Image: Old Amphitheater - walkway from Humphreys Dr - Arlington National Cemetery - 2011

Description: Walkway leading east from Humphreys Drive to the southwest entrance to the Old Amphitheater in Section 26 of Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, in the United States. In order to accommodate large gatherings on Memorial Day, U.S. Army Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs designed a rostrum and amphitheater for the cemetery. The structure was built southwest of Arlington House (the home of Robert E. Lee). A one-room schoolhouse Lee had built was torn down and the amphitheater constructed on the site in 1873. The amphitheater is an oval whose interior measures roughly 90 feet across and 60 feet deep, and circumscribes a shallow natural bowl in the earth. Its axis is roughly southwest to northeast, in a line with the Civil War Unknowns Memorial and the center of the Arlington House flower garden. The rectangular rostrum is about 25 feet deep and 50 feet across, and raised about 3 feet. The rostrum is built of brick. The surface of the rostrum is dark grey stone. The columns supporting the trellis overhead are plastered brick painted white. Each is topped with a cast-iron Ionic capital. In the center of the rostrum, at the front, is a rectangular marble lectern three feet high. Upright scrollwork brackets adorn the corners of lectern. Between the brackets are small shields encircled by wreaths. On the front of the lectern, in raised lettering, is the motto of the United States: "E Pluribus UNUM." Sprigs of holly and rosettes appear on either side of the motto. The exterior of the amphitheater is a colonnade covered by an overhead trellis approximately 25 feet wide. The trellis is constructed of upright wooden 2 x 6 inch planks. The trellis is supported by square brick columns painted white, approximately 2 feet on each side. Each sits on a slightly larger square brick base, and is topped by a wooden Doric capital. Low boxwood hedges line the interior side of the walkway beneath the trellis. The exterior side of the walkway is planted with flowers and flowering shurbs. The walkway itself is made of dark grey rectangular granite slabs set in the earth. American wisteria vines covered the trellis as of 2011 (although these have been removed at various times in the past to examine and permit conservation of the trellis). The Old Amphitheater can sit 1,500 people tightly on wooden folding chairs. As of 2011, the amphitheater bowl is lined with grass.
Title: Old Amphitheater - walkway from Humphreys Dr - Arlington National Cemetery - 2011
Credit: Own work
Author: Tim1965
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License: CC BY-SA 3.0
License Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0
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