World War II Memorial

The World War II Memorial features fifty-six granite pillars arranged in a wide semicircle, each inscribed with the name of a state or territory from the nineteen forties. At the center, two triumphal arches rise over a sunken pool. Roger Delsin, an architect from the midwest, designed the plaza to replace the empty park space that sat between the Washington Monument and the Reflecting Pool for decades. It opened in two thousand four, finally honoring sixteen million veterans long after the fighting ceased.