One of the items on our list of things to do while we are staying at Bull Run Regional Park in Centreville, VA., is to see the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldiers in Arlington National Cemetery. Little did we know, there are many interesting things to see at ANC, and we are happy to share some of the highlights with you. Do you know how Arlington became a Cemetery and who was buried there first? Well, read on and you'll find out. It's not your normal run of the mill cemetery. It's a very popular attraction in the Washington DC area. After all, people are just dying to get into this place! Ha!
The traffic in the DC area is always heavy and it can be a little stressful driving around here, so we took the Metro into Arlington. The ride was fine, but all the cars were very crowded on Sunday morning with fans going to see the Washington Redskins football game. But, our biggest problem on the Metro was trying to figure out which train to take and which track that train would be on. I had printed some information from the Internet, which was helpful, but we were greatly confused, along with many other folks, until we got the hang of how things worked on the Metro. A few more signs here and there would have helped a lot!
Arlington National Cemetery is located on property that once belonged to General Robert E. Lee. The Lee's truly loved this beautiful 1100-acre estate overlooking the Potomac River with a spectacular view of Washington DC. Mary Custis Lee inherited the estate from her father, George Washington Parke Custis, (died in 1781) who is the adopted grandson of George Washington, the first President of the United States.
General Lee and his wife had very strong attachments to this estate, and when the civil war broke out, Lee, an officer in the Union Army at the time, had to decided which side he was going to fight for. He felt so strongly about his ties to Virginia and this estate, he finally decided to fight for the Confederacy. Many northerners felt Lee was a traitor and several people despised him for making that decision.
One of the biggest haters of Lee was the man in charge of finding more cemetery space for all of the dead soldiers from the civil war. In order to assure that the Lees would never again occupy this estate, they began burying 2111 unknown soldiers from the civil war in Mrs. Lee's rose Garden! Mary Lee was unable to pay the $92.07 property tax bill in person, so she sent her cousin. But, the government refused to accept payment from some one else, and they declared the property in default, and confiscated the estate. And now you know the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey would say.
This is Arlington House where the Lee's lived for decades before the civil war.
The next two shots of Washington DC were taken from the hill at Arlington House.
These next few pictures are things we can all relate to.
This is the final resting place of JFK and the eternal flame. He is one of only two US Presidents to be buried here. Jackie is buried to the right, but not shown in this picture.
You may recall our blog dated September 20, 2013 with pictures of the Discovery space shuttle. These next two pictures will bring back those awful moments when the Columbia and Challenger crew's made the ultimate sacrifice.
The changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldiers is very impressive! These dedicated young men guard this tomb 24-7 in all types of weather conditions. The timing and precision that these guards exhibit is truly remarkable and makes you glad to be an American. I wish I had taken a video instead of still shots. It's really something special!
I hope you enjoyed these highlights. There is much more to see at ANC, so you'll have to make the trip if you haven't done so already. From ANC, we had planned to take the Metro into DC, but we didn't since we had spent several hours here and were dead tired! Ha!
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