9 Miles in D.C.

BigBlue Running blew into Washington D.C. on Sunday Morning. Although the first mile was a bit cold, we somehow put nine miles of cement and asphalt behind us. Good job on the run today everybody, certainly not ideal conditions. Lets hear it for Thomas Jefferson, BigBlue's favorite president and memorial.

By 1930, there were monuments in Washington D.C. commemorating great United States presidents, including Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. President Franklin Roosevelt thought that Thomas Jefferson also deserved a monument. On June 26, 1934, following his initiative, Congress passed a resolution to create a monument commemorating Jefferson.

The memorial was designed by John Russell Pope — also the architect of the original (west) building of the National Gallery of Art. The memorial's design reflects characteristics of buildings designed by Jefferson such as Monticello and the Rotunda, which reflect his fascination with Roman architecture. The Jefferson Memorial bears some resemblance to the Pantheon of Rome.

The cornerstone was laid on November 15, 1939 — two years after Pope's death. Daniel P. Higgins and Otto R. Eggers took over construction of the memorial. The memorial was constructed with Danby Imperial marble (Vermont) for the exterior walls and columns, Tennessee pink marble for the interior floor, Georgian white marble for the interior wall panels, and Missouri gray marble for the pedestal. Indiana limestone was used in construction of the ceiling. ^[1] The cost of construction was slightly more than $3 million.

The Jefferson Memorial was officially dedicated on April 13, 1943 — the 200th anniversary of Jefferson's birthday. One of the last American public monuments in the Beaux-Arts tradition, it was severely criticized even as it was being built, by those who adhered to the modernist argument that dressing 20th century buildings like Greek and Roman temples constituted a "tired architectural lie." More than 60 years ago, Pope responded with silence to critics who dismissed him as part of an enervated architectural elite practicing "styles that are safely dead". As a National Memorial it was administratively listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.