Washington, DC is a spectacular place. Being my first time in Washington, I was in awe of everything and all the historical places I encountered. The presence of monuments and history is what made the capital so magnificent. Having only read about the Lincoln Memorial, I have never had the chance to experience the feeling of being inside such an honorable and important place. The memorial's towering white marble walls and the many people surrounding it could be seen from afar. Arriving at the place, an unknown sensation came over me. I was experiencing the story on a completely different level. When I think of a monument the term memory comes to mind. Seeing the statue of Abraham Lincoln brought back fragments of memories from history class and evoked thoughts of what it would be like to be in his shoes. I was amazed at the enormity of the statue and how grand Abraham Lincoln looked in his chair. The size of the statue compared to images in books and elsewhere was surreal. Abraham Lincoln was a "powerful and important individual" in our nation's history, the design and size of the statue reflects this. Looking around, I wanted to know what others thought when they saw his statue and how they felt in that building. I finally got up the courage to ask one or two people what they thought; they all had the same appreciation as me. Hearing about an important person or learning about them in a history book gives you a wealth of knowledge but doesn't evoke the feeling of total appreciation like the memorial does. When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, many people wanted to build a memorial in his honor. They wanted to be able to show how important it was to shaping our nation and “honor its existence.” Ce...... half of the paper ......ting and “ciphering”. He never went to school for more than a year in total during his childhood. He read every book he could get his hands on and borrowed them. He never learned enough to qualify as education, except reading and writing. He acquired his education through self-taught methods “under the pressure of necessity.” He was not an avid reader due to the limitations of the books, but he read as much as he could. Works Cited Boritt, Gabor S., and Matthew Pinsker. "Lincoln, Abraham." Presidents: A Reference History. Ed. Henry F. Graff. 3rd ed. Detroit: Sons of Charles Scribner, 2002. 209-223. Gale United States History in Context. Network. April 20, 2011 "Abraham Lincoln Biography." The Biography Channel website. 2008. 01 March 2009 ‹http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=9382540.›Abraham, Lincoln.” Biographical channel. [2008.] [20 April.2011 ]