A New Museum Hidden Beneath the Lincoln Memorial Opens June 25

For more than a century, the ground beneath one of America’s most iconic monuments has remained almost completely off-limits to the public. That changes this month. On June 25, the Lincoln Memorial Undercroft Museum will open its doors, offering visitors an unprecedented look at the hidden foundations that have kept the Great Emancipator standing since 1922.“As the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, this project highlights the importance of places like the Lincoln Memorial in telling the American story and inspiring future generations, a goal that aligns with President Trump’s call to honor the country’s history and founding ideals,” the secretary of the interior, Doug Burgum, said in a statement.The $69 million project, developed through a partnership between the Interior Department and the National Park Foundation (NPF), transforms the memorial’s sprawling subterranean undercroft into a 15,000-square-foot immersive museum. The undercroft itself — a raw, cathedral-like vault spanning nearly 44,000 square feet — was created almost by accident. When engineers began constructing the Lincoln Memorial in the early 1910s, they quickly realized the marble structure would sink into the soft Potomac mud without reinforcement. They decided to drive 120 massive concrete pillars 50 feet into the ground to reach bedrock. The result was a hidden architectural marvel that has gone largely unseen ever since.Stepping inside, visitors will encounter floor-to-ceiling glass walls, multimedia projections cast directly onto the concrete columns, and immersive theater experiences that trace both the memorial’s construction and its role in shaping American history. On display are original copies of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment. The columns themselves — all 122 of them — remain one of the space’s most striking features. “[The columns] are all here really just to raise Lincoln up and have him sitting up on the proverbial hill that you can see from the Capitol,” said the project’s program manager, Sam Meyerhoff. The museum does not shy away from the memorial’s broader cultural legacy. Exhibits explore Easter Sunday 1939, when contralto Marian Anderson, barred from performing at Constitution Hall, sang to a crowd of 75,000 on the memorial’s steps. They also commemorate the 1963 March on Washington, where the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech from Lincoln’s shadow.“You walk up today, you look at the statue, you look at the speeches,” said Mike Litterst, spokesman for National Mall operations under the National Park Service. “But you don’t understand the symbolism unless you have a really good guidebook with you or take the time. Now, with the museum, we’re going to point those features out.”The NPF has contributed $45.5 million to the project, with $38.7 million gifted from private donors, including financier David M. Rubenstein, who alone funded roughly a quarter of the total cost. “You can’t really be a great country if you don’t really honor your history and understand your history,” Mr. Rubenstein told CBS News.Timed-entry tickets are now available at recreation.gov.

A New Museum Hidden Beneath the Lincoln Memorial Opens June 25

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