ARLINGTON

       The story of George Washington throwing a silver dollar across the Potomac River has become an accepted part of American folklore.  As in the children’s game “Rumor,” each retelling of the original incident brought changes: the Rappahannock became the Potomac, the Spanish doubloon became a dollar, and the story became suspect.  But it was included in the book Young Washington that George Washington Parke Custis wrote about his step-grandfather after Washington’s death.

George Washington raised Custis after his father, Washington’s step-son John Parke Custis, died of fever following the Battle of Yorktown at the end of the American Revolution.  After George Washington’s death, as the principal male heir, Custis inherited the Mount Vernon portraits, china, silver and many other valuable pieces.  He began building Arlington House in 1802 with the idea of making it a “treasury of Washington heirlooms.”  It was designed by British architect George Hadfield, who had come to the Washington area to help design the U.S. Capitol.

In 1804 Custis married Mary Lee Fitzhugh.  Many of the notable figures of the time came to Arlington House to pay tribute to the Washington legend.  A frequent guest was the young Robert E. Lee.  After graduating from West Point, Lee married Mary Anna Randolph Custis, the only surviving Custis child.  The marriage on June 30, 1831 was celebrated in the family parlor at Arlington House.

Mary Anna stayed in her girlhood home and raised their seven children.  Lee’s military career left him little time to spend with her.  When Lee left to serve in the war, he never saw Arlington House again.  Mrs. Lee and the children moved to Richmond and the house was occupied by Federal troops.  The grounds became part of the capital defenses. After the Civil War, the 1,100-acre estate was confiscated by the federal government, and the Washington family possessions scattered.  A Supreme Court decision in 1882 returned the house to Robert E. Lee’s son, but in 1883 he sold it back to the federal government for $150,000.  In 1925, the house was restored to its appearance during the Lee years.  George Washington Parke Custis links two great American families, the Washingtons and the Lees, and through them two epic periods of United States history.  Arlington House symbolizes that link. 

The house, part of Arlington National Cemetery, is open to the public without charge from 9:30 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. during the winter months and until 6:00 P.M. the rest of the year.  Maps of the house with details of the rooms and furnishings permit visitors to explore at their own pace.  Many of the pieces exhibited are copies of original work, though others are Lee family pieces and a few Custis furnishings.  The grand Greek Revival exterior with its eight massive pillars is in counterpoint with the simple and hospitable interior.  The view from the portico of the Lincoln Memorial across the river is riveting.

The use of Arlington land to bury slain soldiers was initiated by happenstance.  In May 1864, President Lincoln and General Meigs were visiting the wounded in the tent hospital on the Arlington grounds.  They realized that with the number of Civil War fatalities mounting daily a new burial site would be needed, so they decided to bury the dead at Arlington.  Meigs’ intention was to punish Lee for joining the Confederate army.  Thousands would rest there before the end of the Civil War.

Buried at Arlington are the known and unknown, the famous and the ordinary citizen soldier.  All of our country’s wars are represented, including the American Revolution, the War of 1812 and the Mexican War.  Since Arlington officially began during the Civil War, veterans of these earlier conflicts were disinterred and reburied.  Subsequent military deaths in the Indian campaigns, Spanish-American War, the Philippine Insurrection, World Wars I and II, the Korean Conflict, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf all are represented by soldiers who lie at Arlington National Cemetery.

There are special memorials to soldiers who died in battle and could never be identified, but the most famous is the Tomb of the Unknowns.  On October 22, 1921, four unknown American soldiers were exhumed from separate military cemeteries in France where slain soldiers from World War I were buried.  A highly-decorated soldier, Army Sergeant Edward F. Younger, placed a spray of white roses on one casket on October 24, 1921 and this became the unknown soldier of World War I.  The following month on Armistice Day, November 11, President Warren G. Harding headed the dignitaries on hand to officially inter the soldier at the plaza of the Arlington National Cemetery Memorial Amphitheater.

During the Eisenhower administration unknown soldiers from World War II and Korea were interred at Arlington on Memorial Day, 1958.  Americans from all across the country come to Arlington to pay tribute to these valorous soldiers guarded around the clock by the Tomb Guards from the U.S. Army 3rd U.S. Infantry (The Old Guard).  The impressive changing of the guard ceremony takes place every 30 minutes during summer hours, every hour during the winter. 

This was not the earliest monument honoring unknown soldiers at Arlington.  The first unidentified battle dead came from Northern Virginia battlefields, most from the fields of Bull Run.  There are about 2,111 unknown soldiers from the Civil War in a vault beneath a massive sarcophagus south of Arlington House.  The mast of the battleship U.S.S. Maine is adjacent to the burial spot of 167 unidentified who went down with the ship in Havana Harbor during the Spanish-American War.

Names from the pages of American history are found throughout Arlington National Cemetery: Pierre Charles L’Enfant, Oliver Wendell Holmes,  Philip H. Sheridan, William Jennings Bryan, Robert Todd Lincoln, John J. Pershing, George C. Marshall, Walter Reed, Robert E. Peary, Richard E. Byrd, James V. Forestal, John Foster Dulles, Virgil Grissom, Roger B. Chaffee and two presidents of the United States.

William Howard Taft, Chief Justice of the U.S. and the 27th president, is buried at Arlington.  There is also a special memorial with an eternal flame marking the spot where John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th president, is buried.  The walls of the plaza are inscribed with excerpts from President Kennedy’s Inaugural Address including his moving words, “Now the trumpet summons us again...”  Two children who pre-deceased their father are also buried at the Kennedy gravesite. Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis was buried next to the president in 1994.  Robert Kennedy’s nearby grave is marked by a small white cross and the sound of water flowing over a fountain spillway. Arlington National Cemetery is open October through March from 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. and April through September until 7:00 P.M.  Maps at the Visitor center orient visitors and indicate specific burial sites. The cemetery is not open to vehicular traffic.  Cars must be parked at the visitor center parking lot, but tour buses are available (for a fee) for those who do not want to walk.  North of the Arlington National Cemetery on Arlington Boulevard is the often photographed U.S. Marine Corps Memorial.  It was carved to duplicate the photo of the Marines raising the U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi during World War II.  The 78-foot sculpture is imposing, the largest ever cast in bronze.  On Tuesday evenings during the summer months the Marines have a dress parade and color ceremony at this memorial. Near the memorial is the Netherlands Carillon.  The carillon tower and bells were a gift from the people of the Netherlands in gratitude for American assistance during and after World War II.  The bells are played every Saturday from April to September, starting at 2:00 P.M.

Directions:  Take I-95 to the perimeter of Washington, at the intersection with the Beltway (I-495/95) and I-395, take the latter and head toward the city.  Then exit at Memorial Bridge/Rosslyn exit onto Route 110 north.  From Route 110 exit at Memorial Bridge/Washington.  At the top the the exit turn left onto Memorial Drive which goes directly to the entrance of Arlington National Cemetery and Arlington House.     

Visit the FREEDOM GALLERY to see scenes of Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown as magnificent works of photographic art.