Georgia’s Marble Helped Form the Lincoln Memorial!

Henry Bacon, a New York architect designed the Lincoln Memorial which stands at the west end of the National Mall.

Bacon decided to incorporate the style of ancient Greek architecture which he discovered while studying in Europe. He modeled the Lincoln Memorial after the Athenian Temple better known as the Parthenon.

Bacon insisted using several different stones provided by several different states to construct this project. The granite on the memorial’s terrace level came from Massachutsetts. The marble of the upper steps and the outside facade came from Colorado. The pink marble floor of the chamber came from the state of Tennessee. Marble from Alabama was used was used for the ceiling tiles and was soaked in paraffin to give the tiles a translucent look. The limestone of the interior walls and columns of the chamber was from Indiana.

As for the actual statue of Lincoln, it was carved out of marble from the state of Georgia.

Can you all believe that? A very own piece of our beloved state is sitting at the national mall right now as a very famous monument!

According to the website Britannica the statue of Lincoln stands at around 19 feet tall.

The statue was carved by a group of 6 brothers called the Piccirilli Brothers.

The brothers along with their father owned and ran a New York premier marble cutting workshop.

A man by the name of Daniel Chester French pursued the brothers and their services in 1918 to bring the Lincoln Statue to life.

In their studio the brothers transformed 28 blocks of white Georgia marble into finely carved pieces that French perfected. The pieces fit together so well that the seams of the marble are almost invisible.