Vietnam Veterans Memorial

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial consists of two polished black granite walls sunk into the earth, meeting at an angle to form a wide V. These walls carry the names of more than fifty-eight thousand Americans who died or remain missing from the war. When twenty-one-year-old architecture student Maya Lin submitted her design in nineteen eighty-one, the jury chose it anonymously from over fourteen hundred entries. She wanted the names to become the focus, with visitors seeing their own reflections as they read.