Why the Lincoln Memorial was almost never built
(via Vox) The Lincoln Memorial makes such a strong statement that its construction seems like a foregone conclusion: Of course we’d build a memorial to Lincoln, and of course it would be a flagship monument in the National Mall. But the story behind the Lincoln Memorial’s construction is a surprisingly complicated one, and it says something about the contortions that, even today, politicians have to undergo to become monument-making visionaries.
