Construction at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia

Construction on the expansion of Memorial Amphitheater's grounds to accommodate the larger Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, in the United States. Image was taken in 1931. Memorial Amphitheater can be seen in the background. As constructed in 1920, Memorial Amphitheater ended in a small plaza atop a retaining wall, with a granite balustrade on the edge. The following year, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was added to this plaza. But the tomb was originally just a flat marble slab awaiting an appropriate monument. In 1926, Congress authorized the construction of a larger tomb cenotaph. Design work on and quarrying of this marble block took several years. The block was emplaced in 1931. As part of the new tomb, the balustrade was removed (as can be seen in this photograph). The retaining wall, too, was removed, and replaced with monumental stairs leading down to the formal Italiante garden below.

Date

1931

Collection

Harris & Ewing

Archive

Library of Congress (via Wikimedia Commons)

Type

photograph

Original size

4,600 × 3,586 pixels

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