The National World War II Memorial opens today, exactly one month before its official dedication at a ceremony expected to draw thousands of veterans to the Mall.
“We’re all really proud of the fact that we’re bringing this in a little early,… . The World War Two generation deserves everything we can give them,” said Barry Owenby, the memorial’s project executive.
The $175 million memorial, located just west of 17th Street between Constitution and Independence avenues, will open to the public this morning at 9:30, and will remain open until May 29, when it will be closed for the duration of the dedication ceremony. The memorial will reopen to the public that evening.
The early opening is a boon to World War II veterans and others who do not want to wait for the dedication. The youngest of World War II veterans are thought to be 76 years old, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that an average of 1,056 veterans die each day.
“To keep the memorial closed … might deprive some folks of ever seeing it,” said James Deutsch, the Smithsonian’s curator for the weekend reunion celebration that will take place May 27 to 30.
He said that of the more than 16 million Americans who served in World War II, less than 4 million are alive. Organizers are expecting about 100,000 veterans to come to the dedication, but some small groups will come beforehand.
For example, the Air Force Escape and Evasion Society will be bringing 80 former Air Force pilots, all of whom were shot down in World War II, to tour the memorial next week. About 85 percent of those veterans are in their mid-80s, said Betty Hemby, spokeswoman for the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC). “The sooner we can get them here, the better,” she said.
“There is a sense of urgency for members of this generation. It’s been a long time coming to get a memorial,” Mr. Deutsch said.
The opening ends more than a decade of work to build a memorial. Congress authorized the memorial in 1993, but opponents said the memorial would deface the Mall, obstruct views of the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial and upset the surrounding ecology.
The finished product is, in the words of one supporter, “inspirational.” It was built in less than three years almost entirely with private funds on the 7.4 acre site at the center axis of the Mall. The campaign raised about $195 million, and the extra money will be held on deposit with the U.S. Treasury in a National WWII Memorial Trust Fund.
The memorial sits low in the center, rising on the north and south sides to 43-foot-high arches. The arches, the highlights of the memorial, each have four bronze eagles holding a laurel to commemorate the nation’s victory in World War II.
In the middle is a sunken oval-shaped memorial plaza, 337 feet long and 240 feet wide, with a 246-foot-long pool ringed by 56 granite pillars representing U.S. states and territories. On the west side is a 9-foot-high Freedom Wall with 4,000 sculpted gold stars representing the more than 400,000 Americans who died in the war.
“The sweep of the memorial will take your breath away,” said Alan K. Simpson, a former Republican senator from Wyoming who has supported the memorial as part of the ABMC leadership.
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