park Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior's National Mall and Memorial Parks division. In 1966, the Jefferson Memorial was named to the National Register of Historic Places. In 2007, it ranked fourth on the "list of America's favorite architecture", published by the American Institute of Architects.

The site ultimately selected for the Jefferson Memorial's construction was appealing at least partly because it was located directly south of, and in view of, the White House. By 1901, the Senate Park Commission, in the McMillan Plan, proposed building a Pantheon-like structure on the site that would host "the statues of the illustrious men of the nation, or whether the memory of some individual shall be honored by a monument of the first rank may be left to the future," but no action was taken by Congress on the commission's recommendation.

The completion of the Tidal Basin Inlet Bridge in 1908 helped facilitate and expand recreational usage of East and West Potomac Parks. In 1918, large liquid chlorine dispensers were installed under the bridge to treat the water, which made the Tidal Basin, also known as Twining Lake, suitable for swimming. The Tidal Basin Beach, on the site of the future Jefferson Memorial, opened in May 1918, operating as a "Whites Only" facility until 1925, when it was permanently closed to avoid addressing the question of whether it should be racially integrated. The same year, a design competition was held for a memorial to Theodore Roosevelt. The winning design, submitted by John Russell Pope, consisted of a half-circle memorial situated next to a circular basin. Like the McMillan Plan in 1901, the plan was never funded by Congress or acted upon.

Another opportunity for the Jefferson Memorial's development emerged in 1934, when then President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who came to admire Jefferson after reading a book on Jefferson by his friend Claude G. Bowers, inquired with the Commission of Fine Arts about erecting a memorial to Jefferson. Roosevelt included plans for the Jefferson Memorial in the Federal Triangle project, which was then under construction. Later the same year, Congressman John J. Boyland followed Roosevelt's lead, urging Congress to create the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Commission to explore the memorial's development. Boylan was appointed the Commission's first chairman, and Congress eventually appropriated $3 million for the Jefferson Memorial.